The Second Edition of Pages & Places
The word’s out on second edition of Pages & Pages festival
By Rich Howellsrhowells@scrantonedition.com
Reporter/Photographer
In what is shaping up to be one of the biggest events of the year for the city of Scranton, the Second Annual Pages & Pages Book Festival on Saturday, Oct. 2 will be host to a large roster of events and international literary names, including the controversial, international bestselling author Christopher Hitchens and Scranton native Jay Parini.
At the center of the festival on Courthouse Square will be an all-day book expo from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. featuring publishers of all sizes selling their latest releases, live author readings, performances and displays from nonprofit community partners of the festival, historical tours of the area and a Kid’s Fest with free activities for children and families.
Five author panels will run from 9 a.m. to 6:15 p.m. at various downtown locations.
Writing and publishing workshops will run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Farley’s Eatery and Pub and a panelist book signing will be held from noon to 4 p.m. on Courthouse Square.
The first Pages & Pages Book Festival pulled in about 1,500 people last year, according to co-director Bill Black and this year organizers are expecting even more with all they’ve learned from the previous outing.
“Scranton, despite undergoing really hard economic times, is undergoing a radical change,” Black said.
“It’s becoming more a cosmopolitan place.
“The book festival, we think, is a really significant contribution, along with, for instance, the jazz festival, to the Scranton that is vibrant and attractive to the kinds of people that every city in the country needs to attract and maintain,” he continued.
The panels and their participants will be a major draw for the festival.
The first panel of the day is “The World on Our Bookshelves: The Import of Literature in Translation” from 9 to 10:15 a.m. at ArtWorks on Lackawanna Avenue.
It will discuss the insularity of American literature and why American readers and writers are not participating in the global literary conversation.
The panelists will be three international writers who publish with Open Letter Press, one of American’s leading publishers of literature in translation: Bragi Olafsson from Iceland, Mathias Enard of France andCharlotte Mandell from America.
The second panel is “The Remains of Death: Society in the Wake of Catastrophe” from 11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. and the Banshee on Penn Avenue.
It will be comprised of panelists who have addressed the complex and wrenching experiences of genocide, war and natural catastrophe from different perspectives and engage them in a discussion about the social nature of disaster.
Confirmed for this panel so far is Kelly Askin, a senior legal officer for International Justice in the Open Society Justice Initiative who served as a legal advisor to the judges of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda from 2000-2002.
The third is “The Brain and Culture: How Advances in Neuroscience are Changing the Way We Imagine Ourselves” from 1 to 2:15 pm at the MAC Gallery on Wyoming Avenue.
This panel will discuss how neuroscience has changed traditional approaches to the humanities, as well as the bases for social and political policy.
Panelists will include Charles E. Connor, a professor of Neuroscience and director of the Zanvyl Krieger Mind/Brain Institute at Johns Hopkins University; and Jonathan Gottschall, a teacher at Washington and Jefferson College in Pennsylvania and author of “Literature, Science, and a New Humanities.”
The fourth is “Authors of Argument: The People, Books, and Debates that Shape American Civic Life” from 3 to 4:15 p.m. at the Scranton Cultural Center on North Washington Avenue.
This panel will explain the ever-changing ideas of America and democracy and engage the debate over whom and what has had the most substantial influence over the re-scripting of American values, institutions and identities.
Panelists will be Christopher Hitchens, the English-American author of international bestseller “God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything” and columnist for “Slate” and “Vanity Fair,” and Jay Parini, a teacher, poet and author of “Promised Land: Thirteen Books That Changed America” and “The Last Station,” which was adapted into a major motion picture in 2009.
The final panel of the day will be “From Feminist to Feministing: Documenting Women’s Lives” from 5 to 6:15 p.m. at the Electric Theatre on Spruce Street.
The panel will discuss feminist literature and the women’s movement and will feature either Gloria Steinem or Robin Morgan, both nationally-known feminist writers and activists who have played crucial roles in women’s liberation in America.
Confirmed panelists include Suzanne Braun Levine, the first editor of Ms. magazine and contributing editor of More magazine, Jessica Valenti, author of “Full Frontal Feminism: A Young Woman’s Guide to Why Feminism Matters” and the blogger who founded Feministing.com, and Tamera Gugelmeyer, writer and executive director of the Sisterhood is Global Institute.
“While the people and the topics are really pretty broad, there is some cohesion here,” Black explained.
“All these subjects are about what it means to be human or what it means to be American. There are basic questions about identity that are being answered.”
Black says that while he hopes the Pages & Pages Book Festival will pull in the 25 to 35-year-old crowd many cities around the county are hoping to attract and maintain, the festival is meant for all ages and interests.
“It’s a book festival, and in that regard, it really seeks to do, as well as we can, what book festivals do,” he said.
“On the other hand, it is also about contributing something specific and unique in the country to Scranton’s ongoing revival. Those are our two founding principles.”
The Expo on Courthouse Square is free and open to the public.
Tickets for the panels are $12 or $15 the day of the event and can be purchased on the festival’s website,www.pagesandplaces.org.
Originally Posted At: Times Leader