Saturday, June 27, 2015

Looking Forward to the Deep Valley Book Festival, June 28

Tomorrow, I will be at the Deep Valley Book Festival in Mankato, Minnesota. I look forward to visiting Mankato again, having been there a number of times. I participated in the Deep Valley Book Festival several times  a number of years ago.

I also gave talks there, including one to a gathering of immigrants and refugees, and, more recently, to audiences at South Central College. On all these occasions, I met people who have continued to be part of my network of friends and acquaintances.

The book festivals, of course, are a great opportunity to meet authors, publishers, editors, educators, and readers and learn from them. It is a great opportunity to share my ideas, talk about my work as an educator and cultural consultant, and to showcase my writings.

In these festivals, I discover the great wealth of writing that is flourishing around us, and experience the joy of buying books and having them signed by the authors. As I am writing this blog post, for example, I have next to me a copy of John Calvin Rezmerski's What Do I know? New & Selected Poems, which bears the author's inscription and signature:

for Joseph Mbele--
Wonderful to talk with you at Deep Valley Book Festival
John Calvin Rezmerski

I look forward to meeting people I know, such as author Becky Fjelland Davis, who will be participating in the Festival. She is an inspiring educator, who has taken Americans on study trips to South Africa, and who is one of my most faithful readers. Thank you, Becky.

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