Special guest has ties to popular television show "The Walking Dead"
The city of Providence will play host to a new event on September 13, 2014, welcoming dozens of authors from around the region to the first ever Providence Literary Festival. The centerpiece of the event will be a horror author with four New York Times Best Sellers and ties to the popular television series “Walking Dead”.
Northern Illinois based Jay Bonansinga is the New York Times bestselling author of twenty books, as well as an award winning screenwriter and filmmaker. His credits include the Bram Stoker finalist “The Black Mariah” (1994), the International Thriller Writers Award finalist “Shattered” (2007), and the wildly popular “Walking Dead” novels. Jay’s work has been translated into nine languages, and he has been called “one of the most imaginative writers of thrillers” by the Chicago Tribune.
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| NY Times Best Selling author Jay Bonansinga will be in Providence on Sat. Sept 13 for The Providence LiteraryFestival. |
“When I started planning this event, what I had in mind was giving local authors a chance to publicize themselves,” said horror author and Providence native, Matthew Alan Hughes, the host and organizer of the event. “I was afraid just putting fifteen or twenty local writers in a room wouldn’t generate a lot of buzz, so I reached out to some acquaintances I’d met through the Horror Writers’ Association to find an author people might know. When Jay’s name came up I was excited, but I never expected him to say yes.”
Bonansinga has written four “Walking Dead” novels, all of which have been immediate New York Times Best Sellers. He is currently in the last stages of writing the fifth novel, which will be released in October.
“Jay suggested that while he was here, he could do a world premiere first reading of ‘The Walking Dead: Descent’,” said Hughes. “I think getting to host that event is something that Providence can be proud of. How many cities get to be the first place a future best seller is read in public?”
The festival will be held from 10:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, September 13, 2014 at the Providence VFW. It is open to the public and there is no admission charge.
That afternoon Bonansinga will relocate temporarily across the parking lot to the events room on the backside of the Providence Food Bank. While there he will hold a reading of his new book and answer questions about his work, the publishing industry and ‘The Walking Dead’ for the audience. This charge for this event will be $10, half of which will be donated back to the Food Bank.
A list of authors who will be attending the event is available on The Providence Literary Festival’s Facebook page.
The event is sponsored by the Providence Tourism Commission.