BURLINGTON, VT - Champlain College is happy to sponsor the seventh annual Burlington Book Festival. From Sept. 23 to 25, the 2011 Burlington Book Festival will take place at a variety of locations downtown. The three-day festival offers readings, signings, panels, workshops, demos, musical performances, original theatre, family activities, and special events featuring literary luminaries from around the world or just around the corner. All events are free, open to the public and even dog friendly! For a full schedule, pick up a brochure at locations around town or visit http://burlingtonbookfestival.com/

Champlain College will host two events on campus and will lead a workshop at Fletcher Free Library. Any day of the weekend, you can find someone from Champlain busy celebrating the power of print, the joy of reading and the wonders of literacy. With Champlain College's Campus and Downtown Burlington bustling with book fanatics, this is bound to be an eventful weekend. Champlain College's events include:  

Friday, Sept. 23:

o    7-10 p.m. in Aiken Hall's Morgan Room at Champlain College Silver Screen Submarine Poetry Jazz Messengers  Jim Ellefson leads a group in improvisational jazz-poetry inspired by Gerry Mulligan and Jack Kerouac over five decades ago to kick off the weekend.

Saturday, Sept. 24:

o    9:15-10:15 a.m. in the Pickering Room of Fletcher Free Library Advanced Blogging Workshop Carissa Stimpfel '12, a Champlain Writing major, will be leading a workshop on advanced blogging and driving traffic to your site.

o    Noon - 1 p.m. in the Fletcher Room of Fletcher Free Library The Dawn of Digital Storytelling: A Panel Discussion includes Bryan Alexander and students in Champlain College's Master of Fine Arts program in Emergent Media. Erik Esckilsen, author and Champlain College professor, will moderate the discussion about digital stories using the ancient craft of storytelling versus technological variations of time-honored themes. Panelists will present original digital stories created with a range of digital tools.

o    Noon- 1 p.m. in the Pickering Room of Fletcher Free Library Self-Publishing: Where Do I Start? With today's technology it is financially possible for anyone to self-publish. Champlain College Publishing Initiative and Allison Neal leads a workshop to walk participants through the first few steps and confusions of the new business enterprise of publishing.

o    2-4 p.m. is the Fletcher Room of Fletcher Free Library Stonehenge, Learn about and create a Stonehenge - a three-sentence prose haiku - that could be published later this fall. The Champlain College Publishing Initiative will help guide and edit individuals' works.

o    Saturday's series of Workshops and Panels is Sponsored by Champlain College

Sunday, Sept. 25:

o    11:45 a.m.-12:15 p.m. in the Black Box on the third floor of Main Street Landing's Performing Arts Center Jeannine Atkins & Tanya Lee Stone will be giving picture book read-alouds for youth at the festival.  Check out Tanya Lee Stone's bio below for a link to her webpage.

o    1:15-2:15 p.m. in the Great Room on the third floor of Main Street Landing's Performing Arts Center Jeannine Atkins, Tanya Lee Stone & Jo Knowles will be discussing their latest books for teens. This youth event is most suitable for ages 12 and up.

o    2-4 p.m. in the Hauke Conference Center at Champlain College (375 Maple St.) "In Proportion to their Family and Income': Houses in Jane Austen's Life and Fiction" The Jane Austen Society of North America's President, Iris Lutz, will give an illustrated presentation comparing houses important in Jane Austen's real and fictional worlds. Light refreshments will be served.

o    2:45-3:30 p.m. in Main Street Landing's Performing Arts Center film house on the third floor Poet Laureate of the United States: Philip Levine will be reading his poetry written "for people for whom there is no poetry;" the working class.

o    3-4 p.m. in the Great Room on the third floor of Main Street Landing's Performing Arts Center Writing for Kids and Teens Superpanel and Q&A will feature authors including Tanya Lee Stone of Champlain College. This event is for teachers, librarians, and writers of all ages to answer questions on the lengthy process of book making.

All weekend:

Main Street Landings at Lake and College Streets Endangered Alphabets Exhibit by Tim Brookes, director of the Professional Writing Program at Champlain College. An exhibit of more than 20 endangered alphabets from all over the world carved into beautiful boards of Vermont curly maple. This is the second year the exhibit is being featured in the Festival, but this year there is a new series of large pieces forming a landscape to move through while visiting other presentations and workshops at Main St Landings. Visit www.endangeredalphabets.com for more information.

Members of Champlain College faculty that are taking part in the festival include:

·         TIM BROOKES - Tim Brookes is Director of the Professional Writing Program at Champlain College. He has been involved in the Burlington Book Festival for 7 years and has encouraged  40 Champlain students to volunteer this year. He was a regular essayist on NPR for 20 years and is the author of 12 books. His Endangered Alphabets Exhibit will be showing all weekend at Main Street Landing.

·         JIM ELLEFSON - Jim Ellefson, a professor at Champlain, has taught writing and literature at Shanghai International Studies University and the Universidade Dos Acores. He has well over 100 poems published throughout the United States, Canada, Great Britain, France and Japan.

·         ERIK ESCKILSEN - Burlington, Vt. native Erik E. Esckilsen is the author of three novels for young readers. He teaches a range of writing courses at Champlain College, including Interactive Storytelling for electronic game designers. His articles on various art topics have appeared in such publications as the Boston Globe, Entertainment Weekly  and Seven Days.

·         WILLARD STERNE RANDALL - A retired professor of history at Champlain College, Randall is the author of 13 books and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. His latest book is the long-awaited biography of one of our least understood Founding Fathers, Ethan Allen: His Life and Times.

·         TANYA LEE STONE - Award-winning author Tanya Lee Stone had published a number of young adult novels, nonfiction stories for older readers, and picture books. She teaches writing at Champlain College and has written for VOYA, Horn Book, School Library Journal, and the New York Times.