Join nationally known authors Jennifer Weiner, Garth Stein, and Jeannette Walls along with local favorites Greg Rhodes, Ellen Schreiber, and Thayne Maynard to celebrate the joy and reading of books at Books by the Banks: Cincinnati USA Book Festival, Saturday, October 17, 10am-4pm, Duke Energy Convention Center.

The day-long festival will feature over 80 regional and national authors, book signings, author panels, and activities for the entire family to enjoy. All events are free and open to the public.

Poster art by Ryan Ostrander

At the festival, attendees will have the opportunity to meet authors and to purchase signed copies of their books. Books by the Banks features writers in various categories including fiction, non-fiction, cooking, children’s literature, sports, and more.

University of Cincinnati authors representing the McMicken College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning (DAAP), and the College of Medicine will be among the 80+ authors at the festival. The UC authors are:

• James Braziel, adjunct assistant professor of English & Comparative Literature for the McMicken College of Arts and Sciences (A&S). Braziel was also featured at the festival last year. This year for the fiction category, he’ll feature Snakeskin Road, described as a woman’s harrowing journey of survival along a passageway of terror and hope.
• Joseph Clark, professor of neurology in the College of Medicine. Clark’s book, My Ambulance Education: Life and Death on the Streets of the City, describes his experience working as an ambulance attendant on the most dangerous streets of New York beginning at the age of 18, a job to pay his way through college.
• Melissa Kramer, UC journalism student, A&S Kramer’s first book, The Inclines of Cincinnati, was released last March. The book, part of Arcadia’s “Images of Rail” series, examines a time when Cincinnati’s streetcars carried locals and tourists to the peaks of Mount Adams, Mount Auburn, Clifton and Price Hill, and explores reasons for the disappearance of the city’s number one tourist attraction, the Mt. Adams incline.
• Carol Tyler, UC adjunct instructor of fine arts in the College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning (DAAP). Tyler is an internationally acclaimed award-winning artist and writer who lives in Avondale. Her graphic novel, You’ll Never Know. Book 1: A Good and Decent Man, is the first of a three-part series that uses comics and graphics to help veterans and their families deal with the effects of war.
• James Wilson, professor of English & Comparative Literature, A&S. Wilson’s memoir, Weather Reports from the Autism Front: A Father’s Memoir of His Autistic Son, is an honest portrayal of life with an autistic child and the challenges and joins that brings.

Books by the Banks is organized by UC Libraries, Cincinnati Magazine, The Mercantile Library, the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, and Joseph-Beth Booksellers.

The Books by the Banks Web site has information on the authors scheduled to appear at the event, a schedule of panel sessions, activities scheduled in the Target Kids Corner, as well as directions and parking information for Duke Energy Convention Center.