The Farmington Author & Book Festival (FAB), a collaboration between KickstART Farmington and the Farmington Community Library debuted on June 3, 2023, during Art on the Grand in Memorial Park near the Masonic Hall in downtown Farmington. The festival featured author readings, book signings, discussions, workshops, and more, along with a book marketplace offering publications by over fifty area authors and publishers.

This event was made possible by the kind support of the Farmington Friends of the Library and the Farmington & Farmington Hills Foundation for Youth & Families.

SCHEDULE FOR 2023 FAB FESTIVAL

10:15-11:15 am: Children’s Book Readings, featuring authors Patti Richards, Pria Dee, Rhonda Gowler Greene, A. Kidd, and Lisa Rose.

11:30-12:30 pm: Author Readings, featuring writers Carolyn Striho, Shelly Edwards-Jorgensen, Isabela J. Mansfield, and Keith A. Owens.

1:30-2:15 pm: Poetry Workshop with Joy Gaines-Friedler

If you can name three things you saw today: a squirrel crossing the road, light through a mapletree, your toothbrush on the floor… you can write a poem. Poems are not about heady thoughts – just the transcendence of simple everyday occurrences. They don’t have to use fancy language.Spend 45 minutes with me. I’ll show you some marvelous poems. We’ll talk about them. And you’ll write one of your own.

Joy Gaines-Friedler is the author of four books of poetry, her most recent, Capture Theory is a Forward Review Indiefab Finalist and has been published in over 80 literary magazines and anthologies. Joy holds a MFA in Creative Writing and teaches for non-profits, and communities at risk.

2:30-3:15 pm: Romance Writers Roundtable, hosted by Rebecca Brown from the Farmington Community Library, featuring writers Liz Hsu, Tana Jenkins, Annemarie Schiavi Pederson, and Kim Sakwa.

3:30-4:15 pm: Publishers Roundtable hosted by Mitchell Nobis, including Anita Skeen from Wheelbarrow Books, Jennifer Baum from Scribe Publishing Company, and Carl Johnson on self-publishing.

4:30-5:15 pm: Keynote Presentation Writing a Killer Crime Novel by Stephen Mack Jones

How time, patience, dark humor, and fearless imagination can create the perfect crime–on paper.

Stephen Mack Jones is a published poet, award winning playwright and winner of the Kresge Arts in Detroit Literary Fellowship.  He was born and raised in Lansing, Michigan.  He moved to Detroit upon graduation from Michigan State University and has remained in the metro-Detroit area.  He worked in advertising and marketing communications before turning to fiction. Stephen has received many accolades for his August Snow crime/thriller series. He has been shortlisted for the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger award and a finalist for the Shamus Award as well as the Strand Critic’s Award. The Nero Wolfe Society awarded August Snow the 2018 Nero Award.  In 2018, the International Association of Crime Writers presented Stephen with the prestigious Hammett Prize for literary excellence in the field of crime writing.  August Snow was named a 2018 Michigan Notable Book by the Library of Michigan. He received that honor again in 2022 for Dead of Winter. His fourth book in the August Snow series will be available in November 2023.

5:30-6:30 pm: Author Readings, featuring writers Jessica K. Foster, Claire Winn, J Lee Burke, and M.J. Kuhn.

AUTHORS & PUBLISHERS PARTICIPATING IN BOOK MARKETPLACE