On Friday and Saturday, April 26 & 27, the Russellville High School Book Club flooded inside the WKU Knicely Conference Center for the 21st annual Southern Kentucky Book Fest.
Some 3,000 readers hovered between aisles of books piled on tables ranging from cooking, childhood fairytales, historic archives, teen drama, and illustrated works. The entire building was reserved for people of all ages to attend writing workshops and author panels throughout the days.
The director of SOKY book festival organizes the convention every year for authors and readers to have a way to interact with each other. In addition, young writers see the event as an opportunity to seek advice from authors who know their way around the publishing industry.
The lineup included local writers and a special signing with author Angie Thomas, whose novel debuted on New York Times best-seller list. Her novel took the country by storm when it was adapted into a movie released last year.
Ms. Thomas’ The Hate U Give tells the story of a black teenager who becomes an activist after watching the police murder her friend. The Book Club watched the adaptation in March after finishing its literary counterpart (their appointed book of the month).
Thanks to an Innovative Approach to Literacy grant, free signed copies of her book were handed out to all the students in the Book Club! Each student from RHS returned to school with autographed copies of this favored book. It was an honor for the students to be able to meet the author and have conversations about an issue that is very prevalent today.
Book Club sponsors are RHS teachers Lauren Fynboe and Jesse Nugent.