Blue Ridge Bookfest announces authors and schedule for April 24-25 event

Blue Ridge Bookfest is held at Blue Ridge Community College in Flat Rock  on Friday and Saturday, April 24 and 25. The event includes free workshops, presentations and opportunities to meet authors. This year’s featured author is war and foreign correspondent Joseph L. Galloway.

Press release from event organizers:

Authors and Exhibitors
The 2015 Blue Ridge Bookfest program is unprecedented, and will greatly exceed your expectations.

For Readers and Writers: We have over 70 books presented by more than 45 authors. Published Authors love meeting their Readers, and can’t wait to meet you and talk with you about their work. Bring your copy of their book and they will sign it for you. Don’t have their book? Malaprop’s will be back to sell Presenting and Exhibiting Authors’ books.

For Writers or Aspiring Writers: You will be able to meet Authors one-on-one, attend free workshops and presentations on Friday and Saturday to hone your craft, help you promote sales of your books, or even write your own play.

The list of Exhibiting Authors and the books they are bringing can be found on the Blue Ridge Bookfest website  Exhibitor’s Page.

2015 Featured Author – Joe Galloway
Joseph L. Galloway, one of America’s premier war and foreign correspondents for half a century, and co-author of the non-fiction book, We Were Soldiers Once….and Young, will be the featured presenter at the Seventh Annual Blue Ridge Bookfest at Blue Ridge Community College on April 24 and 25, 2015.

Mr. Galloway, a North Carolina resident, recently retired as the senior military correspondent for Knight Ridder Newspapers. Before that, he held an assignment as a special consultant to General Colin Powell at the State Department. His participation in Blue Ridge Bookfest will include a ticketed ($25) Reception and Book Signing on Friday evening beginning at 5:30pm. The Reception includes Heavy Hor’dourves for attendees holding tickets.

At 6:30pm the room will be opened to non-ticketed attendees for a Featured Author Presentation and Interview of Mr. Galloway conducted by local author Bill Ramsey.

Schedule
Beginning Friday, March 20, 2015. the 7th Annual Blue Ridge Bookfest Event Schedule calendar on the website will be active.

The Event Schedule calendar is an interactive calendar and printable schedule of Friday April 24 & Saturday April 25th’s events. The printable schedule includes the event, presenters, date, time, Blue Ridge Community College room, and can be forwarded to your calendar and set to notify you by email or text message so you won’t miss a thing (click on the down arrow next to ‘Other Event Actions” above the classroom location for the email and text notification!)

Saturday’s panel discussion “Examining the Legacy of the Vietnam War Through Literature” will be conducted during the box lunch Saturday, April 25th at 12:30pm. Tickets for the box lunch are $10 and may be purchased online on the link on the right side of any Blue Ridge Bookfest web page. Featured Author Joe Galloway will be joined on the panel by three other authors of several significant books about the Vietnam War, including Dr. James R. Robbins (This Time We Win; Revisiting the Tet Offensive), Mr. John M. Del Vecchio (The 13th Valley), and local author Mr. John P. McAfee (Slow Walk in a Sad Rain). Local author and author Mr. Nicholas Warr (Phase Line Green; The Battle for Hue, 1968 & Charlie One Five; A Marine Company’s Vietnam War) will act as the Moderator of this timely and topical panel discussion.

Seats at the tables are reserved for those purchasing box lunches, but we will have a number of ‘non-table’ seats available for those of you who wish to listen to the panel discussion and not purchase a box lunch.

Special Private Event
The 2015 Blue Ridge Bookfest is proud to present a very special private viewing of the movie “We Were Soldiers” at the Flat Rock Cinema (3.5 mi from the campus) on Saturday evening at 6:20pm. We Were Soldiers is a 2002 war film that dramatizes the Battle of Ia Drang on November 14, 1965. The film was directed by Randall Wallace and stars Mel Gibson. It is based on the book We Were Soldiers Once… And Young by Lieutenant General (Ret.) Hal Moore and reporter Joseph L. Galloway, both of whom were at the battle.

Imagine being able to attend a movie which was a box office hit and is also recognized as one of the best films to emerge from the Vietnam War era, and meet Joe Galloway who was there during the battle and is one of the authors of the book this movie was adapted from. Joe will be providing an introduction to the movie at 6:50 with the movie to follow at 7pm.

The Flat Rock Cinema is a small, intimate movie theater and their very comfortable seats are limited. Be sure to order early if you wish to attend this event. Adult beverages and food will be available to purchase from the theater.