About BookFest
How it started
Bristol BookFest was founded in 2019 by Joanna Ziegler and Charles Calhoun, who thought that the town might welcome a lively new event in the quiet months– late winter, early spring – and who hoped to bring together local readers who would enjoy sharing a “big” book. It’s intended as more than a community book group – it’s an unusual opportunity for readers in a small town to connect with college-level teacher-scholars who are experts in a relevant field. The idea quickly caught on, and BookFest is now a permanent part of the calendar for a growing number of Bristolians and our East Bay neighbors.
The first program had to be postponed because of COVID but finally took place in September 2021 online. It was well received, and subsequent programs have been in person, attracting ever larger audiences.
The Books
The first book was Robert Penn Warren’s All the King’s Men (1946), widely recognized as the best American novel about politics – a cautionary tale about the clash of ideals and raw ambition.
The book in spring 2022 was Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1816), the founding text of science fiction and another cautionary tale – about the dangers of getting what you asked for without having thought of the repercussions.
The spring 2023 book was Emily Wilson’s enthusiastically welcomed, highly readable new translation of Homer’s 3,000-year-old epic, The Odyssey. Can you go home again, it asked. What will you find there?
In 2024, we turn to another tale of the sea, perhaps the greatest American novel, Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick (1851).