New Literary Festival in Harlem

A story I wrote that appeared in today's PW Daily:

Atria's Adero to Launch New Book Festival
by Felicia Pride

In an effort to promote and celebrate literature and art by people of color, Malaika Adero, a senior editor at Atria Books, has founded Up South, Inc., a nonprofit organization that will produce an annual book and peforming arts festival in Harlem beginning this fall.

A combination of staged dialogues and readings, the Up South International Book Festival will be held September 29-October 1. The festival will integrate African, Latino and Asian-American arts, presenting writers alongside dancers, musicians, and actors to illustrate the narrative links of storytelling. Authors confirmed to appear include Ruby Dee, Reyna Grande, Guillermo Arriaga, Maryse Condé, Greg Tate, Edward P. Jones and Marie-Elena John. "We are promoting a high standard of literature and look to feature the future Richard Wrights, Toni Morrisons and Gabriel García Márquezs as well as veteran authors that are underexposed," said Adero.
Festival events will take place in The Gatehouse, a new Aaron Davis Hall event space being built in Harlem that seats approximately180 people. The festival will target an audience of serious book buyers, and generating sales is an underlying goal of the event; the Hue-Man Bookstore will be the festival’s exclusive book vendor.

Atria is supporting the festival and according to Adero, other publishers have expressed interest in participating. The Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing at Arizona State University has signed on as a sponsor and Adero said Up South Inc. is continuing to raise funds and solidify sponsorships. A marketing campaign will be rolled out soon.

"We are starting small but hope to expand the festival to five days and hold events in larger venues by 2008," said Adero. Between festivals, Up South will focus on smaller literary events throughout the year and look to partner with publishers to promote individual authors and projects.