Authors take stage
October 23, 2015
Many people in the world dream of having their own book published. Being able to hold a book that one created oneself is a pleasure that not everyone gets to experience. Since authors are hard to come by, especially because the world of publishing is tough, it is hard to get a book published without facing rejection. Therefore, once a year at Glenbard South, the library invites a handful of authors to give presentations about their books and talks about their experiences in the publishing industry. This event is called Author Fest.
Mrs. Diane Mankowski, the head librarian at Glenbard South, along with Book Club members, come together every year to organize this special event. Students are invited to come to the library during their English classes to see one of the authors invited. The Book Club helps students get to their assigned seats, assists with signing lines and some students even receive the opportunity to introduce an author before his or her presentation.
Usually, four authors visit, each one taking up two periods for individual presentations, and then they sign books during passing periods. However, this year the library was able to get five authors to come, two sharing periods three and four. The authors showed a great variety of writing styles and genres with each writer’s personality shining evident throughout their novels.
Author Fest kicked off with Carrie Ryan, a zombie fanatic from North Carolina. Her book, Daughter Of Deep Silence, is based around an accident at sea and a girl who wants revenge more than anything in the world. Next, David Arnold and Dawn Kurtagich presented, sharing periods three and four. Kurtagich, author of the Death House, came all the way from Wales in the United Kingdom to talk about her thriller debut, told entirely in diary entries, witness testimonials and much more. David, on the contrary, talked about his novel Mosquitoland, which he wrote after he quit his job to look after his newborn son. He tells the story of a girl who gets on a bus from Mississippi to Ohio to reach her mother, who appears to be deathly ill. The books, both very different, made for a lot of interesting discussions between the authors and the students attending.
The second half of the day brought Renée Ahdieh, author of The Wrath & The Dawn, a retelling of the classic story One Thousand And One Nights, and Adam Silvera, a young writer from New York, who wrote More Happy Than Not, a contemporary with a scientific twist about a boy struggling with his sexual identity. All the authors were happy to take questions, sign books and take pictures with students attending.
If you are interested in Book Club, which meets every other Tuesday after school in the library, contact Mrs. Mankowski.
