MAPSO Book Festival

Information:

Where and When is the festival?

The 2019 festival will open on Friday, June 7th with An Evening With Eve Ensler. The proceeds from this event will benefit the Maplewood and South Orange libraries.

The main festival will take place on Saturday, June 8th from 10AM-5PM and featured nearly 75 children’s and adult authors, including Ron Darling, R.L. Stine, Nell Freudenberger, Myla Goldberg, Tyler Kepner, Dale Berra, Dan Gutman, Robert Stone, and many others.

All events are held at The Woodland in Maplewood.

What kind of children’s programs and activities are there?

The 2019 book festival will have an extensive children’s area, with over 40 children’s and YA authors, as well as a kids “fun zone,” featuring games, music, food, face-painting and general mayhem for kids of all ages.

How much does it cost to attend the festival?

Most events at the Festival are FREE of charge and open to the public.

SATURDAY, JUNE 8TH 10 AM

SATIRE WILL SAVE THE WORLD (THE PARLOR) EMILY FLAKE, MELLINI KANTAYYA, CAITLIN KUNKEL, ELLY LONON

Satire has long been a tool of writers (and every type of creative, really) seeking to draw attention to the wrong in this world. When faced with the un-faceable, people want a reason to laugh, to diffuse the tension. Join this group of entertaining panelists as they discuss the importance of laughing in the face of adversity and lampooning those that seek to destroy our democracy.

DANCING ABOUT ARCHITECTURE (LIKE WRITING ABOUT MUSIC) (GREAT HALL) ALAN PAUL, DAVID BROWNE, BRAD TOLINSKI, BRIAN HIATT

Frank Zappa once scoffed that “writing about music is like dancing about architecture.” Four seasoned music journalists and authors will prove the witty quip to be a lie. David Browne is a Rolling Stone Senior Writer and the author of six books, including biographies of Jeff and Tim Buckley and the Grateful Dead. His most recent book is Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young: The Wild, Definitive Saga of Rock’s Greatest Supergroup. Brad Tolinski was the editor of Guitar World for 25 years and is the author of Light and Shade: Conversations with Jimmy Page  and Play It Loud: An Epic History of the Style, Sound and Revolution of the Electric Guitar. Brian Hiatt is a Rolling Stone Senior Writer and the author of Bruce Springsteen: The Stories Behind the Songs. Longtime Maplewood resident Alan Paul is the author of three books, including the New York Times bestseller One Way Out: The Inside History of the Allman Brothers Band and the upcoming Texas Flood: The Inside Story of Stevie Ray Vaughan.

11:00AM

RISING WATER: THE STORY OF THE THAI CAVE RESCUE (PARLOR) MARC ARONSON

Marc Aronson’s latest book tells the incredible true story of the twelve boys trapped with their coach in a flooded cave in Thailand in 2018, and their inspiring rescue. As a result of in-depth research and exclusive interviews with key divers and rescuers, Aronson discovered stories from the rescue that were never covered in the press. What might seem like a survival tale is really the triumph of internationalism, and a testimony to the importance of undocumented, stateless, refugees everywhere.

BLACK ENOUGH: STORIES OF BEING YOUNG AND BLACK IN AMERICA (GREAT HALL) TRACEY BAPTISTE, RITA WILLIAMS-GARICA, IBI ZOBOI

Edited by National Book Award finalist Ibi Zoboi, and featuring some of the most acclaimed bestselling Black authors writing for teens today, Black Enough is an essential collection of captivating stories about what it’s like to be young and Black in America. Ibi will be joined byBlack Enough contributors Tracey Baptiste and Rita Williams-Garcia as they discuss this groundbreaking collection, and the meaning of the stories for our wider world.

12:00PM

MARY NORRIS, IN CONVERSATION WITH KORY STAMPER (PARLOR)

In her New York Times bestseller Between You & Me, Mary Norris delighted readers with her irreverent tales of pencils and punctuation in The New Yorker’s celebrated copy department. In her latest, Greek to Me, Norris delivers another wise and funny paean to the art of self-expression, this time filtered through her greatest passion: all things Greek.Along the way, Norris explains how the alphabet originated in Greece, makes the case for Athena as a feminist icon, goes searching for the fabled Baths of Aphrodite, and reveals the surprising ways Greek helped form English. Filled with Norris’s memorable encounters with Greek words, Greek gods, Greek wine―and more than a few Greek men―Greek to Me is the Comma Queen’s fresh take on Greece and the exotic yet strangely familiar language that so deeply influences our own. Mary will be joined in conversation by Kory Stamper, author of the best-selling Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries.

DAN GUTMAN (GREAT HALL)

Dan Gutman may be weird, but he is also beloved by kids, parents, and teachers across the country. His books include the My Weird School series (more than 10 million copies sold), the Baseball Card Adventures (more than 1.5 million copies sold) and the New York Times bestselling The Genius Files. Dan lives in New York City (a very weird place), with his weird wife, Nina, and their two weird children, Sam and Emma. Join Dan for a weird talk and even weirder book signing.

