CultureMap Exclusive
Get read-y: 2011 Texas Book Festival to include east side Lit Crawl
How do you make the Texas Book Festival even cooler?
How about holding lit-themed evening events along a bevy of east side hangouts like Liberty, East Side Drive-In and Gypsy Lounge?
Yeah, that might do it.
Inspired by the awesome success of San Francisco's Litquake Festival, the good folks at the Texas Book Festival revealed to CultureMap Tuesday that they are currently planning the first ever Texas Book Festival Lit Crawl.
CultureMap got the exclusive first look at the special engagement which will include twenty big-name writers...
This event will be presented in partnership with American Short Fiction, the national literary journal that's edited right here in Austin. Together, these literary powerhouses and consummate party planners are putting together a night that you won't want to miss.
(Here's where you 'ooh' and 'ahh' in appreciation.)
This extravagant east side event will burst to life during one of the nights of the Festival (Oct 22 or 23) and span the stretch of 5th and 6th Streets east of I-35.
"The neighborhood feel is very important to us for this event," says TBF Executive Director Heidi Marquez Smith. "We want it to be fun for the authors and attendees, to really reflect Austin's spirit at nighttime."
CultureMap got the exclusive first look at the special engagement which will include twenty big-name writers of all genres (and age groups) that will be reading, signing autographs and enjoying Texas hospitality at many of our favorite east Austin spots.
TBF Literary Director Clay Smith is in charge of programming for this ambitious event. "Some authors will be coming to Austin specifically for the Lit Crawl," he points out. "Twenty authors as compared to the 224 present at the entire festival. This is going to be a big deal."
We can't provide all the names of the authors to y'all quite yet, but we'll be the first ones to let you know when the big (GIANT!) lineup gets finalized.
In the meanwhile, you can help us figure out the best ways to make an east side Lit Crawl the most kick-ass beer n' book event to ever happen in Austin!
What would you like to see included to really give these visiting authors a good dose of our weird little city?