Laura Bush announces Texas Book Festival lineup

[September 13, 2012]  DALLAS (AP) -- Former first lady Laura Bush on Wednesday announced the authors set to attend next month's Texas Book Festival, a lineup that will include Junot Diaz, Tim O'Brien and Jewel.

"We have a really wonderful lineup once again," said Bush, who made the announcement in the backyard of her Dallas home.

Bush, who founded the festival when she was first lady of Texas, also unveiled this year's festival poster. Designed by Texas artist Margie Crisp, the poster features cliff swallows flying over the Colorado River.

Crisp, author of "River of Contrasts: The Texas Colorado," will be among the more than 250 authors participating in the festival set for Oct. 27-28 in and around the Texas Capitol in Austin.

Bush said that former President George W. Bush is currently reading "The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson," written by one of the authors who will attend, Robert A. Caro. The book is the author's fourth in a series on Johnson.

More than 40,000 people are expected to attend the free event that includes author readings and presentations, panel discussions and book signings. The first Texas Book Festival was held in 1996.

Also attending will be Cheryl Strayed, whose book "Wild" about her 1,100-mile hike along the Pacific Crest Trail in California and Washington was a pick this summer for "Oprah's Book Club 2.0."

And actor Tony Danza will be there with his new book "I'd Like to Apologize to Every Teacher I Ever Had," which chronicles his year spent teaching 10th grade at a high school.

O'Brien, who wrote about the Vietnam War in the "The Things They Carried," will receive the Texas Writer Award from the festival.

"There's really something for everybody at the Texas Book Festival," said Laura Bush, adding that the festival includes fiction and nonfiction writers and authors of children's books.

Bush, a former librarian, said neither she nor her husband -- who both wrote books after leaving the White House in 2009 -- are currently working on any new books, but it is something they've thought about.

"We might do another book. I think George has one in mind," she said, adding that she and her daughter Jenna Bush Hager have also thought about doing a follow-up to their children's book "Read All About It."

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Online:

http://www.texasbookfestival.org/

[Associated Press; By JAMIE STENGLE]

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