My favorite festival is fast approaching: the Twin Cities Book Festival (TCBF), on October 13, at the Progress Center on the Minnesota State Fairgrounds. Thanks to the hard work of its host Rain Taxi, the festival is in its 18th year. The extremely vibrant literary community of the Twin Cities comes together annually at this FREE all-day festival. All of our great local publishers are there with super deals on their books: Coffee House Press, Graywolf Press, Milkweed Editions, Minnesota Historical Society Press, Nodin Press, Red Dragonfly Press, and many more. Local booksellers Magers & Quinn and Red Balloon Bookshop handle sales for official events. And the day includes innumerable readings and other happenings featuring authors from every genre. See the full schedule!
The children’s area is superb—a holy grail, of sorts, for parents: fun, educational, and free! My kids love it. In the past they’ve made tiny books, library card holders, and badges; heard live music; played games; had their faces painted; and scored lots and lots of books and lollipops. Many authors will be there, from picture books to middle grade to young adult. Besides the readings, activities include Derek Anderson (author of the Croc and Ally series) demonstrating how he draws his characters, a comic-creating workshop, and a workshop about how young adult authors create the complex characters and worlds in their novels.
For the rest of us, there are book- and author-related events galore, including a great used book sale. You will walk away with at least an armload of books, and you will discover great authors you may not have known about. Dessa will be discussing her new book, My Own Devices, and New Rivers Press will launch their tribute title to Minnesota’s most recent Nobel Laureate, Bob Dylan, with Visiting Bob (and I’m happy to say Bookmobile was the printer of this title).
Bookmobile is a proud sponsor of TCBF. We have worked with Rain Taxi for a long time, printing many editions of their chapbook series, and handling the bookstore distribution for their flagship publication, Rain Taxi Review of Books, through our Itasca Books division. I, along with Devin Koch and Sean Knickerbocker, will be exhibiting at the festival this year, not selling books, but showing off our printing. Please stop by to say hello and see our lovely printing and binding firsthand!