West Texas Book and Music Festival

For my Texas friends, what are you doing September 21 - 26? Headed out to Abilene, TX for the West Texas Book and Music Festival to support local Texas authors and musicians?

What a brilliant idea!

Here's what the WTBMF Facebook page says about the event (excerpts from "Brave Combo, Kathi Appelt headline 2009 West Texas Book & Music Festival" By Glenn Dromgoole):

The Grammy-winning polka band Brave Combo, based in Denton, will headline the music side of the West Texas Book & Music Festival. Brave Combo will perform, along with the Texas Swing Kings of Austin, at 8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 25, at the Paramount Theatre. ($15 for general admission tickets)

Heading up the literary side of the festival are several best-selling authors who will speak Saturday at the Abilene Civic Center. Featured writers this year include children’s authors Kathi Appelt of College Station, Diane Gonzales Bertrand of San Antonio, and Nancy Robinson Masters of Abilene. Also, Bryan Burrough (The Big Rich), Mike Renfro (Shine On: 100 Years of Shiner Beer), retired Air Force Brigadier General James Cross (Around the World with LBJ), and popular Western author Elmer Kelton of San Angelo.

Appelt, Bertrand and Masters will speak to Abilene and Wylie elementary students throughout the day on Friday and will conduct a workshop on Writing for Children at 9 a.m. Saturday at the civic center. Burrough, Renfro, Cross and Kelton will talk about their books beginning at 10 a.m. in a session entitled “The Texas Experience.”

At the Boots & Books Luncheon at noon, the A.C. Greene Award will be given to Appelt, author of more than 30 books for children and young adults. Her novel, The Underneath, was a Newbery Award Honor Book this year, one of the top national awards given for children’s literature. The A.C. Greene Award recognizes a distinguished Texas author each year and is named for one of Abilene’s most prominent literary figures. Greene died in 2002.

The Hall of Texas Authors will be open from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, with authors, publishers and booksellers displaying and selling books in the exhibit hall.

The festival, which began as the West Texas Book & Author Festival in 2001, is presented by Friends of the Abilene Public Library and the Abilene Reporter-News and includes funding support from the Abilene Cultural Affairs Council, the Scripps Howard Foundation, the Dodge Jones Foundation, the Dian Graves Owen Foundation, the Shelton Family Foundation, and the Community Foundation of Abilene.

I think I've almost convinced Smash, of Great Books and Fresh Coffee, to meet me there. How about you?

Are you doing other things to support local authors near you? Check out Tif, at Tif Talks Books, for a monthly meme full of literary locals ideas.