The High Country has a rich literary heritage and its story has been told by some of the country’s best writers and poets. To celebrate and promote these writers, books, reading, and literacy, the Friends of the Watauga County Public Library is sponsoring the inaugural High Country Festival of the Book. This year’s theme is Mountain Stories. The Festival will be held at the Meadowbrook Inn in Blowing Rock on Friday, August 3 and Saturday, August 4. Friday, August 3 the Festival begins with a day-long Civil War Symposium from 8:30 until 4:00 with noted Civil War authors. The cost for the Symposium is $50 and will include lunch. For those of you who have toyed with the idea of writing your memoirs you will not want to acclaimed memoirist, Wade Rouse’s workshop, “Facing Your Fears and Finding Your Voice,” from 1:00 – 3:30 with a fee of $30. Saturday, August 4 the Festival is open free to the public from 9:00 am until 4:00. There will be over 50 authors in attendance with activities range from traditional author readings and book signings to children’s authors and fun crafts. Publishers such as University of North Carolina Press, McFarland, Blair, North Carolina Archives, and others will be displaying books as will local book sellers, Row by Row and C. Clayton Thompson Bookseller. The range of authors will appeal to a variety of interests from Fred Chappell, Poet Laureate of North Carolina; Chris Bolgiano, author of Southern Appalachian Celebration; Sheri Castle, author of The New Southern Garden Cookbook; Robert Morgan, author of Boone: A Biography; award-winning Civil War author Rod Gragg, and Gail Haley, winner of the Caldecott Medal recognizing excellence in children’s literature. The Festival will also host noted fiction writers including Rita Mae Brown, best known for her Mrs. Murphy mysteries, Sandra Balzo, James Hall, and Gayle Trent. Hemingway/Pen finalist and North Carolina native Stephanie Powell Watts and her husband, poet Bob Watts will be presenting as will noted historians such as Judkin Browning, Michael Hardy, and Julia Taylor Ebel. The Festival will culminate in a Movable Author Feast on Saturday evening, where guests will dine with best-selling authors. This will be the Friends of the Library’s main fund raising event and the tickets will be $100. Tickets for the dinner, the Civil War Symposium, and the writer’s workshop are available at the library circulation desk or on the Festival web site, www.highcountryfestivalofthebook.com