More than 25 authors will be featured at The Book Worm Book Fest 2024 in downtown Powder Springs on Monday, April 8 through Festival Saturday on April 13. Organized by The Book Worm Bookstore in partnership with the City of Powder Springs and Cobb County Public Library, the festival is designed to be an exciting week of literary delights, bringing together readers of all ages.

There are many weekday events leading up to Festival Saturday including a ticketed mystery event on the evening of Friday, April 12, “The Case of The Missing Script” with author Vanessa Riley to be held at The Green Magnolia. Tickets include a mystery box of items used to help solve the mystery and relate to Riley’s book Murder in Drury Lane. Suspects in the mystery will include some of the authors being featured on Festival Saturday.

The festival’s signature sponsors are Katie Harris State Farm Insurance and One Parker Style. Restauranteur and author Pinky Cole, founder and owner of Slutty Vegan, a plant-based burger restaurant chain based in Atlanta, and Wanda M. Morris, author of All Her Little Secrets and Anywhere You Run, are serving as a “Friend of the Book Fest.”

As part of the 2024 Book Worm Book Fest, The Book Worm Bookstore and event sponsor Lucky Jefferson, a non-profit creative arts publisher, are producing Reverie: Classics Made New, a collection of reimagined scenes from classic literature with Alabama-, Georgia-, and Tennessee-based writers and schools. Selected writers and classrooms will be featured in the print and digital publication produced by Lucky Jefferson, available for sale exclusively at The Book Worm Bookstore.

The week of events will include a special Monday author event with historical fiction writer Denny S. Bryce, Book Fest Storytime with the Cobb County Library Bookmobile, Book Fest Charlie & The Chocolate Factory Celebration sponsored by Powder Springs Library, and a Poetry event sponsored by Rooted Trading Co.

Many events will happen on festival day, Saturday, April 13, from 10 am to 7 pm in downtown Powder Springs. All events will be free to the public, including activities for every age group and reader. Festival goers will encounter interactive author panels on a variety of genres, book signings, kids’ activities, exhibitors, and food trucks. Unique to The Book Worm Book Fest will be a Mayor’s Reading Club Panel which will include Powder Springs Mayor Al Thurman and Austell Mayor Ollie Clemons. The panel will discuss the reading program launched by Georgia City Solutions, a non-profit of the Georgia Municipal Association. Also unique to The Book Worm Book Fest will be a panel of independent bookstore owners discussing the importance of community bookstores. The panel will consist of the owners of Brave + Kind Bookshop, Birdsong Books, Read it Again Bookstore, and All Things Inspiration Giftique. Julia Davis, owner of the The Book Worm Bookstore, will serve as moderator. These events and panels will take place at Thurman Springs Park in downtown Powder Springs.

Saturday festival events will kick off with a special character parade at 9:30 am sponsored by the City of Powder Springs and will conclude with the City’s One Book, One City discussion with Dr. Ian K. Smith, author of The Overnights: An Ashe Cayne Novel, a mystery. Dr. Smith, a physician, is the former host of Emmy Award-winning syndicated talk show, The Doctors, and the former medical correspondent for NBC News and NewsChannel 4 in New York. He has appeared on The View, NBC Nightly News, MSNBC, The Today Show, CNN, and Fox & Friends and he has been featured in People, Cosmopolitan, Black Enterprise and more.

One Book One City began in 2021 and is a citywide literary event that encourages members of the Powder Springs community to read the same book at the same time. This is a joint venture between The Book Worm Bookstore, the City of Powder Springs, and the Powder Springs Public Library. “Through reading and discussing one book, we hope to help bring the community closer together and to make reading a lifelong pursuit,” said Julia Davis, owner of The Book Worm Bookstore.

For information on the festival, including tickets to the “The Case of The Missing Script” event, visit www.thebookwormbookfest.com.