May 19 – 20, 2012
Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center

FREE ADMISSION

NEW Festival Hours:

Saturday, May 19th: 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Sunday, May 20th: 12:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Events Include Over 70 Award Winning National, Regional and South Carolina Authors, Book Signings and Book Sales, Presentations by Authors, Children's Pavilion with Performances and Storytelling for kids of all ages, Summer Reading Station for Children, Over 90 Exhibitors Including Community Organizations, Libraries, Booksellers, Authors, and an Antiquarian Book Fair.

The 2012 ^SCBook Festival is offering two Master Writing Classes on Friday, May 18, 2012 at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center. The classes run from 11:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. and from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. Registration is $35 per person. Topics include the "How to Get Published" with faculty Eric Liebetrau, Elizabeth Keenan, and Signe Pike
and "Children's Writing: The Road to Publication" with faculty Kami Kinard. Register and pay online!

Location: Richland County Public Library, 1431 Assembly Street, Downtown Columbia

$30 Friends of RCPL members, $40 non-members 

Friends of the Richland County Public Library (RCPL) invite you to join them for an evening of wine, music and food to help raise funds for library programming.  Several ^SCBook Festival authors will be participating in the event.

To purchase tickets or to make a donation: Click Here

Location: Ernest F. Hollings Special Collections Library (enter through Thomas Cooper Library)
University of South Carolina, 1322 Greene Street, Columbia, SC 29201

Come mingle with ^SCBook Festival authors and book festival enthusiasts to kick off the festival!

$65 per person

Register Online or call 803-771-2477

Want to find out how much one of your books is worth? The Antiquarian Book Dealers’ Association of SC (ABDASC) is hosting a three-day Book Appraisal at the 16th annual ^SCBook Festival.  For $10 (cash or check), you may have up to three books appraised by an on-site antiquarian book dealer.  ABDASC is an organization that fosters the appreciation and sales of antiquarian books, prints, and manuscripts and promotes professional and ethical standards for its members.  You can visit members of ABDASC on the Antiquarian Book Fair Aisle in the Exhibit Hall during the festival.

Appraisal Desk Hours (Exhibit Hall, Antiquarian Book Fair aisle):
11:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m., Friday, May 18
10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m., Saturday, May 19
12:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m., Sunday, May 20

Musician and storyteller John Fowler will appear at the 2012 ^SCBook Festival in the Children's Pavilion on Sunday, May 20, 2012 at 1:30 p.m.

John has over 30 years of national performing experience conducting programs at festivals, schools, college’s, and camps. He is a regional favorite at the Stories for Life Festival, Stone Soup Storytelling Festival, Starburst Storytelling Festival, Hagood Mill Storytelling Festival, and Augusta Bakers Dozens Festival as well as many others.

Honoring Charles Dickens bicentenary and his contributions to English literature, the Greater Columbia Literacy Council will display editions of his novels and short stories and other memorabilia at the 2012 ^SCBook Festival. Events will include a Dickens reading (in the style of Charles Dickens himself), a Dickens quiz with prizes for all and weekend-long impersonations of many of Dickens’ most beloved characters−Scrooge, Mr. Micawber, Little Nell, David Copperfield, Oliver Twist and Aunt Betsey Trotwood! Visit: www.dickens2012.org.

Share the joy of reading! Are you interested in tutoring an adult (one-on-one) in reading? Interested in training to be a literacy tutor?

Contact Greater Columbia Literacy/Turning Pages at 803-240-2441 or http://www.literacycolumbia.org/.

Kick the 2012 ^SCBook Festival off with an interactive session sponsored by the SC Center for the Book: Coffee and Danish with Chicken Soup for the Soul series author and editor Hanoch McCarty on Saturday, May 19 from 10:00 - 11:15 a.m. in the Columbia Ballroom. McCarty will speak on: ““The Awesome Power of the 46th Try! Finding and Telling the Stories Your Life Has Taught You.” No reservations required, but claim your seat early!

In 2012, the South Carolina Book Festival has produced its first chapbook. The festival has published an illustrated, signed and limited edition of “Ashes,” the first story in Julia Peterkin's story collection Green Thursday. Julia Peterkin is one of South Carolina’s most respected authors and the only one to win a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

“Ashes” is illustrated by the distinguished South Carolina Artist Stephen Chesley. There are only 150 signed and numbered chapbooks and 15 signed and lettered chapbooks available. Find out more!

Purchase one of these rare and beautiful chapbooks! Call 803-771-2477.

Artwork by Stephen Chesley, 2012

Keynote Presenter
Saturday, May 19
Richland Meeting Room
"The Reverend's Wife"
10:00 -10:50 am

Author Kimberla Lawson Roby has published 16 novels that have frequented numerous bestseller lists, including The New York Times and those in USA Today, The Washington Post, Publishers Weekly, Essence Magazine, Upscale Magazine, Emerge Magazine, Barnes and Noble, Amazon.com, Wal-Mart, The Dallas Morning News, and The Austin Chronicle to name a few. Her 17th novel, The Reverend's Wife, will be released on Tuesday, May 1, 2012.

