The Savannah Book Festival (SBF) will celebrate its 16th year as one of the finest invitation-only literary festivals in the country this Presidents’ Day weekend, February 16-19. The Festival’s main event, Festival Saturday, will take place on Saturday, February 18th, and includes a brilliant and diverse lineup of authors. Prior to their appearances at Festival Saturday, several visiting authors will participate in SBF@Schools.

Since its inception in 2010, SBF@Schools has brought best-selling authors into local public and private middle/high schools. The program includes university classrooms to give Savannah’s students a chance to interact with nationally recognized and award-winning authors. The SBF@Schools program brings both fiction and non-fiction authors to schools to discuss creative writing, history, science, and current events. Authors share their early educational experiences, influences, and successes in their writing lives.

This year, for the first time, two visiting authors will be speaking at First City Pride Center. David Ambroz, will discuss his memoir, “A Place Called Home”, and C.J. Hauser will share their book of essays, “The Crane Wife”.

David Ambroz is a national poverty and child welfare expert and advocate who was recognized by President Obama as an American Champion of Change. C.J. Hauser teaches creative writing at Colgate University. “The Crane Wife” was first published in The Paris Review and reached more than a million readers around the world. David and C.J. and will speak at the Pride Center on Friday, February 17 at 10:00 am.

SBF presents best-selling and emerging authors at a four-day weekend event featuring dozens of authors. Festival Saturday, February 18th, which is free and open to the public from 9 am to 5:30 pm, showcases over 40 authors in locations in and around downtown Savannah.

The Savannah Book Festival is an independent, non-profit corporation committed to encouraging literacy and the love of books. For more information, please contact Executive Director Tara Setter at (912)-598-4040, email [email protected] or visit www.savannahbookfestival.org.