Columbia City edition of Seattle Bookfest on for October

A Columbia City book festival, modeled on the former Northwest Bookfest, will be held the weekend of Oct. 24-25, and the festival lineup will include local authors, bookstores, presses and publishers.

Paul Doyle, director of the Columbia City Cinema, announced earlier this summer that he hoped to resurrect some version of the Northwest Bookfest, which closed its doors after its 2003 incarnation and left Seattle without a citywide book festival. Doyle has now lined up sponsors that include the Columbia City Business Association and the Rainier Chamber of Commerce.

The event, Columbia City's 2009 Seattle Bookfest, will be held at the Columbia City Event Center, 3528 S. Ferdinand St., Seattle. The center is a block from Rainier Avenue and about a block from the Columbia City light rail station.

The festival will feature more than 60 local authors, including Seattle-based Garth Stein, author of the best-selling "The Art of Racing in the Rain"; mystery writers Mike Lawson and Robert Ferrigno; literary librarian Nancy Pearl; women's fiction author Jennie Shortridge; novelist Randy Sue Coburn; and poets Sam Hamill and Judith Roche. Fifty exhibitors — including local bookstores Third Place Books and Fremont Place Books; the nonprofit organization Friends of the Library; and publishers Sasquatch Books, University of Washington Press, Mountaineers Books, Copper Canyon Press, Black Heron Press and Fantagraphics Books — have signed up. Panels, workshops and special events will include a Scrabble contest, spelling bee, a bookbinding demomonstration, and a workshop on "how to write a novel in a month."

Like the earlier Northwest Bookfest, admission is free with a suggested donation of $5.

Because the event lacks a corporate sponsorship, organizers will rely on volunteers and funding support from the community, the Seattle School District, the Seattle Public Library and exhibitors, according to the Web site (www.seattlebookfest.com).

Mary Ann Gwinn: 206-464-2357 or mgwinn@seattletimes.com.