Books and Local Authors to be Spotlighted at The Woodlands Waterway Arts Festival For the First Time — Keeping It Literary

This is the fourth in a series of stories on The Woodlands Waterway Arts Festival. Come back to PaperCity The Woodlands for new stories in the lead-up to the beloved arts event, which takes place Friday, April 14 through Sunday, April 16.

Books on the Green is bringing something new to The Woodlands Waterway Arts Festival. Something literary. Each day, the Waterway Arts Festival will feature three authors in partnership with Village Books. There also will be weekend appearances from local children’s books authors.

“Adding a literary component to Fidelity Investments The Woodlands Waterway Arts Festival was a natural progression for this event — which was just named Best Event in The Woodlands by residents,” Woodlands Arts Council executive director Jenny Carattini-Wright says. “The Woodlands is a community of art enthusiasts, writers and readers — and we look forward to welcoming them to the festival.”

The Woodlands Arts Council, the nonprofit organization that produces the Waterway Arts Festival, wanted to get books involved for the first time.

Friday’s festival hours will end with a panel of writers who will answer questions about the publishing process in the Books on the Green tent.

“On Friday, we will have an established writers panel to ask what it’s like to get published, what are your first steps, how to improve what you’re writing because we have a lot of local people who are interested in writing their own books,” Village Books owner Teresa Kenney tells PaperCity The Woodlands.

Nine authors will do readings over the three days of the Waterway Arts Festival. These authors have written books on everything from Texas high school football to romances and historical fiction. Friday’s authors will give 45 minute presentations, while the author talks on Saturday will run one hour.

“I wanted to have a variety of genres concentrating on fiction targeted to different audiences,” Kenney says.  “We have mystery/thriller, romance, literary fiction and poetry too.”

Former Montgomery County poet laureate Dede Fox is the Waterway Arts Festival’s first featured poet. Fox is currently working on a book of poetry about The Woodlands.

In the Books on the Green tent at the arts festival, there will also be county library system employees signing people up for library cards and offering games and projects for kids to play with. The kids book fun includes having three local children’s authors in the Artopoly area.

These authors are Susan McCauley, who “has a wonderful children’s book called Trooper at the Beverly Hills Hotel and middle reader scary/mystery stories,” according to Kenney. “Then Tracy Borgmeyer has a series of books that celebrate STEM and girls. She writes a series about a girl (Halley Harper – Science Girl Extraordinaire) who solves mysteries using science, and those experiments are in the back of the book. And then Sharon McDougle. Her book is Suit up for Launch with Shay!“

McDougle is a local author and United States Air Force veteran who suited up astronauts for space travel, including astronaut Dr. Mae Jemison.

Finally, there will be books for sale in the Books on the Green tent. Books on hand for sale will primarily be those of the featured authors, but art books and popular current books also will be available.

Village Books has a code available at its store to buy a ticket online to The Woodlands Waterway Arts Festival at a 15 percent discount.  Then, after the festival closes, you can show your proof of purchase to get 10 percent off the books of the featured authors at Village Books.

You can find Village Books at 9955 Woodlands Parkway, Suite F.