Books by the Banks

Books by the Banks, Cincinnati's own "book festival," is in its third year and I haven't missed one yet. The festival has grown at an impressive rate and I was proud to walk Dan through the event for his first time.

If you haven't been, there are three core goings-on at Books by the Banks:

1.) The panels. The convention does a great job of partnering with CET to put together author panels about anything and everything. In the past I've learned about local baseball history, how to create a graphic novel, different kinds of cookbooks, etc. You can see this year's full list of panel options right here.

2.) The "Author Pavilion." When not participating in panel discussions, the author sit in a large convention room to talk about their books, sign autographs, etc (and the books are all on sale in the same room, thanks to Joseph-Beth Booksellers). Everyone I've talked to has been friendly and conversational. Today, Dan and I chatted it up with Melissa Kramer, who wrote The Inclines of Cincinnati. We also stopped by to see illustrators C.F. Payne and Ryan Ostrander to have our posters signed.

3.) The kids' area. Target has teamed up with Books by the Banks to put together a craft area where kids can create things while their parents are at panels. In the past I've seen storytellers and musicians in this area, so know that this is a kid-friendly event.

For next year I would give you the following tip: visit the site beforehand. Know which author panels you want to see, and learn who is going to be there so you don't wander around aimlessly. (A bit of that is nice, of course... but when you want to walk up and talk to someone, it can be a little daunting.)

As I mentioned, this event has undergone huge amounts of growth. I could tell that there were more authors in the pavilion, more people milling around the convention center, a more organized way of driving people to the panels, and many more conversations happening than even last year.

The event is completely free and a great opportunity to speak one-on-one with local authors-- another powerful display of Cincinnati's artistic community. I can imagine this becoming an event that people from other cities are willing to travel to, as we attract more well-known authors and the event continues to expand.

Books by the Banks website: http://booksbythebanks.org/