As promised, Scranton’s Pages & Places Book Festival has become an annual event. 2010 is Pages & Places’ second year, scheduled this fall on Saturday, October 2nd beginning at 9:00am and wrapping up at 6:30pm. And true to its tagline “A Celebration of Books and the City,” the festival’s panels and activities will be held in variety of downtown venues, including the Afa and MAC galleries, the Banshee, Farley’s, the Vintage and Electric theaters, the Scranton Cultural Center as well as Courthouse Square—the hub of the event and location of the revamped Book Expo.
This year’s festival revolves around five panels that explore some of the most timely and time honored questions, including the fourth panel of the day titled “Authors of Argument: The People, Books, and Debates that Shape American Civic Life.” In collaboration with The University of Scranton’s Schemel Forum, this discussion will also double as the culminating event of the Forum’s third annual “University for a Day” program.
No conversation about the civic import of debate and argumentation would be complete without Christopher Hitchens, who recently confirmed his participation on this panel. Hitchens is one of the best-known controversial writers and critics in the media. He has served as a columnist for Vanity Fair, The Nation and Slate. He has authored, co-authored and edited over twenty books including Thomas Jefferson: Author of America, Thomas Paine’s “The Rights of Man”: A Biography, Unacknowledged Legislation: Writers in the Public Sphere, and his highly anticipated memoir, Hitch-22, will be released in June of this year.
Hitchens will join biographer, poet, novelist, and scholar Jay Parini, a Scranton native and author or editor of more than 40 books. His novel The Last Station was recently made into a critically acclaimed film and his 2008 book, Promised Land: Thirteen Books that Changed America, will serve as a springboard for the panel discussion.
Scranton’s resident public intellectual, attorney Morey Myers, will moderate the discussion.
Tickets are on sale now. For tickets and more information, please visit www.pagesandplaces.org or call (570) 290-7267.