“Divergent” author Veronica Roth headlines the Columbus Book Festival
The Columbus Book Festival is in its second year and bigger than ever, with more than a hundred authors appearing at the free event at Columbus’ Main Library and Topiary Park.
These authors include such well-known names as Veronica Roth, author of the bestselling Divergent trilogy; Hanif Abdurraqib, a Columbus-based poet, essayist and cultural critic best known for There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension; novelist Nick Petrie; Iranian-American novelist, essayist and journalist Porochista Khakpour; and Kennedy Ryan, a romance writer known for her contemporary romance novels that focus on social issues and diverse characters.
Roth’s latest novel, the short and powerful When Among Crows, takes her in a new direction: away from science fiction and toward fantasy.
The film is set in present-day Chicago, where Roth lives, and is about creatures that come directly from Slavic folklore.
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“It’s about a mysterious man who comes to a mysterious woman with a mission: He will help her break a curse that is killing her if she helps him find the legendary witch Baba Yaga, who, of course, lives in Chicago at a Harold’s Chicken. The only problem is that he belongs to a holy order of monster hunters and she’s a monster,” Roth said.
Over the course of an eventful night, monster hunter Dymitr and “Monster” Ala, a “Zmora” who feeds on fear, encounter all sorts of creatures that would probably feel more at home in the hills and forests of Central Europe, including the seductive Niko, a “Strzyga”.
“I really like the Strzygi: they have two souls, they are born with two sets of teeth, they turn into owls. There’s just a lot about them,” Roth said.
As the daughter of a mother who emigrated from Poland with her family, Roth wrote the book, among other things, to find out more about her cultural heritage.
“I never felt like I was really Polish enough to explore that part of my heritage, so researching this book was like reconnecting with something and giving myself permission to examine it and accept that it belongs to me, albeit in a different way than it belongs to people born in Poland.
“It brought me closer to my mum and my Uncle Stan, who read an early draft and helped me with my Polish. So it was a family experience. It was really nice,” she said.
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Compared to her previous novels, Roth deliberately kept this one short.
“I wanted everything to really focus on these three characters and for it to happen in one day, so I knew that would limit the length of the story,” she said. “And part of the fun was how much I could make you fall in love with these characters and have them build a relationship with each other in just one day.”
With this novel she enters the world of horror.
“I’m a bit of a coward when it comes to horror,” she said. “But my editor encouraged me to really go for it and not be afraid of it. It’s different when you write it. It’s not like the experience of reading it.”
“It didn’t feel like horror to me until we were done. And then there’s like blood splatter and all this really scary stuff in there, which surprised me a bit to be honest!”
Meet the authors
Roth, like some of the other authors, will speak at an event that requires advance ticket reservations, but on festival days many of the events will be open to all attendees.
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In addition to lectures by individual authors, the festival includes dozens of panel discussions with various authors on topics such as “Success with a Pinch of Hot Romance,” “Sapphic Swoons,” “Sports in Ohio,” and “Cults, Cats, and Murderers.”
The Friends of the Library Big Book Sale will be held in a tent in Topiary Park, where attendees will also find two stages with entertainers, dozens of exhibitor booths, an area for independent authors, food trucks, children’s activities and more.
At a glance
The Columbus Book Festival will be held on July 13 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and on July 14 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Columbus Metropolitan Library, 96 S. Grant Ave., and the adjacent Topiary Park.
Admission is free. For more information visit columbusbookfestival.org
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