Festival Fever: Empire State Book Festival @ Empire State Plaza, 4/2/11

The second annual Empire State Book Festival takes place from 10am-4:30pm on Saturday in Albany at the Empire State Plaza Meeting Rooms 1-6 at the base of The Egg.

There are two keynote speakers slated to speak in Meeting Room 6:
10am: Anne M. Martin, author of the popular series: “The Baby-sitter’s Club”
3:45pm: Rosanne Cash, Grammy-winning recording artist and author of the bestselling memoir, “Composed”

Throughout the day there will be ongoing workshops and panel discussions in each of the six meeting rooms, covering a wide variety of topics with such titles as Insider’s Guide to Getting Published – Meet the Publishers!; Best American Poetry; Book Collecting 101; Graphic Novels Unplugged; and She Blinded Me With Science Fiction.

One of the most interesting panels promises to be The American Songbook at 2:45pm in Meeting Room 1. David Hadju – author of such books as “Heroes and Villians,” “Lush Life: A Biography of Billy Strayhorn” and “Positively 4th Street” – will moderate the discussion with David Lehman (“A Fine Romance: Jewish Songwriters, American Songs”), Sara Marcus (“Girls to the Front: The True Story of the Riot Grrrl Revolution”) and Mark Rotella (“Amore: The Story of Italian American Song”).

RELATED STORIES:
Story and photos from the 2010 Empire State Book Festival

MORE UPCOMING FESTIVALS:
Mountain Jam @ Hunter Mountain, Hunter, June 2-5
Rhythm On the Ridge @ Maple Ski Ridge, Rotterdam, June 11
Wilco’s Solid Sound Festival @ MASS MoCA, North Adams, June 24-26
Old Songs Festival of Traditional Music and Dance @ Altamont Fairgrounds, Altamont, June 24-26
Freihofer’s Jazz Festival @ Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Saratoga Springs, June 25-26
The WGNA CountryFest @ the Altamont Fairgrounds, Altamont, July 9
The Big Up @ Sunnyview Farm, Ghent, July 28-30
Bluestock Music Festival @ Hunter Mountain, Hunter, August 26-28