Neighborhood Reads in Downtown Washington, Missouri. Courtesy of Neighborhood Reads on Facebook.
Neighborhood Reads
The first-ever Missouri Book Festival is coming to Washington on August 26 and 27, bringing with it an impressive list of authors and a series of related events. The average book fest bill doesn’t include live animals—or live wrestling—but the organizers of the Missouri Book Festival weren’t going for average. They’re hoping to bring bibliophiles from all over to the self-proclaimed “Best-Read Community in America” for a free weekend of great talks and exciting events across Downtown Washington, sponsored by Reedy Press, Missouri Humanities, and the Library of Congress Center for the Book. We spoke with MoBookFest committee chair Kristy Stoyer, Washington Public Library director Nelson Appell, and Neighborhood Reads owner Dawn Kitchell to learn more about what visitors can expect from this brand-new fest.
Where did the idea for the Missouri Book Festival come from?
Kristy Stoyer: Washington has a long history of literacy programming. There was an annual family reading night that would take place that was always really well-attended and popular. Josh Stevens with Reedy Press would always be a part of that and just enjoyed coming out to Washington and seeing all of the excitement around literature, and he decided to host a book festival. That's kind of why he picked Washington, just all the support from our library. We have a great community literacy foundation, and Dawn’s bookstore [Neighborhood Reads] is here in Washington. So we just have a really good reading community. In 2020, we did a reading initiative where we tracked pages read, and [the community] read 1.5 million pages. So we’ve proclaimed ourselves the best-read community in America…I think Josh was just inspired by what our community does to promote literacy. He's been talking for several years about trying to organize a book festival, and everybody agreed that this would be the place to do it.
Tell us a bit about the group putting this event together.
KS: Our hosting sponsors are Reedy Press, the Missouri Humanities, and the Library of Congress Center for the Book. So we have them, and along with that our planning committee includes Nelson and his team with the Washington Public Library, Dawn with Neighborhood Reads and the Community Literacy Foundation, and then I’m just a local Washington resident who is helping by chairing the event.
Nelson Appell: Kristy keeps us all organized and on task. She’s underplaying her role here.
KS: Well, I'm just a long-time resident, born and raised in Washington. I love the idea behind this festival and have been on some other boards within Washington. So I'm excited to be working with this group. The city of Washington has been amazing as well. Our whole community has really embraced it. We were just sitting here talking about how we're involving our school district, we're involving our parks department, our city, our police, our fire, everybody has just come together and wants to do everything they can to make it successful.
What has the planning process been like? There are so many different elements to this festival.
KS: The idea of the festival is focused on literacy, but really, like our tagline says, we’re bringing stories to life. We wanted to focus on literacy, but also have those [immersive] elements. Like kids being able to see circus acts to go with a circus book, or Dawn having a have a horse visit the backyard.
Dawn Kitchell: I don't know if you remember way back—it's been at least a decade—about the horse trailer accident that was on I-44. The horses that were rescued, my colleague Chris Stuckenschneider wrote a book about them called Twist of Fate: The Miracle Colt and His Friends. There was a pregnant mare [in the accident], and the horse that was born was kept by Longmeadow Rescue Ranch. So there's a book about all these horses and their success, the people who adopted them, and their life after they were rescued. One of those horses is Willie, and he will be attending one of our story times. We’ll have Willie in the backyard and Chris will read that book. So we're trying to make sure that every activity has a book, and every book has an activity.
KS: We've been talking a lot about children's programming and fun things like that, but we also have a lot of adult-focused activities as well. We have a writing workshop with the Missouri poet laureate, Maryfrances Wagner. We have six senators coming for the You Can, Too! storytime book to talk about their path to the Senate, and being women in a predominantly male area. We have close to 30 different programs happening throughout our festival area. People can really come the whole day and just bounce around between programs. We have the soapbox derby, tied to the book on the history of the automobile in St. Louis, and this is the first time a soapbox derby has been in Washington since 1964. The two men who, as young boys, won first and second place in that race in 1964 are coming back. One has moved away to Ohio and one lives just in a town over now, but they're coming back to have another face off and race down the street in their soapbox derby cars…It’s being held here by the Optimist Group of Washington and Modern Auto, and those were actually two of the groups who brought the derby to Washington in 1964 as well. So there’s lots of tradition and history throughout the festival.
I don’t think there’s many other book festivals that can point to car racing and live wrestling on their schedules.
KS: I know! I keep bringing up the wrestling, and people are like, “What?” And I try to explain. But it’s fun for all ages. I have 8-year-old twins, and I think that they're just as excited and will be fulfilled with this festival as my 80-year-old mother-in-law. I think everyone can find something throughout the day to have fun with, and it's all inspired by books and our goal of increasing literacy.
What’s it been like working with this group of authors on the festival?
KS: We had a lot of interest. We kind of had to cut it off at 30 programs. Hopefully this might become an annual event where we can bring in some more authors next year. But I just think everyone is intrigued by the idea of the festival and how we are tying books to actual activities happening, where they can see their books come to life.
DK: We have just this wide variety of authors coming. We have an author coming from Kansas City. We have Mon Trice coming from St. Louis with her book, Cannon's Crash Course. Just a sampling of authors from across the state. And I think that that's really exciting. We always want to expose children to authors from all places and all walks of life. So we're excited about that. [Neighborhood Reads] is in a little historic home, but we have this giant tree in the backyard. And so we're excited to just throw down blankets and have these authors here, sharing their books with kids in the backyard under the tree.
What are you most looking forward to? Is there a particular event or author you’re really excited to see yourself?
NA: I am totally intrigued to see what happens when we break out the professional wrestling ring and put the professional wrestling demonstration on. It ties into a book by Ed Wheatley, Wrestling at the Chase, and Ed's going to be there. I'm just intrigued to see how many people are interested in that. When I mention it around town, everyone's head turns. So that's what I'm most intrigued by, to see how that goes.
It’s not often that pro wrestlers and the poet laureate are sharing the same bill.
KS: Absolutely. You get the poet laureate and then you’ve got the car show, and Father Dominic in the parking lot. We're just going to have a hodgepodge of everything you can put into a book. I'm telling you, there's something for everybody here. Irish dancing, the Purina Incredible Dog Team…we just have everything.
You also have a keynote speaker planned for the evening before the main festival events.
KS: That I think will have a lot of interest from people in St. Louis. John Brown wrote a book, Legends of Missouri, and what he says is, to get in the book, you had to have at least gone to high school in Missouri. So he's coming out, and we have Bill Chott, who is an actor comedian from St. Louis, and then main speaker for that keynote event is Rick Ankiel, who wrote a book about his career with the Cardinals and kind of the breakdown of his career as a pitcher and then returning back. From what I've heard, he's a phenomenal speaker and an inspiration. So that'll be Friday night to kick off the festival.
Is there anything else that you’d like folks to know about the festival or these authors?
DK: The focus for us has really been on Missouri authors, and I think it's really exciting to be able to share how rich a group of creators we have in our state who are producing all of these books. I think that, to me, that's the most exciting thing—just how exceptional Missouri is in producing literature for all ages and interests.
NA: As a public librarian, we focus on providing books to cover every interest in the community. And so that's the biggest thing for this festival, is that we're really copying that. We're trying to provide activities and presentations that cover every interest level in the community. It's just fantastic.
