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PAUL:

Maybe you're wondering, did I miss the Mississippi Book Festival? It's always in August, right? Well, the answer to that question is no. We're celebrating the 10th year on a cooler Saturday, September 14.

Hey, it's Paul Wolf with a front-row seat to conversations on culture from Jackson, Mississippi. We call the podcast Soul Sessions. It's the people, places and events that make the City With Soul shine. On today's show, Mississippi Book Festival executive director Ellen Daniels is here to talk about Mississippi's Literary Lawn Party. Ellen's initial involvement with the event was merely as an eavesdropper on conversations in the festival's very earliest planning stages in 2014 when the group met outside Lemuria Books where she worked. But it took Ellen a couple of years before she worked her way in, and in 2019, she took it a step further.

ELLEN:

Holly Lange, the inaugural director of the festival, messaged me in late 2018 and was like, want to get coffee? And I was like, sure. Earlier that year, I had taken headshots for the book festival staff. And while I was taking those photos in my mind, I was like, why don't I want to the book festival? So, but that call came pretty soon afterward.

PAUL:

I love that. That you were, you were involved, but you were kind of hoping you could do more.

ELLEN:

Yeah. It's such a joyous thing. And just being outside, looking in, I could see how much has grown and how much people loved it. And I wanted to be a part of something bigger than myself. Working at Lemuria was the first time I ever felt like I was part of something bigger than myself. And I remember exactly when it happened. And that's a really incredible feeling.

PAUL:

Tell me more about that: that first time you felt like you were a part of something bigger, because I think people hesitate to get involved in things because they think I can't make a difference, can't change anything. You really felt like you were making a change. When was that and where was that?

ELLEN:

Well, I mean, I can tell you what happened for me with Lemuria. This is so random, but it was the Old Crowe Medicine Show was playing at Hal and Mal’s a gazillion years ago. And it was everybody that worked at Lemuria standing in the front, dancing. I remember John Evans turning to me and looking at… He was so joyful. He just goes, it's all the Lemurians up here! I was like, my gosh, I'm a Lemurian. And honestly, been going to that store since time immemorial. And it's always been such a special place to me. Having him say that I was like, part of that magical place really felt unbelievable. And I can tell you with the book festival, when I felt like I was part of something bigger than me was that day.

In 2019, I cannot remember the exact date in August, was the third Saturday, and just seeing people, the hundreds of people wind up to get into Dave's Pilkey’s keynote, all the people on the lawn and just seeing how excited everybody was. It was like, you know, so much hard work. I was so pregnant. And I was like, this is, we've really done something special here that people want. And that's how we all feel at working for the Book Festival.

PAUL:

What makes the Mississippi Book Festival so special? I mean, we could say it's a gathering of hundreds of authors and hundreds of book lovers. And what's the magic? What's the secret sauce to the fest?

ELLEN:

This wasn't so much part of the magic, you know, when it started, but in the way today in the world that we live in, having all different kinds of people with all different kinds of beliefs come together over a shared love of reading books, that's really magical. But also we always say the Mississippi Book Festival is kind of the perfect size because some of the panel venues are not the biggest thing. Some people can't get in because there's not enough seats left, but it provides a real intimacy. Like you are close. And, look, I had gone to see authors speak and, know, auditoriums at 2000 and that's amazing. But being able to sit like right there in front of them, can almost like feel their breath on you. And then going out and getting your book signed in the signing tent and then just wandering around the festival site and see your favorite author wander around. I mean, like, I think that's part of the magic.

PAUL:

The one that comes to mind for me that I'm like, I just got to get a picture with him. Of course, you know who I'm going to say, LeVar Burton—Mr. Reading Rainbow himself— and Jasmine Ward, will be on a panel together as part of this year's book festival. What other pairings or individuals do you have that you're looking forward to this year?


ELLEN:

Well, so another really huge one, Steve Gleason. Steve Gleason is a former safety for the New Orleans Saints. played from 2000 to 2008. He is actually from Spokane, Washington. He moved to New Orleans. He fell in love with a New Orleans girl and he had an incredible career there, but Steve Gleason has lived with ALS for the past 13 years. And he has written a memoir about that. And it's truly, and he wrote this memoir with his retinas.

PAUL:

Wow.

ELLEN:

Using predictive technology. And he and his wife and their… it's called “Team Gleason,” are doing all of this. You know, they had legislation passed to make

things easier for people with handicaps and disabilities, but they're developing all of this technology to make lives easier for people living with that disease. And you know, Jordan Perry, our deputy director, she said something to me one day. She said—because it is just this incredible story of how he turned this like awful thing that happened to him into this enormous opportunity—she said, is he living or am I living?

PAUL:

Wow.

ELLEN:

And he just won the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the recent ESPYs. It is just such an incredibly inspiring story. So I would encourage everyone to go see that session. Our good friend Richard Grant is coming back with his latest installment in his, you know, world travels. And this is all about he and his wife and their young daughter moving to Arizona in like such a crazy time in that state. And it's releasing the Tuesday before the festival so that's going to be a really fresh book. And you know Richard is a Brit who moved here and lived in the Delta and lived in Jackson for years and he is just so beloved feeling such a great author. We've got Kate DiCamillo coming who was, you know, she was our first KidNote author in 2016 so it feels really amazing that she's coming back.

PAUL:

And this festival is about more than just one day of events. That Saturday is huge. It's a big part of it, but our school children and other groups will get to partake and participate in book festival activities around the weekend.

ELLEN:

Yes. Every year, the day before the book festival, we have our KidNote event, and that is when area public school children come to a large venue in Jackson and hear a world-class author. And at the end of that, as they leave, they get a copy of the book they've just heard about. Well, this year we're doing one on Thursday with Angie Thomas and we're doing one on Friday with Kate DiCamillo. But on the 28th of August, we are doing our first ever Delta KidNote in Cleveland at the Bologna Performing Arts Center and we're gonna have Andrea Beatty who's done wonderful children's books like “Iggy Peck Architect,” “Ada Twist, Scientist,” “Rosie Revere, Engineer.” I have a four year old daughter and I don't enjoy reading anyone's books more than I enjoy reading that series of books to my child. have great rhyme, they've got a great message and we can't wait to do this for the students in the Delta and all of them will be leading with a copy of a book.

PAUL:

If people have never been to the festival before, what can you say to them to convince them that this is the event that they can't miss this year, if you're an avid reader or not? What's the reason you need to come to the Mississippi Book Festival?

ELLEN:

There's something for everyone. Whether you're a reader or you just like current events or you're into history. I mean, we've got all of that for you in spades.

PAUL:

That's Ellen Daniels, the executive director of the Mississippi Book Festival. Ellen had so much to share, we couldn't get it all in the episode. So don't miss Reading the Room, a silent book club whose next installment is September 5th at the Red Room in Hal & Mal’s in Jackson. And on Saturday, September 14th at the festival. If you've got a young reader, check out the kids workshop room with poetry, storyboarding and bookmaking. You can get all the details in our show notes at visitjackson.com/soulsessions.

Our podcast is produced by Visit Jackson, the destination organization for Mississippi's capital city. Our executive producers are Jonathan Pettus and Dr. Ricky Thigpen, and I'm our managing editor. You can learn more about us and all the great work we do to help Jackson shine at VisitJackson.com.

I'm Paul Wolf and you've been listening to Soul Sessions.

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