This Saturday, November 3, is the annual Louisiana Book Festival at the State Capitol and surrounding areas. Several of this year's authors researched their works here at Hill Memorial Library. Among them are the following: Irene S. Di Maio, professor of German at Louisiana State University. She will be speaking on her book Gerstäcker's Louisiana: Fiction and Travel Sketches from Antebellum Times through Reconstruction from 10:00 to 10:45 AM in the John J. Hainkel, Jr. Room with a book signing to follow. Gary D. Joiner, assistant professor of history at Louisiana State University in Shreveport and the director of the Red River Regional Studies Center at LSUS. He will be speaking on his book Little to Eat and Thin Mud to Drink: Letters, Diaries, and Memoirs from the Red River Campaigns, 1863–1864 from 2:15 to 3:00 PM in Senate Committee Room F with a book signing to follow. Mary Ann Sternberg, Baton Rouge resident and nonfiction writer. She will be speaking on her book Winding Through Time: The Forgotten History and Present-Day Peril of Bayou Manchac from noon to 12:45 PM in House Committee Room 6 with a book signing to follow. Ms. Sternberg will also participate in the panel discussion Forgotten bu not Forsaken from 3:00 to 4:00 PM in Senate Committee Room A. Carolyn E. Ware, assistant professor of folklore and English at Louisiana State University. She will be speaking on her book Cajun Women and Mardi Gras: Reading the Rules Backward from 3:00 to 3:45 PM in the John J. Hainkel Jr. Room with a book signing to follow. In between meeting with the authors make sure you stop and visit LSU Libraries in Booth #1! Special Collections will be giving away bookmarks and postcards and there will be a raffle with such prizes as a stuffed tiger, an LSU Press book and a framed Andrew D. Lytle Photo (pictured below).

 The Louisiana Book Festival runs from 10 AM to 5PM on November 3, 2007 at the State Capitol and surrounding areas in Baton Rouge, LA. We look forward to seeing you there. Our thanks go out to the authors listed above for their permission to feature them on our blog.