Bonus Episode || Planning a Book Festival with Ellen Rodgers Daniels
Today on From the Front Porch, we have a special bonus episode for you! Annie is joined by Ellen Rodgers Daniels, the Executive Director of the Mississippi Book Festival, to chat about planning this literary lawn party.
From the Front Porch is a weekly podcast production of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in South Georgia. You can follow The Bookshelf’s daily happenings on Instagram at @bookshelftville, and all the books from today’s episode can be purchased online through our store website, www.bookshelfthomasville.com.
A full transcript of today’s episode can be found below.
Special thanks to Dylan and his team at Studio D Podcast Production for sound and editing and for our theme music, which sets the perfect warm and friendly tone for our Thursday conversations.
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Our Executive Producers are...Ashley Ferrell, Cammy Tidwell, Chanta Combs, Chantalle C, Kate O’Connell, Kristin May, Laurie Johnson, Linda Lee Drozt, Martha, Nicole Marsee, Stacy Laue, Stephanie Dean, Susan Hulings, and Wendi Jenkins.
Transcript:
Annie Jones [00:00:01] [Squeaky porch swing] Welcome to From the Front Porch, a conversational podcast about books, small business and life in the South.
Welcome to this bonus episode of From the Front Porch. I'm Annie Jones, owner of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia. And today I'm sitting down with the executive director of the Mississippi Book Festival, Ellen Rodgers Daniels to discuss the impetus behind a Southern Book Festival, and what it takes to run a successful event for reader and authors alike. This year's festival is on August 19th which gives you plenty of time to make plans to attend. Hi, Ellen!
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:00:55] Hi, how are you?
Annie Jones [00:00:56] I'm doing wonderfully.
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:00:58] So good to be with you, Annie.
Annie Jones [00:01:00] Oh, I'm so glad you're here. I'm so glad to get to talk with you. I'm anxious to hear more about the festival. We participate in a book and music festival in Tallahassee, Florida, which is near to Thomasville. It's called Word of South, and I was one of the founding board members of that event. And I'm just so curious about what it takes to move from a committee meeting to a successful full day's worth of events. The numbers of how many people come to the Mississippi Book Festival are astounding to me. I was looking through some of the documents that you sent over before, and I just am amazed by that kind of participation, that level of participation in the South especially. So why don't you tell me, I guess, first of all, who the festival is for and maybe what its original purpose and mission was.
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:01:55] So I would say that this Book Festival is for every Mississippian and for anybody who wants to come, anybody who loves books, people who love books and meeting their favorite authors, this place is for you. Now, it grew out of a group of book enthusiasts coming together and being like, why is there not a Mississippi Book Festival? Mississippi has contributed more to American letters than I would say most states have, especially per capita. Always people are like, why are there so many books that come out of Mississippi? And I like to joke and I'm like, "Well, there's nothing to do. And we're all natural born storytellers." It's all about celebrating our literary legacy, but also celebrating the very rich literary present that we have in the state. So many world renowned authors are living and working in this state, and that's something to really be proud of.
Annie Jones [00:02:56] Yeah, I really love that because I'm a born and bred Southerner-- if you count Tallahassee, Florida as southern, which I don't know if it's hit or miss. I thought I was Southern and then I moved to Alabama and then I thought, oh, maybe I wasn't Southern at all. But the South is so diverse in its storytelling, and I don't know always if the South gets the credit it deserves because we're a complicated place. And I think when we think about literary events, I here often about the D.C. Book Festival or Book Festivals in New York or California. And I think I don't often hear about Southern Book Festivals, though I do hear a lot about Southern storytelling, and it seems like the two should go kind of hand in hand.
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:03:47] Well, yeah, it was kind of a no-brainer. Realizing that we needed to have a Book Festival in Mississippi. Now the rest of it is takes a whole lot of brainpower. Because we're a one day festival. We bank it all on one day. So, of course, it starts to happen when like hurricane season is coming. So I'm starting to watch weather developing in the Atlantic and everything. But we cram a lot into one day. I will tell of the second highest complaint we hear is that there are too many things to choose from. Well, that's a good problem to have. So we like to make that really difficult on people. The number one complaint we have is that it's so freaking hot. I mean, internally in the Book Festival office, we call it Hell's Front Porch because it's hot.
Annie Jones [00:04:52] I was wondering because kind of notoriously on the podcast, my least favorite month is August. I've grown up; you would think I would be used to it by now. But every summer when my front door swells shut and I can't step out of my home in pants of any kind, it just... So I am curious what made you choose August? Although I will also say the festival we are a part of is in April, which is a beautiful time of year in the South. But probably I've been a part of that festival for eight years and four of those years it's poured rain. The weather in the South is just so unpredictable. And that's partly true everywhere, but it feels especially true a little bit more extreme in the South. So I'm wondering why August?
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:05:41] Why August? So I started with the Book Festival in 2019 as the literary director and the Book Festival started in 2015. And that was my very first question in my very first board meeting. And, again, I am a lifelong Mississippian, and I'll echo what you just said. You never get used to the heat.