1:00PM

JULIE ORRINGER & NELL FREUDENBERGER, IN CONVERSATION (PARLOR)

Nell Freudenberger is the author of the novels The Newlyweds and The Dissident, and of the story collection Lucky Girls,which won the PEN/Malamud Award and the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Named one of The New Yorker‘s “20 under 40” in 2010, she is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Award, and a Cullman Fellowship from the New York Public Library. Her latest novel, Lost and Wanted, was called “Beautiful, startling, affecting . . . by The New York Times Book Review,  “Absorbing, intelligent, touching by NPR, and“Dazzling, ingenious . . . a gorgeous literary novel about loss and human limitations.” by The Washington Post

Julie Orringer is the author of two award-winning books: The Invisible Bridge, a novel, and the short-story collection How to Breathe Underwater, both New York Times Notable Books.  She is the winner of The Paris Review’s Plimpton Prize and the recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the MacDowell Colony, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard, and the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library. Her latest novel, The Flight Portfolio, is based on the true story of Varian Fry’s extraordinary attempt to save the work, and the lives, of Jewish artists fleeing the Holocaust.

DALE BERRA IN CONVERSATION WITH DAVID FISCHER (GREAT HALL)

Everyone knows Yogi Berra, the American icon. He was the backbone of the New York Yankees through ten World Series Championships, managed the National League Champion New York Mets in 1973, and had an ingenious way with words that remains an indelible part of our lexicon. But no one knew him like his family did. My Dad, Yogi is Dale Berra’s chronicle of his unshakeable bond with his father, as well as an intimate portrait of one of the great sports figures of the 20th Century. Dale will be in conversation with David Fischer, author of The New York Yankees of the 1950s: Mantle, Stengel, Berra, and a Decade of Dominance.

2:00PM

R.L. STINE (GREAT HALL)

“Why do I write these creepy books?” R.L. Stine asks. “I just like to scare people!”

He’s been scaring people all around the world for a lot of years. Stine has been referred to as the “Stephen King of children’s literature”and is the author of hundreds of horror fiction novels, including the books in the Fear Street,Goosebumps, Rotten School, Mostly Ghostly, and The Nightmare Room series. Some of his other works include a Space Cadets trilogy, two Hark gamebooks, and dozens of joke books. So far, he has sold over 400-million books and his books have been translated into 35 languages, making him one of the best-selling authors in history.

MITCHELL JACKSON AND GREGORY PARDLO, IN CONVERSATION (PARLOR)

Mitchell S. Jackson’s latest book, Survival Math is both a personal reckoning and a vital addition to the national conversation about race. Mitchell explores the Portland of his childhood, tracing the ways in which his family managed their lives in and around drugs, prostitution, gangs, and imprisonment as members of a tiny black population in one of the country’s whitest cities. He discusses sex work and serial killers, gangs and guns, near-death experiences, composite fathers, the concept of “hustle,” and the destructive power of drugs and addiction on family.

He’ll be in conversation with poet Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Gregory Pardlo, author of Air Traffic, a blistering meditation on fatherhood, class, education, race, addiction, and ambition.

3:00PM

LATINX IN KID LIT (PARLOR) CLARIBEL ORTEGA, TAMI CHARLES, HILDA BURGOS AND CINDY L. RODRIGUEZ

The Latinx community spans over 52 million people in the US alone, but in 2017 only 5.8% of the children’s books published featured Latinx characters. With a long way to go and the surface barely scratched on Latinx representation, Las Musas was formed as a way to uplift debut Latinx voices writing in the fields of picture book, middle grade and YA. Join these authors as they discuss their voice, Latinx literature, and what’s next.F

ART SHAMSKY, IN CONVERSATION WITH BUDD MISHKIN (GREAT HALL)

The inside account of an iconic team in baseball history: the 1969 New York Mets—a consistently last-place team that turned it all around in just one season—told by ’69 Mets outfielder Art Shamsky, Hall of Fame pitcher Tom Seaver, and other teammates as they reminisce about what happened then and where they are today.

4:00PM

CHASING THE MOON: THE PEOPLE, THE POLITICS, AND THE PROMISE THAT LAUNCHED AMERICA INTO THE SPACE AGE ROBERT STONE IN CONVERSATION WITH BUDD MISHKIN (PARLOR)

A Companion Book to the AMERICAN EXPERIENCE Film on PBS, Chasing the Moon tells the stories of the visionaries who helped America land on the moon fifty years ago. Going in depth to explore their stories beyond the PBS series, writer/producer Robert Stone—called “one of our most important documentary filmmakers” by Entertainment Weekly—brings these important figures to brilliant life.

TYLER KEPNER IN CONVERSATION WITH ANDY MARTINO (GREAT HALL)

In K: A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches, New York Times sports columnist Tyler Kepner traces the colorful stories and fascinating folklore behind the ten major pitches. Each chapter highlights a different pitch, from the blazing fastball to the fluttering knuckleball to the slippery spitball. Infusing every page with infectious passion for the game, Kepner brings readers inside the minds of combatants sixty feet, six inches apart. 

CHILDREN’S AREA, 11AM-4:00PM

Nick Bruel / Tami Charles / Claribel Ortega

Hilda Burgos / Cindy L. Rodriguez / Artie Bennett

Wendy Mass / Jay Cooper / Laurie Wallmark

Nancy Viau / Katey Howes / Kell Andrews

Mike Malbrough / Ariel Bernstein / Jennifer Hansen Rolli

Anica Mrose Rissi / Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen

Kelsey Garrity Riley / Ellen Potter / Galia Bernstein

Jannie Ho / Michelle Knudsen / Beth Ferry

Christopher Healy / Gabrielle Balkan / Ethan Berlin

Laurie Morrison / Kyle Lukoff / Leslie Kimmelman

Cordelia Jensen / Kama Einhorn / Alyssa Capucilli

Matt Myklusch / Diana Murray / Laura Sassi

Sarah Beth Durst / Tracey Baptiste