Keynote Presenter

Saturday, May 19
Richland Meeting Room
"The Cove"
11:20 am -12:10 pm

Saturday, May 19
Richland Meeting Room
"Still in Print: the Southern Novel Today"
3:10 - 4:00 pm

Ron Rash is the author of the 2009 PEN/Faulkner Finalist and New York Times bestselling novel, Serena, in addition to three other prizewinning novels, One Foot in Eden, Saints at the River, and The World Made Straight; three collections of poems; and four collections of stories, among them Burning Bright, which won the 2010 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award, and Chemistry and Other Stories, which was a finalist for the 2007 PEN/Faulkner Award. Twice the recipient of the O.Henry Prize, he teaches at Western Carolina University.

Photo credited to Mark Haskett

Keynote Presenter

Saturday, May 19
Columbia Ballroom
"Pat Conroy and Walter Edgar in Conversation"
12:45 - 2:00 pm

Sunday, May 20
Columbia Ballroom
"Pat Conroy Recommends"
1:15 - 2:05 pm

Keynote Presenter
Saturday, May 19
Richland Meeting Room
"Beach House Memories"
2:00 -2:50 pm

Mary Alice Monroe is the author of over a dozen novels, several non-fiction titles, and children's books. Her body of work reflects her commitment to the natural world through literature.  Her books have achieved several best seller lists, including the New York Times, SIBA, USA Today and are sold world wide.

Keynote Presenter
Saturday, May 19
Columbia Ballroom
"The Road to Grace"
3:10 - 4:00 pm

Richard Paul Evans is the #1 best-selling author of The Christmas Box. His novels have each appeared on the New York Times bestseller list, and there are more than thirteen million copies of his books in print. His books have been translated into more than 22 languages and several have been international best sellers.

Photo credited to Debra MacFarlane

Keynote Presenter

Saturday, May 19
Richland Meeting Room
"Still in Print: the Southern Novel Today"
3:10 - 4:00 pm

Sunday, May 20
Richland Meeting Room
"Palmetto Portraits Project"
1:15 - 2:05 pm

South Carolina novelist Josephine Humphreys is the author of Dreams of Sleep (winner of the 1985 Ernest Hemingway Award for First Fiction), Rich in Love (made into a major motion picture), The Fireman's Fair, and Nowhere Else on Earth.

Keynote Presenter
Saturday, May 19
Lexington Meeting Room A
"Perpetual Page Turners: Books You Don't Want to Put Down"
10:00 -10:50 am

Joseph Kanon is the author of six novels, including Los Alamos, which won the Edgar Award for best first novel; The Good German, which was made into a film with George Clooney and Cate Blanchett; and Alibi, which earned Kanon the Hammett Award of the International Association of Crime Writers. His most recent novel is Istanbul Passage.

Sunday, May 20
Lexington Meeting Room B
"Fabulous Fiction"
2:20 - 3:10 p.m.

Therese's novels are published internationally, in nine languages and more than thirty countries to date. An Illinois native and former North Carolina resident, she now lives in south Florida with her husband and their cats. Her most recent novel is Exposure.

Keynote Presenter
Saturday, May 19
Lexington Meeting Room B
"Children's Authors"
10:00 -10:50 am

Melissa Conroy always wanted to be an artist. She spent her childhood drawing and making things. She sewed together stuffed animals, drew hundreds of drawings of her cat Leon and nailed together a secret fort under the backyard deck with her sister. She still makes things, including books for kids. For her latest book, Grandma is an Author, Melissa made several monsters from recyclables to scare writer’s block away.

Keynote Presenter
Saturday, May 19
Richland Meeting Room
"The Hot Box"
4:10 - 5:00 pm

Zane is the New York Times Bestselling author of 26 titles. Zane is considered one of, if not the most, powerful African-American females in the publishing industry. As the Publisher of Strebor Books International, an imprint of ATRIA Books/Simon and Schuster, the third largest publishing corporation in America, Zane is responsible for acquiring and publishing 3-6 titles per month.

The ^SCBook Festival is grateful to a long list of libraries, bookstores, and other cultural organizations who are helping promote the 2012 event by displaying posters in their facilities, handing out bookmarks, and mentioning us on social media.

Special thanks to:

Blythewood Branch Library, Blythewood, SC

Bookends - A Used Bookstore, North Myrtle Beach, SC

Camden Archives and Museum, Camden, SC

Chesterfield County Library, Chesterfield, SC

Colleton County Memorial Library, Walterboro, SC

Dorchester County Library, Summerville, SC

Fairfield County Library, Winnsboro, SC

Harborwalk Books, Georgetown, SC

Hardeeville Community Library, Allendale Hampton Jasper Regional Library System, Hardeeville, SC

Inman Branch, Spartanburg County Libraries, Inman, SC

McCormick County Library, McCormick, SC

McDowell's Emporium, Anderson, SC

Penn Center, St. Helena Island, SC

Quail Ridge Books & Music, Raleigh, NC

Richland County Public Library, Columbia, SC

Shiness Gift Shop, Bennettsville, SC

Society Hill Library, Darlington County Library System, Society Hill, SC

The Book Dispensary, Columbia, SC

Williston Branch Library, Williston, SC

York County Library, Rock Hill, SC

Would you like to have your organization's name listed here? Let us know that you are displaying the 2012 ^SCBook Festival poster or promoting the event in other creative ways! Contact tjwallace@schumanities.org