Annie Jones [00:06:01] You don't.
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:06:03] No. I basically don't go outside in the summer. And it's just something you never get used to. And I always say that Southerners are only truly happy unless we are complaining about the weather. It is what we do. It is our natural state of being. We're unhappy with the weather at all times, except for about two weeks in the spring. So I was like, "Guys, you're all Mississippians, yeah. August?" And they were like, "We have very good reasons for that." And I was like, "Well, let's hear them."
Annie Jones [00:06:36] Please do tell.
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:06:37] Yeah, do tell. Everyone's back from vacation. School has started. There is no SEC football.
Annie Jones [00:06:48] The first thing I was going to say, no football.
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:06:51] Or no hunting season. And so no matter how popular we get, we're never going to be able to compete with SEC football. And if hunters have a choice of coming to a Book Festival or reading a book in a deer stand, they are going to pick the latter. I don't get it. I'm not a hunter. But those people love to be up in a tree in freezing cold weather for some reason. And at that time we were also not in competition with any other Book Festival in the nation. There are a lot of Book Festivals around this country. And so, that's why that date was selected. But I will say the day of the festival, it feels so good to be part of a truly positive community event. And we take place in our state Capitol building and Galloway United Methodist Church and I track up between the Capitol and Galloway United Methodist Church.
Annie Jones [00:07:52] Oh, I bet.
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:07:53] I'm going to be honest, I still haven't fully regained feeling in my two big toes from the 2022 festival. And I had on incredibly comfortable shoes.
Annie Jones [00:08:02] Doesn't matter.
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:08:03] There was a lot of walking that day. Yeah. But I don't recall being oppressed by the heat. It just-- I think we all use this word way too much this day and age. But the vibe in the air was so positive that I would just have to stand in the middle of the festival site and take it in. And after two years of not being together and there's so much divisiveness in this country and just having a huge group of people (all kinds of people, different ethnicities, religious backgrounds, political beliefs) all come together over a shared love of books, it just felt incredible.
Annie Jones [00:08:43] Yeah. I love hearing about that, because that's exactly why we do what we do, right? Is to bring communities together. You mentioned that you started as the literary director of the festival, but first, before that, you were a bookseller. You were a bookseller at Lemuria Books, which is in Jackson, Mississippi. I've been there, it's a beautiful store. And I'm curious what made you take the leap from bookselling and into festival planning? Because certainly those skills overlap. Like there's a Venn diagram there.
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:09:16] Yeah, there is.
Annie Jones [00:09:17] But what made you go full on into festival planning and into helping host this event?
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:09:25] So it's it's a pretty circuitous route to the Book Festival. I worked at Lemuria on and off for 13 years. I've been going to that bookstore since I was a child. I'm not originally from Jackson, I'm from the Mississippi Delta. I'm from a little town called Rolling Fork. You had to drive 45 minutes to get anywhere. And so, every time we came to Jackson, we would have to stop by Oz, which is the children's section in Lemuria. Reading Rainbow and Oz, those are the things that really ignited my love of reading as a child, because I would love to go to Oz and find my fun, get the latest book that I saw on Reading Rainbow. And so, it was the first real job I ever had. I was 21 years old when I started working at Lemuria, and look, if I could just sell books in that bookstore for the rest of my life and be able to afford the things that I have grown to like, I would 1,000% do it. But I was actually not working at Lemuria anymore when I got the job offer from the Book Festival. I was working for a restaurateur as his personal assistant and had health insurance and all that kind of stuff.
Annie Jones [00:10:35] Yeah, all the important things.
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:10:36] You know you're an adult when you start thinking about those things. And I'm also a photographer, that's what I went to school for. And my best friend, she is the founding director of the Book Festival. I took the Book Festival staff's headshots, their new headshots for their website. And I remember taking those photos and I was like, why do I don't work for the Book Festival? And I'm telling you, it wasn't two months later that Holly Lange, my best friend, called me and she said, "I want to have coffee." And I was like, okay. And she offered me the job. Well, of course, I immediately said yes. And I felt bad about leaving my boss, who I was working for, but not bad enough to not do it. We have a great respect for people who work in the service industry. That is not for me.
Annie Jones [00:11:24] Yeah. You knew?
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:11:26] Yeah, I did it for a year and I was like, I've had enough. But doing the Book Festival is like bookselling on a much larger scale. I love to sell books, as I'm sure you completely understand. There's a lot of joy in selling a book and having your customers that come back and they're like, "I love the last thing you just gave me. Give me something else.".
Annie Jones [00:11:45] Yeah, it's the best. T.
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:11:48] This is that of a different flavor.
