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Officials with the Decatur Book Festival announced late yesterday that it will go on hiatus this year, with plans to return in 2024.
The festival, one of the most popular book gatherings in the country, drew an estimated 80,000 people over Labor Day weekend, and took over downtown Decatur with celebrity authors and book panels and booths. The 2020 festival was held virtually due to the pandemic, and the last two festivals were limited to scaled down one-day affairs.
“We will be taking a pause for 2023, with a plan to relaunch in 2024,” the festival said in a statement. “Our goal is to create a sustainable and thriving organization that will continue to bring the best in literature to our community for years to come.”
The festival will continue partnering with local organizations on smaller events as it assesses its long-term future.
Leslie Wingate, the vice president of the festival’s board of directors, said in a social media post that the festival will continue. “The festival is in the strongest financial shape it’s been in in a very long time,” she said. “The curtain is not closing on the festival — we just need to explore options and opportunities for its future.”
According to its website, the festival is currently without an executive director and staff. Co-founder Daren Wang stepped down as executive director in 2017. Three years later, in 2020, a nationwide search was launched when Julie Wilson stepped away as executive director and Joy Pope was named to fill the job on an interim basis.
The festival was started in 2006 and is the largest independent book festival in the country. More than 4,000 authors have attended the festival, including such literary stars as Pat Conroy, Joyce Carol Oates, Natasha Trethewey, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Rick Bragg, Melissa Fay Greene, Armistead Maupin and Erica Jong.
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