Bangor Book Festival keynote, Sept. 30

My fourth book, American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America will be released later this month by Viking Press. I've got a number of book talks in the works both in Maine and "abroad" for those of you who want to learn more about it.

One of the first: I'll be delivering the Bud Knickerbocker Keynote Address at the Bangor Book Festival here in Maine on Friday, September 30 at 7 pm at the Bangor Opera House. (Others coming up in Maine: Sept. 27 at Owl & Turtle in Camden; Oct. 13 at the Portland Public Library; and Oct. 26 at the Maine Historical Society in Portland; more on those shortly.)

Here's the press release from the Festival:

Bangor Book Festival announces list of 2011 Featured Authors

July 1, 2011

BANGOR – Award-winning journalist and author Colin Woodard will headline the Fifth Annual Bangor Book Festival, September 30-October 1, 2011, in downtown Bangor, the Festival Committee announced today. Joining Woodard for the annual Festival will be 33 more Maine and Maine-connected writers and illustrators, whose work includes fiction, nonfiction, poetry, historical fiction, young adult and children’s books, sports and nature writing, mysteries, memoirs, travel writing and creative writing instruction.

“We are thrilled with this year’s lineup of wonderful Maine authors,” said Barbara McDade, Director of the Bangor Public Library and Festival Co-Chair. “For this fifth year of the Festival, we will have more speakers than in any other year. Everyone will be able to find something of interest.”

Featured authors and illustrators will include Charlotte Agell, James Babb, Barbara Baig, Crash Barry, Ellen Booraem, Sarah Braunstein, Thomas Burby, Toni Buzzeo, Melissa Coleman, Susan Conley, Paul Doiron, Kathleen Ellis, Rebecca Emberly, Richard Foerster, Ardeana Hamlin, Hannah Holmes, Shonna Milliken Humphrey, Jennifer Jacobson, Carrie Jones, Margy Burns Knight, Kelly McClymer, Janet Mendelsohn, Thomas R. Moore, Dave Morrison, Eva Murray, Anne Sibley O’Brien, Maria Padian, Dawn Potter, Van Reid, Caitlin Shetterly, Christina Tree, Catherynne Valente, and Wade Zahares.

Keynote Speaker Colin Woodard is the author of four books, including The Lobster Coast: Rebels, Rusticators, and the Struggle for a Forgotten Frontier and American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America, to be released this fall. A Maine native and an award-winning journalist, he has reported from more than 50 countries and is currently a foreign correspondent for The Chronicle of Higher Education and The Christian Science Monitor, and is a contributing editor at Down East magazine.

A major partner for the first time this year is the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance. “We’re truly proud to support this exceptional line-up of authors ,” said Joshua Bodwell, Executive Director of the 35-year-old literary arts nonprofit. “It’s been a banner year for books in Maine, and this quickly growing festival is a great way to celebrate that!”

The 2011 Festival is funded in part by a grant from the Maine Arts Commission, an independent state agency supported by the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional sponsors of the 2011 Festival include the Maine Humanities Council, the University of Maine’s Fogler Library, the City of Bangor, the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation, Cengage, and others.

For more information, please contact the Festival at info@bangorbookfest.org, or c/o Bangor Public Library, 145 Harlow St., Bangor, ME 04401; 207/947-8336.

See you at the Festival!