Annie Jones [00:11:53] Absolutely. Because what you're doing, I mean, what it sounds like you all are doing is you're bringing all these people together. We sometimes will host an event at The Bookshelf that's particularly around the holidays with our favorite customers, our most loyal customers. And they come in and I love The Bookshelf all the time. I really do. But one of my favorite things is to be with those loyal customers who you just know believe in The Bookshelf, believe in its mission, and then love the written word. And that's what a Book Festival is. You're congregating all of the people who believe in your mission, who believe in the power of books, who want to sit around and talk about books, who want to sit at the feet of authors. And so I imagine that feels really good. It is like bookselling. It's just, like you said, on a larger scale.
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:12:36] Yeah. We love bringing people's favorite authors here, authors that everybody knows. I will tell you, my favorite panel to build at the festival is the debut panel.
Annie Jones [00:12:50] Interesting.
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:12:51] Because I read more debuts than I do anything else. And I think that started with The Secret History by Donna Tartt. That's one of my favorite books of all time. So I've always loved debuts for that reason and a campus novel. If it takes place on a campus or was a debut, I'm in. And so that's one of my favorite panels to build because debut authors, that might not be the first book they've ever written, but it's the first one they've had published. And there's something so pure about it. And I think it's just great to feature those authors. Now, look, I love meeting the Ann Patchett and the Kiese Laymon, who is a dear friend and I just think everything he does is incredible. And Salman Rushdie, Jesmyn Ward, all of that is incredible. But starting out in the book world is not easy, it's hard on every level.
Annie Jones [00:13:50] Yes. And it's hard. Perhaps too that's part of bookselling. I think we champion debut authors because it feels like the entry point is so high. So just to get your book out into the world feels like an accomplishment. So speaking of authors, I believe I read about the Book Festival that it started as kind of this regional festival celebrating Southern storytelling, celebrating the legacy of letters in Mississippi in particular. But it has moved to be a place where really all kinds of authors come. I've looked at some of the past names and I love if can maybe sneak and give us some of the names of who will be there this year. But how did you all decide to make that transformation into maybe more national names? I mean, lots of Mississippi authors are nationally recognizable, but how did you decide to move maybe from a regional type author to a more nationally recognized author?
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:14:51] I can say this because I didn't do this work. Holly Lange, she went to New York City. She met with all of the publishers and she established such a great relationship with the big five publishers. Of course, we love supporting indie publishers as well. And the Book Festival has grown this reputation for treating its authors really, really well. And the audience is very engaged. So it's just been building off of that for years. And the festival has gotten bigger. It started out just in the state capitol and there were a few rooms in there. Well, now we use five rooms in the state capitol and we use three in Galloway United Methodist Church. So there's eight panels being used and six times slots, and each one of those are being used. We have the capacity to post 48 panels in a day.
Annie Jones [00:15:46] That's amazing.
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:15:47] At my last count, I believe we have 160 authors coming this year. So we have a ton of Mississippi authors, but then we have authors coming from all over the nation. Somebody I really love who I never even dreamt about getting to the festival, but when I saw he had a book coming out with Echo, who we have a great relationship with, which is a Harper imprint, I emailed Sonya Cheuse who's the head of publicity Echo, and I was like, "We want Patrick DeWitt at the festival. I love his books." He was the first yes that we got. And so, that really started out on a high. And I invite everybody, whether that's their publicist or their personal email, I sent out a lot of emails through the years. And it's writing this way you get a string of yeses, big yeses, and then you'll get a lot of nos. So you got to ride the wave. But we have a lot of people coming that we're very, very excited about.
Annie Jones [00:16:45] When will y'all announce the author lineup for folks?
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:16:49] So we trickle out panel announcements. We start out with really big in conversation announcements in about April. And then up until the beginning of August, we are releasing panels. We're to the point we're doing it every Tuesday and Thursday. On August 1st, the schedule will go live on our website.
Annie Jones [00:17:12] So that people can pick and choose which panels. That was amazing sounding. Like, how many people you're bringing, over a hundred authors, lots of panels. That kind of stuff really excites me. I'm a nerd and I want to pick up my course schedule. So I would be very excited to figure out what I'm going to go see.
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:17:34] In 2021, which is the festival that we had to cancel 10 days out, we started doing this really great festival guide. And so, we will distribute the festival guides around town so people can go grab them from the bookstore and all this kind of stuff and they can start marking it up and everything and really plan their day. I see people pulling snacks out of their bags and stuff like that because they don't want to interrupt anything to go get in line with all the food trucks. So, yeah, it's a plan ahead type situation. But if one panel is too full, if the panel you want to see is full, there's something else great happening at the exact same time very close to you.
Annie Jones [00:18:16] Well, and didn't I see on y'all's website-- I feel like a lot of your stuff you record too. And so people long distance can watch.
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:18:24] We record all of it. Now, last year was the first year that we ever live-streamed the Sanctuary, which is our largest venue. It can hold up to 750. So on the day of the festival, we will have a livestream on the homepage of our website where you can view those panels that are happening in real time.
