The Annapolis Book Festival has become an annual rite of spring for our area’s reader-writer community. The 12th edition will be held on Saturday, April 5, 10:00 am to 4:30 pm, on the campus of The Key School, located in Hillsmere Shores at 534 Hillsmere Drive. Attendees will have no trouble finding panel discussions which will interest them–from politics to fishing, romance, thrillers, civil rights, science, gun control, sports, science fiction, young adult literature, and even a special program on the Beatles phenomenon. I’m delighted by the fact that I’ll be participating on a panel titled,

The Writers’ Center: The Immigrant Experience (10:30 am-noon in the Science & Library Center Rooms 101/102

Four of us–immigrants from Hungary, India, China, and the Czech Republic–will be exploring what it means to be an ex-patriot writing in his/her adopted land and how the immigrant experience influences our writing. I’d be honored and delighted to see my friends, colleagues, and readers in the audience.

In years past, as an attendee, I’ve enjoyed hearing, and often meeting, at the Festival such notables as James Fallows, Marlin Fitzwater, Kathie Lee Gifford, Christopher Hitchens, Bob Schieffer, and Evan Thomas. Among the many participating authors this year will be: Alice McDermott, Valerie Ormond, Juan Williams, Iris Krasnow, Daniel Klaidman, Evan Thomas, and former Maryland governor Robert Ehrlich. In addition to discussions on nearly every imaginable subject of books, as well as author book-signings, the Festival each year features a huge used-book sale.

There’s something for everyone who loves books. Y’all come! For more information, check out The Key School.