Press Release - April 17, 2007
Contact: Julie Tollefson
info@rivercityreadingfestival.org
785.979.9306
Award-Winning Authors Join River City Reading Festival Lineup
Two more nationally known, award-winning authors have signed on for the River City Reading Festival, to be Oct. 14 at the Lawrence Arts Center, 940 N.H.
Stephen T. Johnson, a Lawrence author and illustrator, and Lise Lunge-Larsen, a children's book author from Minnesota, join Jim Lehrer, host of The NewsHour on PBS, and Kansas Poet Laureate Denise Low-Weso during this citywide celebration of books and reading.
Johnson's children's book, Alphabet City, received numerous honors, including the prestigious Caldecott Honor Award. He also illustrated City By Numbers, GOAL, On a Wintry Morning, Love as Strong as Ginger, My Little Blue Robot, and My Little Red Toolbox, a Publishers Weekly bestseller.
Johnson will conduct a reading and an illustration demonstration.
Lunge-Larsen, born and raised in Norway, is the author of numerous children's books, including The Legend of the Lady Slipper, The Race of the Birkbeiners, and Noah's Mittens, which explains how felt is made from wool. She will present a reading of her work and conduct a felt-making workshop for children.
Other performers scheduled to appear at the festival:
- Diane Eickhoff of Kansas City, Mo., will perform a first-person presentation as Clarina Nichols, one of the country's first female newspaper editors and one of the founders of the American women's movement. Eickhoff's book, Revolutionary Heart: The Life of Clarina Nichols and the Pioneering Crusade for Women's Rights, is the Read Across Lawrence selection for 2007.
- Lawrence resident and storyteller Priscilla Howe will conduct a puppet workshop for children 8 to 12 years old.
- Lehrer, who's 17th novel, Eureka, is to be published this fall, will talk about the importance of reading and literacy during his keynote address on the main festival stage.
- Low-Weso, chair of the English Department at Haskell Indian Nations University, where she also teaches creative writing and American Indian Studies courses, will read her original poetry and talk about being poet laureate. Her collection of essays, Words of a Prairie Alchemist, was published by Ice Cube Press in 2006.
The festival's web site, www.RiverCityReadingFestival.org, provides complete up-to-date plans for the event. The site includes contact information for festival steering committee members as well as information about how individuals or organizations can support the festival or volunteer to help the day of the event.
Altrusa International Club of Lawrence, a service organization that promotes literacy, has joined with several community organizations to plan and present the festival. Representatives of Kansas University Libraries, the KU Department of Teaching and Leadership, Lawrence Arts Center, Lawrence Public Library, and the Lawrence school district have volunteered to help plan the festival.
River City Reading Festival sponsors include Altrusa International Club of Lawrence and Capitol Federal Savings Bank.