Annie Jones [00:18:41] Oh, that's so fun. Okay, so you also talked a lot about where this is. And I have mentioned many times already, I grew up in Tallahassee. It's the state Capitol of Florida. So I have a little heart, I think, for state Capitol s for those venues. And I think it is so neat that this festival takes place in Jackson, but not just in Jackson, at the Capitol , at a local nearby church. And I'm curious how that partnership formed. I think any bookseller or any event planner knows how important community partnerships are to the success of something so large and especially taking place on one day. That's a lot of time and energy and effort and your whole community kind of has to get on board. And I'm curious how those partnerships kind of evolved. How did you get the government involved? We're watching a lot of state legislatures and things passing regarding literature and banning of books. And I really love that this is a state Capitol that is choosing to help host a book event. That feels remarkable to me. I'm curious how that happened.
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:19:48] The Book Festival was planned for and kind of dreamed of for officially two years before it was ever held. Our board president, Jerry Nash, who lives and breathes this festival and Holly Lange, they all went and spoke with legislators and got their blessings. And we have to make a request every single year to use certain rooms within the Capitol Building, and we've never had any issue. The state gives us money to host this thing. We have a very conservative legislature here, and they are staunch in their belief that the Mississippi Book Festival needs to take place in the Mississippi state Capitol. They love it and they're huge supporters. I was just at lunch with Speaker of the House Philip Gunn, and he has been with us from the get go. He loves the Book Festival. He loves to introduce the panel.
Annie Jones [00:20:44] That's special.
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:20:45] Yeah. He's a great friend of the festival. We're very sad that he's not running for re-election. And everybody on the Senate, the lieutenant governor, they're fantastic.
Annie Jones [00:20:59] That gives me a lot of comfort, I guess, to know that's possible. Because you mentioned at the top, we do live in a divided culture, and the South is not immune to that. But I'm also kind of comforted to know that it's not so bad. It's not gotten so bad that we can't rally around literature and around the things that kind of connect us and the things that make us better. I think literature makes us better. And so, it gives me a lot of comfort that politicians and book lovers and community organizers can come together and create something really beautiful and remarkable and something that is good for the state. I'm sure it's good for tourism, it's good for Jackson. I'm sure local businesses appreciate it because a lot of people come.
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:21:49] Last year when we had Alice Walker, it ended up being virtual. She couldn't attend in person, but Kiese Laymon was in conversation with her. And he wrote the foreword for the 50th anniversary of The Color Purple. This couple drove overnight from Washington, D.C..
Annie Jones [00:22:07] Oh, wow.
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:22:09] And that's just the one story I heard. So people come from all over. A friend texted me the other day, he was in Israel and he met a senator from Delaware who's coming to the Book Festival this year because he's heard such great things about it. I was like, "Eliot, did he hear it from you?" He was like, no. He said, "I think people really know about this thing." That makes you feel really, really good.
Annie Jones [00:22:40] Yeah. Like you're doing what you meant to be doing. We've talked a little bit about the last couple of years and having to do virtual events or having no events. And I wonder how that has maybe changed some things. Maybe it helped you all think about, oh, maybe we need to stream some of this live or maybe we need to record some of these things. But maybe how as a bookseller even, I'm constantly asking myself, like, how did the pandemic change the way The Bookshelf did business? And it has. It's changed. I mean, it's changed so much about how we do business and what works and what doesn't. And I'm curious what lessons the festival learned about having to pivot and change and also the things that it didn't change. People still love to gather, they still love to get together in person. I think there was a minute where we all thought we would just do zoom calls forever. You and I are kind of on one right now, but generally speaking we are back to meeting in person and having vibrant connections in person. And I wonder what that transition has looked like for y'all.
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:23:43] Yeah, we all learned a lot during Covid. Where would we have been without Zoom? And I remember thinking, like, "Oh, this is great. I can go to book events all over the country or world if I want to." And then very quickly I was tired of it.
Annie Jones [00:23:57] Right.
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:23:58] There's something about the energy of being in a room with a bunch of people who are excited to see someone. But we have our kid note event on the Friday before the festival, and that is where we bring a world class children's author to be in person with public school children at the auditorium downtown [inaudible].Covid taught us that not only can we have local public schoolchildren in person, we can also stream this out all across the state. So the kids that come in person, they all walk away with a copy of the book. But the students who participate virtually, their schools get copies of the book in the school libraries. And last year we were able to reach 24,000 kids with our kids event.
Annie Jones [00:24:46] Oh, my gosh. That's remarkable. That gave me goose bumps. That's so wonderful. And the pandemic helped that, right? It helped you realize, oh, we can reach kids beyond Jackson. That's so special.
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:25:01] It was more of a state-wide celebration. I'm from a very small rural community, and we didn't have opportunities for things like that. And so, it really gives me a lot of joy of being able to bring that to communities that don't really have those kind of opportunities usually. And igniting the love of reading in young people because they are our future festival goers. They're our future readers. Everybody has a smartphone, and so we're very intentional with the books that we pick because it's got to get them and hold their attention and really make them see the value in reading. So I'm delighted that this year our kid author is Jason Reynolds. It has been a dream for years, and we have finally gotten him. And when I got the phone call, my husband and daughter had just picked me up from the airport. I saw his speakers agent's email and I just saw, "He's in." I started screaming and my daughter baby went, "Mama screaming, dada." And just to have an author that looks like these kids, show them that they can be anything they want to be. I love Jason Reynolds.
