This past Friday, RCSE welcomed Tara Setter from the Savannah Book Festival! Before Tara was introduced by Cheri Dean, President Mark Sprosty reminded all members of the June service project which is a book drive for the Haven Elementary Media Center. Once all Rotary business items were discussed and Happy dollars collected, Tara began her presentation.
The Savannah Book Festival is a non profit organization that was founded in 2008. There are two components to the festival - headliners (ticketed events) and free lectures on Saturday with over 40 authors at various venues in downtown Savannah. They strive to have a balance between fiction and nonfiction along with a variety of genres. Tara talked about the criteria the selection committee uses when selecting authors for the festival. Forty percent of attendance is from people who do not live in our area and estimates have shown that the economic impact to the city is $2.8 million.
Tara also spoke about a program called SBF@schools. Authors come a day early to the festival and visit local schools to present to the students. 60%-70% of authors accept this invitation! The connection that is made between the author and the students makes a difference in the students. The dates for the upcoming Savannah Book Festival is February 5-8, 2026. To learn more about the Savannah Book Festival, please visit https://www.savannahbookfestival.org/