LITTLE ROCK -- Thousands of people streamed through the Central Arkansas Library System's Main Library in Little Rock on Saturday to attend some of the 78 panels, readings and other activities that were part of the four-day Arkansas Literary Festival.
The free festival, now in its 12th year, gathered children's authors, screenwriters, journalists, biographers, and fiction and nonfiction writers to talk about their most recent works and writing in general. Brad Mooy, who organizes the festival, said an estimated 13,000 people had attended events as of Saturday. It ends today.
After going through several rounds of selecting authors and sending invitations, the library succeeded this year in getting a mix of writers, Mooy said. The programs ranged from kids events, such as drawing demonstrations from the author of the picture book Ninja!, to a panel about author Sam Quinones' investigation into what he calls "America's opiate epidemic."
"I don't know where else they would mix some of these people, other than a literary festival," Mooy said. "Where else are you going to hobnob with Charles Morgan, and then possibly see John Waters and then go hear about heroin addiction and then go see a children's play, and all under the same roof? That's what makes this fun."
Waters, the distinguished lecturer for the festival, spoke Saturday night. Waters is the writer and director of several films, including Hairspray. His book Carsick was released last year.
Former Acxiom CEO Charles Morgan will talk about his memoir, Matters of Life and Data, today at 3 p.m. in the Robinson Center. Other events today include a noon presentation by David Rosenfelt about his book, Hounded, at Choctaw Station, as well as a 1:30 p.m. panel at the Robinson Center with Karen Joy Fowler, author of We are All Completely Beside Ourselves and Megan Mayhew Bergman, who wrote Almost Famous Women.
With almost 50 programs scheduled Saturday, it was the festival's busiest day.
About 11 a.m., the Aycock family of North Little Rock joined dozens of children and parents taking a break between sessions to build Lego cars and race them on a sloped wooden track.
The Aycocks had a few minutes between a performance of Chicken Little and The Little Red Hen and a presentation by Scott Sampson, host of the PBS series, Dinosaur Train, to let their 4- and 6-year-old boys play.
Kyla Aycock said her husband and sons, as well as her niece and the children's grandparents, had gotten together for the day to attend the festival as a family.
"We went to the Arts Center, and then we're going to see Dinosaur Train -- they all love dinosaurs," Aycock said. "And they're obsessed with Legos."
Hours later, a more adult crowd packed into the theater at the Robinson Center for what Lee Ann Blackwell, a public relations officer with the library system, said was one of the most-anticipated presentations.
Rick Bragg, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and New York Times best-selling author, talked about his new book, Jerry Lee Lewis: His Own Story.
Bragg prompted laughter in the nearly full theater during much of his presentation about the book and his personal history.
"They love to interact with their favorite authors," Blackwell said of the festival's attendees. "They get this program and see that they're going to be there. They get to be in an intimate setting with them, and that's a really cool thing that you can't get everywhere."
NW News on 04/26/2015