Annie Jones [00:26:29] I love knowing that there's something for kids too because, you're right, they're current readers but they're also the future festival attendees. They're the future community planners, community organizers. And so early buy-in, so to speak, is so valuable and also then valuable for their parents and valuable for their parents to get to see. Okay, if someone listening is interested in starting a literary festival, even Thomasville, sometimes I have thought we do a one book where our community reads the same book together. And I thought, wouldn't it be fun to do some kind of literature festival? Savannah has one. Tallahassee has one. But could a a city like Thomasville pull something like this off? Or if somebody is listening and wants to bring something like this to their community, do you have any suggestions as to the first steps or partnerships that the people who came before you maybe secured or work toward? I mean, I think where none of us is so naive as to think these things just happen overnight, so much time and energy. You said two years of planning before a festival even comes to fruition. But are there any kind of first steps that you think could be helpful as communities see the success of something like the Mississippi Book Festival and think, well, maybe we could do that here?
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:27:45] I think it just takes a lot of determination. And do talk to your local city government. Having them on board, that's going to be critical. And it takes a village and there's got to be somebody who can manage all of it and everybody plays their part. A board is so great because everybody is a stakeholder. All the board members are stakeholders in this and they want it to be successful. And fundraising. Fundraising is wild. I had never done anything like that before in my life, but people would gift for books. Especially putting books into the hands of children, people are all about that. Work with people that you trust. And I will tell you, Steve Yates, he is one of our board members, and he was one of the first people in that core group that started dreaming this up. He is with the University Press of Mississippi, and he called a couple of Book Festival directors around the South and had them come to Jackson, and tell Holly and Jerry and everybody that the things to do. Major take away from that came from Serenity Gerbman, who used to head up the Southern Festival books in Nashville, which is over 30 year old tremendous Book Festival. She just said to make your authors happy. Make sure they're happy, she said because that is what's going to keep it going. The author community is very small and they all talk and word of mouth does a lot for you.
Annie Jones [00:29:20] That was good advice.
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:29:23] We show them that Mississippi hospitality that everybody talks about when they get here. Yeah, just hotel partners. You have the bookstore, you're the official bookseller. You've got your official bookseller right now. That's a huge amount of work. Lemuria is our official bookseller, and we work with them all year long, identifying authors that they've got readership for. But we've got Square Books in Oxford.
Annie Jones [00:29:51] I knew from visiting Mississippi, I have some dear friends who live in and around Jackson, and I know that Mississippi has this vibrant literary culture. You guys have so many independent bookstores and so many independent bookstore partners, and that is just one special aspect of the festival. I thought because you've got Lemuria as your maybe official booksellers, but you've also got all of these bookstores, I'm assuming, who come to set up tents or who are there throughout the festival is kind of what I'm picturing. Am I right about that?
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:30:22] Yes, you're absolutely correct. Lemuria is our official bookseller. Last year, we had the most booksellers we've ever had. We have 14. Wow. And then we have our self-published authors and authors alley. We had to do a little bit of paperwork. Last year, the Department of Revenue called us two weeks out from the festival and was like, you all have to collect taxes for all of this, which we had never had to do. But it did give us a really incredible number that we had never had. So from 9:00 in the morning until 5:00 in the afternoon on that festival side, almost $100,000 was sold in books alone.
Annie Jones [00:30:56] That's amazing. That's successful. That's successful then not just for Lemuria, that's successful for all of those stores.
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:31:01] Absolutely. So Friendly City Books is a new independent bookseller in Columbus, Mississippi. It was their highest day in sales ever.
Annie Jones [00:31:11] That's really special. And that's such a big part. I think that's what's so neat in talking to you about this, is you can see it affects the children in the Jackson community. It affects the children statewide who are getting to watch these things. It affects booksellers. That affects the local economy. It helps a business to survive, like having a landmark successful day that you can point to and say that was our highest day of sales. That's a big deal to partner with Lemuria, to partner with your hotels. I think sometimes we think the bookselling industry can feel insular or maybe can feel just really focused on hand selling books to one person or whatever. But bookstores, small businesses are part of a vibrant and vital ecosystem to the statewide economy. And so, to get to really see that in real time and in person, I think is remarkable.
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:32:05] For Lemuria, it is the most significant day in sales for them all year, second only to the entire month of December. And you know what December is for independent bookselling world. That's your bread and butter. I mean, that's kind of got to have it. If anyone cancels Christmas, it's going to be real bad for the bookstores.
