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Florida Matters: Festival Of Reading Preview

Tampa Bay Times Festival of Reading

The 23rd Tampa Bay Times Festival of Reading will be held on Saturday, Oct. 24 at USF St. Petersburg.

This week on Florida Matters (Tuesday, Oct. 13 at 6:30 p.m. and Sunday, Oct. 18 at 7:30 a.m.), we meet some of the authors, including:

·         Tampa Bay Rays sports broadcaster Dewayne Staats (“Position To Win: A Look At Baseball and Life From the Best Seat in the House”)

·         Florida poet laureate Peter Meinke ("The Elf Poem")

·         USF graduate Phillippe Diedrich (“Sofrito”)

·         USF graduate Kimberly Karalius (“Love Fortunes and Other Disasters”)

·         Pulitzer Prize-nominated former reporter Jean Heller (“The Someday File”)

You can see the full schedule for the Festival of Reading here.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzBpasT4vPM&feature=youtu.be

"The festival is  a way of bringing book authors -- fiction, non-fiction, every genre you can think of -- to the Tampa Bay area to speak to readers, to sign their books, to give readers an opportunity to meet some of the writers that they love and whose books they read,” said Tampa Bay Times book editor Collette Bancroft.

10-13-15_florida_matters_for_web_reading_festival.mp3
Miss the broadcast? Listen to the show here.

She says the headliner for this year’s festival, Judy Blume, has generations of folks who love her books for young people.

"Of the many authors we've brought to the festival, more than any of them, people have said to me about Judy Blume, her books changed my life, I read this book at this age, and it was like I discovered I wasn't alone. This book made me think other people had the same experience as me,” Bancroft said. “She's a really meaningful author, and her fans are really passionate fans."

It's free to see Judy Blume at the festival, but seating is limited. 

Lottie Watts was our Florida Matters producer from 2012 to 2016. She also covers health and health policy for WUSF's Health News Florida .
Carson Cooper served as host of WUSF’s "Morning Edition" for 18 years. He took the job in 2000, after working in Tampa Bay radio for decades. He was a fan favorite of our listeners, bringing his friendly and familiar voice to listeners as they started their weekday mornings.
Bobbie O’Brien has been a Reporter/Producer at WUSF since 1991. She reports on general news topics in Florida and the Tampa Bay region.
After more than 40 years learning and helping others understand more about so many aspects of our world and living in it, I still love making connections between national news stories and our community. It's exciting when I can find a thread between a national program or greater premise and what is happening at the local or personal level. This has been true whether I’ve spun the novelty tunes of Raymond Scott or Wilmoth Houdini from a tiny outpost in a Vermont field, or shared the voices of incarcerated women about what it’s like to be behind bars on Mother’s Day with the entire state of New Hampshire.
Mark Schreiner is the assistant news director and intern coordinator for WUSF News.