Annual Kentucky Women’s Book Festival brings together readers, writers

The 11th annual Kentucky Women’s Book Festival will feature local authors from a wide variety of genres- from young adult fiction and poetry to cookbooks and novels – March 4 on University of Louisville’s Belknap campus.

Registration 

The festival opens with Kim Michele Richardson, author of the bestselling memoir “The Unbreakable Child” and novels “Liar’s Bench” and “GodPretty in the Tobacco Field.”

Ronni Lundy, who has long chronicled the Appalachian diaspora as a journalist and food writer, will present the luncheon keynote about her most recent travelogue cookbook “Victuals:An Appalachian Journey, with Recipes.”

            Food writer Susan Reigler will discuss her latest  “More Kentucky Bourbon Cocktails.” Festival goers may sample drinks and dishes from the book in a 4 p.m. closing reception at the University Club. Cash bar. 

Other speakers include:

  • Gwenda Bond, young adult and children’s fiction writer, author of the Lois Lane series (“Fallout,” “Double Down,” and, coming in 2017, “Triple Threat”), and the Cirque American series (“Girl on a Wire,” “Girl Over Paris,” and “Girl in the Shadows”).

  • Kathleen Driskell, associate program director of Spalding University’s Master of Fine Arts in Writing Program and author of poetry collections “Blue Etiquette” and “Next Door to the Dead.”

  • Tajuana “TJ” Butler-Jackson, UofL graduate and author of “Sorority Sisters,” “Hand-me-down Heartache” and “The Night Before Thirty,” and her most recent publication, “In Love: Poems Celebrating the Essence of Love”, among others.

  • Nana Lampton, businesswoman, artist and author of poetry collections “Snowy Owl Gathers in Her Trove,” “Bloom on a Split Board” and “Wash the Dust from My Eyes.”

  • Marie Bradby, freelance journalist and children’s author of “Momma, Where Are You From?,” “Some Friend,” “More Than Anything Else,” (winner of the International Reading Association Award, a Teacher’s Choice Award, and an American Library Association Notable Book) and most recently “All Aboard! The Belle of Louisville.”

  • Annette Cable, graphic designer who has illustrated seventeen children’s picture books, including “Me on the Map” (a Reading Rainbow Book), and several books in the Children’s Book of the Month Club. Cable illustrated “All Aboard! The Belle of Louisville” and will speak with Bradby about that collaboration.

  • Pat Owen, attorney and author of the book of poetry “Crossing the Sky Bridge.”

The festival sessions and presentations are free, except for an optional lunch. The festival begins at 9:30 a.m. with coffee and conversation and the opening session begins at 10 a.m. in the Chao Auditorium of Ekstrom Library. Luncheon registration is required by March 1 and can be made by calling the UofL Women’s Center at 502-852-8976. The cost is $10. The UofL Women’s Center and University Libraries host the event.

For more information, contact UofL Women's Center, womenctr@louisville.edu or 502-852-8976.