Annie Jones [00:32:31] Yeah. Okay. So if someone listening is local to Jackson or maybe they're like me and they live in the South. We have podcast listeners who will travel for Book Festivals. They'll go to Bookmarks Festival in North Carolina, or they'll go to the Southern Festival Books in Nashville or Savannah Book Festival. So how could somebody attend this? It's one day. What do they need to know? Where can they find more information? We'll put links in the show notes too to help folks.
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:32:56] So go to our website www.ms.com, and click the tab that says "Plan Ahead." We will have all the directions about parking, hotels, everything that you need to know, handicap accessibility. But then also click on the date at the top of our web page and you can see all the official panelists that we have announced already So you can get a flavor of what it is that you're going to be seeing. Some of our emails on our website. Our Instagram is very active. We are constantly posting things. We've got a lot of great authors. We've got, as I said, Jason Reynolds. And then we have Lois Lowry, who was my childhood.
Annie Jones [00:33:41] Yes. That is our childhood.
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:33:45] Yes, I mean, it is. I received I got an email from her the other day and I was like, Lois Lowery emailed me.
Annie Jones [00:33:53] Who would have thought? If your ten year old self could see you.
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:34:00] If she could see me now. We have Richard Ford, who is a Pulitzer prize winner, and he is a Jacksonian and he loves the Book Festival. I've said it again and again Kiese Laymon, he is a great friend of this festival. He's in every single year. And he's going to be in conversation with National Book Award winner James McBride, who has a book coming out on August 8th, The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store. And it is incredible. Have you read it?
Annie Jones [00:34:25] Yeah, it's literally over here. You can't see it. It's over here on top of my TBR stack. And y'all are in for a treat because James McBride came to word of South, I don't know, five years ago, and he's one of the best authors. He performed at that time with a gospel band as well. And it was just one of the most remarkable special things I've ever seen. So that is going to be a festival highlight, I'm sure.
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:34:48] I'm just beside myself about it. And when we got that, [inaudible] I have been emailing his publicist for a couple of months, and then I went to the Eudora Welty lecture in D.C. and there was Ann Patchett, and I started talking to her, and she just received her medal. I can't remember what it was for, but it was a big deal. And she was like, "Well, I just sat in my hotel room all day and read an entire book." I said, "Well, what did you read?" She was like, "James McBride's new The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store." I was like, "Oh my gosh, I want him for the festival so badly." She's like, "Oh, well, I'll send him an email." I was like, okay.
Annie Jones [00:35:30] God bless Ann Patchett, the patreon saint of bookstores.
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:35:33] So I am here to tell you something. And let me tell you, a subject line in an email inbox that says from Ann Patchett, that'll get it done. You got to collect that one.
Annie Jones [00:35:48] Yeah.
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:35:48] So that was just one of those really amazing things that happened. We have Richard Russo come in this year. Simon Winchester, I will confess that I have never read a single Simon Winchester book because it just seems-- I mean, his new book is about the passage of knowledge throughout time, how humans have passed on knowledge.
Annie Jones [00:36:11] Just a light reading.
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:36:13] But I didn't even think about embarking on that task. I'll never know, but I met him at Lemuria when he was there for an event. He's the most delightful and hysterical brit. He's just amazing. And he's going to be in conversation with the deputy director of the National Gallery of Art, Eric Motley, who is also an author who has an incredible story.
Annie Jones [00:36:37] Oh, that's great. That's going to be such a good conversation.
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:36:41] Such a great conversation. C-SPAN book TV comes every year. We love them. We have a lot of fiction panels. We also have a lot of nonfiction panels. I mean, there's truly something for everyone [crosstalk]. And if you don't really like books, they're really incredible conversations.
Annie Jones [00:37:02] Well, that's what I was going to say. I think no matter where you are as a reader, or even if you're a reluctant reader or are not an avid reader, I love books and authors in conversation. I think that's one thing the Tallahassee Festival does really well is it's a musical literature event, so they will pair an author with a musician. And I think the same is true. I mean, that's what we're doing in the bookstore all the time, is we're pairing books together that we think would make good to read together or imagining what those authors could say to one another. And so, I think that's what's so neat about a Book Festival, is that it's not just about the act of reading the book itself. It's about getting to hear from the author's mouth, maybe questions that they hadn't even been asked because maybe they haven't gotten to have a conversation like this. I love the idea of panel conversations and authors talking with one another.
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:37:57] Yeah, I do too. Even if it's a fiction book, there's usually a lot of research that goes into writing a fiction book. I love hearing about that. I love some short talk about writing because I have such a great respect for it. I can't imagine anything harder than writing a book. I can barely cobble a sentence together. I'm a reader. It is what I love to do. And so, I just think it's incredible what people can do in writing a book.
Annie Jones [00:38:23] Well, I love the mission. I love the heart of the festival. Now I'm like, "What am I doing on August 19th? Can I can I make it over to Jackson?"
Annie Jones [00:38:33] And I love that we're getting to talk about something like this here, because it's something certainly that as a bookstore owner, I've maybe got dreams about. And then also, just as a reader, I love a festival. I love getting together with people, gathering through one common thing that we all love. And I don't think we get to do that often enough. So I'm thrilled to get to talk to you. I do have lightning round questions that I like to ask of my guests at the end of every podcast episode, so I thought we would do those now.
