The Gaithersburg (Maryland) Book Festival is Saturday, May 15th.  I’ll be presenting at 3pm on magical realism at the Edgar Allan Poe Pavilion.  Book signing to follow.  Visit the Festival site for the full schedule at http://www.gaithersburgbookfestival.org/schedule.htm.

Today (April 13) is the birthday of the Irish poet Seamus Heaney.  When I was a lad in college, I spent a semester reading his poetry and attending to the hard clack of his sound. One of my thrills was having the chance to meet him at the International Poetry Forum a few years ago.

Make plans to attend the first Gaithersburg Book Festival on Saturday, May 15, from 10-6 at the City Hall Grounds.  I’ll be there under the Fiction tent.  Other presenting authors include Alice McDermott, Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, Helen Simonson, Susan Coll, John Feinstein, and more.