April 25, 2020
Thank you for joining us on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and here on the blog today as we took a look back at some of our favorite memories from past Ohioana Book Festivals. We hope you’ve enjoyed it – we certainly did!
Below is a collection of links to everything we have shared today. We’re looking forward to seeing you on August 29th for the 2020 Ohioana Book Festival!
- Special 2020 OBF edition of Crankshaft:
https://www.comicskingdom.com/shared_comics/0a850fd4-ebb7-4f7c-90a2-2d35c3101292?fbclid=IwAR1zyT_9Sne6FKriN4JlJYibwzorLitSWIXWl-hBq9_KvjAn0OewIelh1SU - Our debut festival in 2007 was built around ten authors and a single book. Within two years, the number of authors and books had grown to almost 50! Here’s a fun look at the early days of the festival, when it was still being held at the State Library of Ohio, in a 2009 segment taped for WOSU Public Media‘s popular series, ArtZine. #FestivalFlashbackhttps://vimeo.com/10598448
- Check out some Kids’ Room Crafts from past OBFs:
http://www.ohioana.org/festival-flashback-kids-room-crafts/ - For the 2nd Ohioana Book Festival, our stellar line-up of authors included Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Connie Schultz, “American Splendor” creator Harvey Pekar, novelist Zakes Mda, and journalist Michael Duffy. They joined Fred Andrle as his guests on a memorable “Open Line” program on WOSU Public Media on May 9, 2008.
https://ohiochannel.org/video/open-line-writers-with-ohio-roots?fbclid=IwAR0bSsWN-z1FkEwkO6TImh5e1RGo7Jj0tY6YwuVNuLupE65W4Pq9Op_xdPw - In 2011, the Ohioana Book Festival moved to Fort Hayes Metropolitan Education Center, where it would continue to grow for the next four years. Here nonfiction author Mark Dawidziak is interviewed by Doug Dangler, who’s done many such interviews at the festival over the years. Mark will be at the 2020 festival in August with his new book, “The Shawshank Redemption Revealed: How One Story Keeps Hope Alive.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XV9TUciuRZU
- The Ohioana Book Festival has featured many poets throughout its history. In 2016, U.S. Children’s Poet Laureate Jacqueline Woodson was a featured author at the festival. She taped a reading for “Book Notes” of a poem from her National Book Award-winning collection, “Brown Girl Dreaming.”
https://www.ohiochannel.org/video/book-notes-readings-jacqueline-woodson?fbclid=IwAR2qR8J57PdZz8fg1Jf_dvfywKMx0MRp66v57EM6GvBJ-eZv76RNKNTfvn4 - Many poets who come to the Ohioana Book Festival are also winners of the Ohioana Poetry Book Award. One of these poets, Ruth Awad, taped this poem for the Ohio Channel‘s “Book Notes: Readings” from her 2018 Ohioana Award-winning collection, “Set to Music a Wildfire.” https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=444044266124289
- Children’s authors and illustrators have always been popular at the Ohioana Book Festival. Cartoonist Steve Harpster has appeared a number of times at the festival, and will again this August. Steve does a daily 2 p.m. feature called “Draw with Me” on his own Facebook page, Harptoons Publishing – check it out! Here is Steve at his first Ohioana festival, talking with Doug Dangler. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqKOpGH8n7c
- “Book Notes: Readings” is a project of the Ohio Channel in partnership with Ohioana. It began in 2015, the year the Ohioana Book Festival moved downtown. A number of festival authors have taped readings, including Krysten Lindsay Hager Author, who writes for young adults. Krysten will be at the 2020 festival with her latest YA novel, “In Over Her Head: Lights, Camera, Anxiety.” https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2134241629925807 –
- Karen Harper has been an author at nearly every Ohioana Book Festival. Her novels, whether romanic suspense or historical fiction, have made her a fan favorite. Karen returns to the festival this August with her latest book, “American Duchess: A Novel of Consuelo Vanderbilt.” Doug Dangler interviewed Karen at the 2016 festival for his WCBE 90.5 FM program, “Craft.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXasmKrGypw
- Moderated panel discussions are a highlight of every Ohioana Book Festival, usually on a subject common to the author-panelists. To give you an idea of what it’s like, here is a 2014 discussion on writing literature in Ohio with David Giffels and Andrew Welsh-Huggins on the wonderful All Sides with Ann Fisher program on WOSU Public Media. WOSU has had many festival authors on as guests over the years, going back to our very first event in 2007.
http://ohiochannel.org/video/all-sides-with-ann-fisher-1100-am-write-here-literature-set-in-ohio?fbclid=IwAR1z-CGE6uRTS1J0sZcJ5idsfF8STRf7cdTLgQ4F8YhAy4GiaajGs3pHkzM - Take a look at the Ohioana Library Instagram page for some Book Festival photo memories:
https://www.instagram.com/ohioanalibrary/?hl=en - Finally, check out all of the great content from the day posted on Twitter with hashtag #FestivalFlashback:
https://twitter.com/search?q=festivalflashback - Thirteen years of the Ohioana Book Festival wouldn’t have been possible without the generous support of our funders: Presenting Sponsor Ohio Humanities, Greater Columbus Arts Council, Ohio Arts Council, the Reinberger Foundation, Honda of America Marysville, OH, the Tom E. Dailey Foundation Inc., State Library of Ohio, Ariel Corporation, Nationwide Children’s Hospital, and Cover to Cover Books for Young Readers. Thanks also to our festival host Columbus Metropolitan Library, media sponsors The Columbus Dispatch and CD102.5, and our official bookseller, The Book Loft of German Village. Our thanks to all of them for hanging in there with us through this unprecedented crisis!