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:39:00] Perfect.
Annie Jones [00:39:01] Okay, so what is a classic book you've never read, but you wish you had.
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:39:06] Anna Karenina.
Annie Jones [00:39:09] That is one of the most popular answers. And I finally read it over 2020. It was my Pandemic project. And I finally did it. And here is what I will say, actually worth it. Shock to no one. [Crosstalk].
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:39:22] I've never heard anything otherwise. I would love to read The Brothers Karamazov as well, but I'm just like, I don't know.
Annie Jones [00:39:33] My husband just finished The Brothers Karamazov. Now he listened to it. He commutes back and forth to Tallahassee. He works for a state legislature. And and so he listened to it and he told me, he was like, "Annie, you've got to read it." And I admit that I thought, do I need to read that? I'm not sure that I do.
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:39:49] I like an audiobook, but it cannot be anything like super literary.
Annie Jones [00:39:54] Me neither.
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:39:54] I have to actually read something literary.
Annie Jones [00:39:57] Yeah, that's how I learned I'm a visual learner.
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:40:01] My mind wanders. It's all I'm saying.
Annie Jones [00:40:05] Okay, this is a podcast. We are a podcast about books, small business, life in the South. What podcast do you enjoy listening to?
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:40:13] Well, I love this podcast. I love the Stacks podcast. I love the New York Times Book Review podcast. And I'm such a sicko. I love True Crime podcast.
Annie Jones [00:40:24] Can't help it.
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:40:25] I'm just like, terrify me please. I love a true crime podcast. I'm one of those people who go to sleep to murder docs at night.
Annie Jones [00:40:38] I just finished a book that comes out this fall and the title sounds horrifying, but the title is called Kill Show and it's a short little, I would say, literary thriller but it's told in almost oral history format. It's fiction, but it's really kind of investigating. It's a fictional crime that they're looking back on. So I thought that was really well done. But then it also has, I think, some really interesting things to say about true crime culture and our obsession. I mean, I grew up watching Dateline every Friday night so...
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:41:14] I mean, it's just what you do.
Annie Jones [00:41:16] Sort of feel like for a lot of us, it was just what we did.
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:41:18] Who wrote that book Kill Show?
Annie Jones [00:41:20] Daniel Swearen-Becker. I literally have it right here. I just finished it. Part of the reason I picked it up was I thought, well, I can finish that very quickly.
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:41:29] A love a little jewel of a book that end up being just like a stick of dynamite.
Annie Jones [00:41:36] Yeah, it was. Okay. This is always an interesting question to me. What is your favorite part about life in the South?
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:41:43] Well, I think the obvious thing is the food. But it's the people. People are so kind here. And that's one of the things that I love about having a more national draw with authors, because many of them have never been to Mississippi and they come with preconceived notions. So we show them something different. And if I have gotten one email from an author from out of state that had never been before that said, "Wow, Mississippi was not what I expected, I hope that you'll invite me back for my next book," I have gotten a hundred like that. And I get a lot of personal satisfaction from that.
Annie Jones [00:42:22] I would too.
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:42:23] And again to the people, everybody will circle the wagons.
Annie Jones [00:42:30] They'll take care of each other.
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:42:33] We do. And then my mother and my godmother and my aunt man all the hospitality lounge, because that's just the kind of things that we do.
Annie Jones [00:42:42] Yes. I love that so much.
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:42:44] Yeah. The volunteer effort at the Book Festival is astonishing. I can't go anywhere, everybody says, "What do you need me to do? Where do you need me to volunteer?" And it's just really incredibly heartening.
Annie Jones [00:43:00] I think you can find that other places, but I do think that is something unique to the South because so many of us move back home and so many of us have extended families. And so, it brings everybody kind of closer together and they believe in what we're doing.
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:43:16] Yeah.
Annie Jones [00:43:17] Okay. The question always on my mind, what are you reading right now?
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:43:21] I'm reading Tom Lake by Ann Patchett.
Annie Jones [00:43:24] That's what I'm reading right now.
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:43:27] Do you love it?
Annie Jones [00:43:30] I love it. I wasn't sure. You always get little nervous-- I don't know. Maybe you don't. I get a little nervous when somebody I really like is coming out with a new thing. And I think, what if this is the one that I hate? I was hooked immediately. I love it.
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:43:42] Immediately invested. And, again, about that research thing, I'm like, "How in the world was this what she landed on? They're on a cherry and apple farm in Michigan? And like what kind of research did it take for her to learn about sweets and tarts in regards to cherries? I'm like, this is just beautiful. Man, she can write a book.
Annie Jones [00:44:10] Man, she really can. I have been blown away so far, I'm about halfway through. And that's what I'm going to go do after we finish this. I'm going to go read.
