In the advertising for the annual Fay B. Kaigler Book Festival at the University of Southern Mississippi each spring, special writers and illustrators are touted along with great and meaningful breakout sessions that enhance experiences with children’s and young adult books. All of this is true, but they can’t possibly put all the side attractions into those ads as friendships and memories are formed over the years.
One of my standing memories comes from a double winner of an Ezra Jack Keats Award. In 2013, Don Tate won an illustrator honor award for It Jes’ Happened, the story of folk artist Bill Traylor. During the presentation by the writer winner, a tornado alert went out and the entire group of about 400 attendees retreated to the inner staircases for about forty-five minutes. Not deterred by the alarm, many new friendships arose before the all clear was sounded to return where the presenter picked up right where she had left off.
Fast forward three years and Don returned, this time to receive the EJK New Writer award for Poet: The Remarkable Story of George Moses Horton. In the midst of another session, an alarm sounded to clear the building since something had caught fire in a downstairs kitchen. Needless to say, some of us made the connection that emergencies only seemed to happened when Don was present and enjoyed joshing with him about it.
I must finish by saying Don has returned to the festival since and has become an integral part of the team that selects the new EJK winners with no more emergencies that have coincided with his presence. Like many of the writers and artists who win an EJK award early in their careers, he has gone on to add to his list with fifteen books now on Amazon and two more coming soon.
One of the festival’s big attractions for me are these early career awards that seemingly predestine successful writing and illustrating careers. It’s great fun to see their names popping up later on book sites as they win more awards and knowing I met them when they were just getting their foot out the door. Should you be interested in joining the fun, it’s not too late to find your place at www.usm.edu › childrens-book-festival.
Or Google Kaigler Children’s Book Festival since the link seems to work, or not, on a whim.