Tallahassee’s beautiful Cascades Park will host the tenth
Word of South Music and Literary Festival April 4-6, 2025.
This FREE event will feature music, authors, food and fun all weekend.
The only paid event is the Violent Femmes and Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra on Friday, April 4. You can buy tickets here. Everything else is free.
A few of the authors appearing are Kristen Arnett, Chris Bohjalian, David Campbell, James Kimbrell, David Kirby, Mark Mustian, Diane Roberts, Jeff VanderMeer, and M.O. Walsh.
Here’s a list of all the artists appearing.
The Tallahassee Big Read
M.O. Walsh
M.O. Walsh’s novel The Big Door Prize was chosen as The Tally Big Read for 2025 and is being made into an Apple TV series. Walsh will speak on Saturday at 2:15 in the Marriott Ballroom.
What would you do if you knew your life’s potential? That’s the question facing the residents of Deerfield, Louisiana, when the DNAMIX machine appears in their local grocery store. With just a quick swab of your cheek and two dollars, the device claims to use the science of DNA to tell you your life’s potential. Soon former teachers, nurses, and shopkeepers of Deerfield are abruptly changing course to pursue unlikely destinies as magicians, cowboys, and queens. Add in a teenage boy whose twin brother died and a girl tormented by a gang rape, and you have an intriguing story with a lot of plot threads. It will leave readers considering the value of their everyday routines and the importance of community connections.
Fiction Panel of Florida Book Award Winners
On Saturday, April 5, at 12:30 p.m. at the Midtown Reader Stage in the AC Hotel, I will moderate a fiction panel with Florida Book Award winners Aracelis Asendorf, Amina Gautier, and Ajibola Tolase.
Aracelis Gonzalez Asendorf
Florida Book Awards Gold Medal, Fiction
Aracelis Asendorf
Here’s my review of Aracelis Asendorf’s winning short story collection, Dressing the Saints.
Amina Gautier.Photo credit: Dayo Nicole Mitchell
Florida Book Awards Silver Medal, Fiction
Amina Gautier
Here is my review of Amina Gautier’s winning short story collection, The Best That You Can Do.
Ajibola Tolase
Florida Book Awards Gold Medal, Poetry
Ajibola Tolase
Here is my review of Ajibola Tolase’s winning poetry collection, 2000Blacks
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Mark T. Mustian
Founder of Word of South
Mark Mustian
And here is my review of the just-released novel by the founder of Word of South, Mark Mustian. The book is titled Boy With Wings.
Mustian will talk about his book at 1 p.m. on Saturday in the AC Marriott Ballroom.
Don’t miss the Word of South Music and Literary Festival!
–Donna Meredith
Editor, Southern Literary Review
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