JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The Mississippi Book Festival is being shown online after the in-person event was canceled because of concerns about the coronavirus pandemic.
Organizers say videos of 31 panel discussions have been recorded in the past month. Those will become available Tuesday on the festival’s website, msbookfestival.com.
“We’ve got an amazing group of authors and moderators who have rallied to record more than 35 hours of great conversations about books and writing,” executive director Ellen Daniels said in a news release. “Honoring these writers and continuing to engage our loyal and growing community of book lovers is what the festival is all about.”
Among the authors speaking are Curtis Wilkie, Kiese Laymon, Nic Stone, W. Ralph Eubanks, Jerry Mitchell, Catherine Pierce, Beth Ann Fennelly, Mitch Landrieu, William Ferris, Angie Thomas, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Robert Khayat and Kai Bird.
The festival originally was scheduled for Aug. 21 at the Mississippi Capitol and nearby Galloway United Methodist Church in downtown Jackson. Organizers switched to the online format because the state was experiencing a surge of COVID-19 cases at the time.
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The Mississippi Free Press produced this story through the MFP Solutions Lab, supported by the Solutions Journalism Network. This series digs into Mississippi’s systemic issues and sheds light on responses to them in other communities. Beyond just reporting on problems, these stories interrogate their causes and inspect potential solutions.
