According to organizers, the inaugural Missouri Book Festival was greeted with an “overwhelmingly positive response.”
Featuring presentations from authors, publishers, bookstores, librarians and other literary figures, the festival was held Saturday in downtown Washington. Officials estimate as many as 3,000 people attended the festival.
Ashley Beard-Fosnow, executive director of Missouri Humanities, one of the festival’s organizers, said: “There is magic in the sky.”
Hosted by the Missouri Libraries for the Humanities, Library Center for Books and Ready Press, the event featured many celebrations of books written about and by Missouri authors. These festivities included soapbox derbies, culinary presentations by cookbook authors, book panel discussions, author presentations, writing workshops, and other events. Friday night at the St. Louis Cardinals The festival kicked off with a bang when season-long player Rick Ankiel delivered the keynote address at Washington High School and was presented with the first-ever Show Me Perseverance Award to honor players from Missouri . I have faced and overcome life-changing challenges. The full text of Ankiel’s presentation and award is available online at emissourian.com.
“Everything went really well,” said Missouri Book Festival Planning Committee member Christy Stoyer. It said it was processing calls and emails from book publishers for the upcoming 2023 festival.
“We had people reach out from all over the country to see if we could get the authors involved. I want to, and that’s really exciting,” Stoyer said. Stoyer said the 2023 Missouri Book dates for his festival are likely to be announced later this fall.
Among those who attended the first Missouri Book Festival was Katherine Humby, a self-proclaimed Reverend Dominic Garamone big fan. Garamone was known as “The Bread Monk” and from 1999 until 2001 he hosted the PBS cooking show “Breaking Bread with Father Dominic.” He has authored nine of his cookbooks.
“I’ve always wanted to see him,” Humby said. “I was a terrible, terrible cook when his show was on. But watching his show made him feel very confident here and it helped me learn how to cook.
At the festival, Garamon demonstrated how to make scones and answered audience questions about how to bake them. After the presentation, he praised the festival crowd.
“They were really responsive,” says Garramone. “I think they asked really intelligent questions.”
Another author who spoke was Gary Kremer, executive director of the Missouri State Historical Society. Although he has written 12 books, Kremer said Saturday about the book he wrote on the occasion of his 200th anniversary in Missouri.
A fifth-generation Missouri, Kremer spoke about his family’s history in Missouri.
“My own life is so intertwined with the history of the nation that it can be difficult to separate my own path from it,” Kremer said.
There were many memorable moments during the festival, but Stoyer said the most memorable moment was the Soap Box Derby exhibition. The first soapbox derby car to race in downtown Washington since 1965, the exhibition featured a rematch between Mike Maun of his 1964 Washington soapbox derby championship and that year’s champion, Jerry Dryward. Done.
On Saturday, Maune won a rematch.
“I didn’t even know I won,” Maune said after the race. “I wasn’t really paying attention to where I was. I knew I wouldn’t have Jerry in front of me like I did in 1964, so I thought I was performing better this time around. I didn’t think I would win.”
Moune, who said he drifted too much when the two raced in 1964, decided to keep the soapbox car straight on Cedar Street, which was temporarily converted into a race track and lined up with nearly 200 spectators. He said he was focused. A derby car passed by. Both racers said the crowd was all blurry.
“We’re in our 70s now,” Maune said. “At our age, you have to focus on the task at hand and we were both focused on racing.”
Dreisewerd said he was just a little disappointed that he didn’t win the rematch, but invited Maune to race again in Akron, Ohio, where Dreisewerd lives and where the national soap box derby race is held. did.
William Skipworth, Reid Glenn and Geoff Folsom of The Missourian also contributed to this story.
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