What they are saying…
about the 2011 Book Festival.
Click here for photos of this year’s Festival.
“It was such a great festival! Thank you for all you do to make it work, and especially for making me feel so welcome. I really enjoyed being at the Gala and loved being on such a great panel. Thank you for all you do for the children of New York state, and for books, and for libraries. I am honored to be part of it.”…..author/panelist
“… I just want you to know how well organized and fun the whole event was. [we] loved the banquet, ate like kings and sat with interesting and lively people. And on Saturday, my … panel went without a hitch, I think we entertained the crowd and the turn-out was terrific. So, to you and everyone who obviously worked so hard, thank you very much. It was a great weekend.”…..author/panelist
“Thanks … for organizing such a wonderful festival. We had a great panel and it was a lot of fun.”…..author/panelist
“Please extend my thanks and congratulations to all the organizers of the Empire State Book Fair. As a panelist, I was excited and impressed by the energy and the wealth of great books and speakers. I could have spent hours in the bookstore, alone. It is a wonderful event…and certainly does New York State proud, I am honored that I was asked to participate, and hope to make it back to Albany again.”…..author/panelist
“Thank you. I enjoyed moderating the … panel this year. My book … is being released this October, and I had such a positive experience at the Empire State Book Festival that I’m interested in being involved as an author on the panel next year.”…..author/moderator
Emma Straub, speaker on Short Story, Tall Order panel
Grace Onorato @ FeedingMyBookAddiction blog
Jennifer McIntosh, Albany Libraries Examiner @ examiner.com
The Empire State Book Festival
April 1 & 2, 2011
Download the Festival guide! (pdf)
The 2011 Book Festival will feature two keynote speakers, singer/songwriter and author Rosanne Cash and Baby-sitter’s Club author Ann M. Martin.
Morning Keynote Speaker: Ann M. Martin, author of the Baby-Sitter’s Club series.
The Baby-sitters Club® is one of the most successful series in publishing history with more than 176 million books in print. Ann M. Martin spent the latter part of the 1980s and most of the 1990s working on the series, which was supposed to debut in 1986 and end in 1987, and to consist of only four titles. Instead, it ended 15 years later, with four additional related series, approximately 250 titles, spawned a TV series as well as a feature film, and prompted girls around the world to start their own baby-sitters clubs.
The Baby-sitters Club became the first children’s book series to appear on the USA Today bestseller list.
The New York Times Magazine hailed Ann M. Martin as a, “genius in communicating with girls when and after they slip behind the glass curtain of preadolescence…Martin gets children to read.” The Baby-sitters Club also was named one of the “Books of the Century” by the New York Times Book Review in 1998. 
Afternoon Keynote Speaker: Rosanne Cash, author, singer, songwriter.
Rosanne Cash’s fourteen albums have charted eleven number-one singles. She is the author of Bodies of Water and the children’s book Penelope Jane: A Fairy’s Tale. Her essays and fiction have appeared in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, and New York magazine. Her recent memoir, Composed, has been named one of the Best Books of 2010 by Publishers Weekly. Her 2009 album The List won ”Album of The Year” at the 2010 Americana Music Honors and Awards, and has been nominated for 2011 GRAMMY® Award for “Best Americana Album.”
Empire State Book Festival Gala 2011
Join us at the Gala on the evening of April 1, to be held at The State Room in downtown Albany. The evening’s program will include acknowledging the student winners of the state Letters about Literature contest and the induction of the 2011 class of authors in the New York State Writers Hall of Fame.
Stay up-to-date as we add authors, programs, and activities to the 2011 schedule.
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