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:44:17] I wish that's what I was going to do. But I'm about halfway through too. There is one novel that she wrote that I didn't really super love, but I still read the whole thing. It wasn't like I couldn't read the book. This one was so good. I mean, The Duth House, Commonwealth, the last three have just been really [crosstalk].
Annie Jones [00:44:39] That's exactly how I felt. Yeah.
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:44:42] And I came to her through nonfiction.
Annie Jones [00:44:45] That's so funny. I came to her through her essay collection. And she came to Word of South, maybe my first festival. So I don't know how long ago that was-- eight or nine years ago. And actually, nonfiction was really what I knew her from and what I preferred. I really preferred her essays until Commonwealth and then Dutch House. And maeve from Dutch House will be forever like imprinted upon me. But then I started this one and thought, well, dang it. She's done it again.
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:45:17] My grandmother gave me Truth and Beauty when I was 17 years old, which is about her best friend, Lucy Greeley, who passed away. And it just blew me away. And then I started reading all of her fiction, and man she's good. I will eat up anything that she writes. And then I got to meet her. And she's coming this year. Oh, my gosh! Speaking of Ann being like the biggest--
Annie Jones [00:45:42] That's a big deal.
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:45:44] She's coming this year. Well, so her bookseller at Parnassus has her debut, Do Tell. And so, we invited Lindsay Lynch to come. And then I get an email from Ann's publicist, Maya Barron, who is at Harper, who is an actual angel. And she was like, "Hey, would you have any interest of Ann participating with Lindsay?" I was like, "Yeah, that'd be great." Ann is touring all over with Lindsay because of course Ann's going to draw a crowd. And so other people are then going to learn about this new debut author who's incredible. She's helping her and it's just a really beautiful thing. And I get kind of misty talking about it.
Annie Jones [00:46:34] Yeah, this has been so delightful. I have loved getting to talk to you. I think I'm going to hang up and be like, what am I doing August 19th? Can I make it to Mississippi? It just sounds so fun. And I love talking to a fellow Southerner. We all have days, I think-- well, I'm assuming everybody does. Where we wonder, is this where we live? Is this where I've hitched my wagon? And then I have conversations where I'm like, yeah, this is where I live. And the South is a pretty remarkable place. So it was wonderful to get to talk with you about it today.
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:47:07] And we all can't leave. We got to stay here and do the hard work? Yeah, exactly.
Annie Jones [00:47:13] That's right. We got to make it better. Well, thank you so much, Ellen.
Ellen Rodgers Daniels [00:47:16] Thank you, Annie. This was great. And see you on August 19th, I hope.
Annie Jones [00:47:20] I hope so too.
[00:47:21] Music Interlude.
[00:47:25] For more information about the Mississippi Book Festival, go to msbookfestival.com. You can also go to the link in our shownotes. I am seriously going to be looking into if I should make the trip to Jackson, Mississippi, on August 19th, because their author list is amazing. Ramona Ausubel. Erica Baumeister, Ann Patchett. I'm just looking at the list right now. Nicole Chung. Jack Davis. Oh, it's so exciting. [Inaudible] one of my favorites, Patrick DeWitt. Beth Ann Fennelly, Helen Ellis. Oh my gosh. It just looks so fun. So if you want to make the trip, go to msbookfestival.com. And don't forget, they do live streaming of their landmark events being held in the sanctuary of that local church. So there is opportunity for even those of us who can't make it. We can still support the Mississippi Book Festival and the work that they are doing and get to see all of these great conversations with authors. Special thanks to Ellen for coming on the show today and we will see you all on Thursday.
Annie Jones: From the Front Porch is a weekly podcast production of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in Thomasville, Georgia. You can follow The Bookshelf’s daily happenings on Instagram at @bookshelftville, and all the books from today’s episode can be purchased online through our store website: bookshelfthomasville.com A full transcript of today’s episode can be found at:
Special thanks to Studio D Podcast Production for production of From the Front Porch and for our theme music, which sets the perfect warm and friendly tone for our Thursday conversations.
Our Executive Producers of today’s episode are…
Cammy Tidwell, Chantalle Carl, Kate O'Connell, Kristin May, Linda Lee Drozt, Martha, Stacy Laue, Chanta Combs, Stephanie Dean, Ashley Ferrell Executive Producers (Read Their Own Names): Nicole Marsee, Wendi Jenkins, Laurie Johnson, Susan Hulings. Annie Jones: If you’d like to support From the Front Porch, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Your input helps us make the show even better and reach new listeners. All you have to do is open up the Podcast App on your phone, look for From the Front Porch, scroll down until you see ‘Write a Review’ and tell us what you think. Or, if you’re so inclined, support us over on Patreon, where we have 3 levels of support - Front Porch Friends, Book Club Companions, and Bookshelf Benefactors. Each level has an amazing number of benefits like bonus content, access to live events, discounts, and giveaways. Just go to: patreon.com/fromthefrontporch We’re so grateful for you, and we look forward to meeting back here next week.