Connecticut Book Festival

The first-ever Connecticut Book Festival, celebrating our State's continuing cultural heritage by focusing on authors, books literary sites and cultural institutions, will be held on the UCONN Greater Hartford Campus in West Hartford on Saturday and Sunday, May 21st and 22nd. Over the course of two days, three dozen authors will talk about their work; there will be performances by DANCEENLIGHT, Mystic Paper Beasts, and five State Troubadours. Children will be entertained at the unique "instrument petting zoos" provided by the Hartford and New Haven Symphony Orchestras and children will have a chance to make chalk drawings with author/illustrator Bill Thomson. Children can also read to pet therapy greyhounds. Parents, teachers,b and students will attend the annual ceremony marking the conclusion of the Letters About Literature program sponsored by the CT Center for the Book. Exhibitors and food vendors will add a "festival" atmosphere. The event is free of charge.

The Festival has been planned over the past two years and is patterned after the National Book Festival held in Washington, D.C. each fall. The festival is sponsored by CT Center for the Book at Hartford Public Library, CT Commission on Culture and Tourism, CT Humanities Council, CT Library Association, CT State Library, Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, UCONN Co-op Bookstore, and UCONN Greater Hartford. More information and details are available at www.ctbookfestival.org.