FiledBy is proud to be a sponsor of the 2009 Southern Festival of Books . The 3-day literary celebration takes place in Nashville and is free and open to the public. This year’s event takes place this weekend, October 9 – 11, and will include more than 200 authors for readings, panel discussions, and book signings. A variety of genres is represented, including fiction, history, mystery, food, biography, travel, children’s literature, and poetry.

There will be book-related exhibitors (including FiledBy) and performance stages throughout the event. Those stages include a cooking stage with chefs preparing dishes from the latest cookbooks, the Café Stage with local musicians and poets, and the Youth Stage with appearances from favorite characters in honor of the anniversaries of major children’s books. A full list of confirmed children’s authors and a tentative schedule of events for the Youth Stage is on the Festival’s website.

Some of this weekend’s special events include:

Saturday, Oct. 10:   Alice Randall will read from her latest novel, Rebel Yell, described on the Nashville

Scene website as “the tale of a prince of the civil rights movement who grows up to become that rare and

mysterious creature, a black conservative.” Randall has a variety of unique achievements under her belt, including being the first black woman in history to write a #1 country song. Her parody of Gone With the Wind, entitled The Wind Done Gone, garnered her a lot of attention (and a lawsuit from the estate of Margaret Mitchell). Check out Randall’s FiledBy page to read about more of her accomplishments.

Saturday, Oct. 10:  Authors in the Round – Forty authors will donate their time as table guests to raise

money for the Southern Festival of Books. Rick

Bragg, Roy Blount, Jr., John Carter Cash, Dave Cullen, Bruce Feiler, Robert Hicks, Jill McCorkle, and Kathryn Stockett are among the authors you can dine with for the $200 ticket price. Call (615) 770-0600 for tickets and more information.

Sunday, Oct. 11:  The Women’s National Book Association will hold a “Breakfast With the Authors” at the Nashville Public Library, including authors Marie Brenner, Inman Majors and Holly Goddard Jones.

Other authors participating in the event include A. Manette Ansay, Madison Smartt Bell, Buzz Aldrin, Kathy Mattea, Barry Mazor, Karen McElmurray, Lynn Pruett, Diann Blakely, Clay Risen, Michael Sims, Kate DiCamillo, Sara Zarr, and Jim Squires. A full list of confirmed authors is available at the Festival’s website.

The inaugural Southern Festival of Books was held in 1989 and was one of the first book events of its kind. Numerous other celebrations across the country have modeled themselves after this 21-year-old festival. It is funded through Humanities Tennessee, which also funds such programs as the Tennessee Young Writers’ Workshop, Digital Humanities Tennessee, and the Tennessee Community History Program.

The Southern Festival of Books website has been adding podcasts from the 2008 festival throughout the past few months. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast feed! You can also follow the festival on Twitter (@SoFestofBooks) and there is a Facebook fan page as well.