Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, short story writer, screenwriter and teacher Richard Russo will be the keynote speaker for the Sixth Annual Bangor Book Festival, October 18- 20, 2012, in downtown Bangor. Russo will be joined by his daughter, the artist Kate Russo, and more than 30 Maine-based and Maine-connected, writers, essayists and illustrators who will participate in panels, readings and signings at the Bangor Public Library and other downtown Bangor venues.

The 2012 Festival will also include the world-premiere of a new musical work by composer Don Stratton.

Authors and writers at the 2012 event include: Amy Faircloth, Andrew Barton, Annette Vance Dorey, Ardeana Hamlin, Barbara Walsh, Bruce Pratt, Carol Bachofner, David Sloan, Edie Clark, Eva Murray, Hank Garfield, Hannah Wirth, Helen Wilbur, Jane Karker, Jeff & Allison Wells, Jim Witherell, John Cobb, Josh Alves, Kate Shaffer, Kevin Hawkes, Lea Wait, Lee Francis, Lisa Coleman, Lou Ureneck, Mary Cerullo, Monica Wood, Morgan Callan Rogers, Preston Hood, Richard Russo, Kate Russo, Shannon Delany, Sharon Lee, Steve Miller, Susan Lubner, Trudy Scee, and The Yankee Chef Jim Bailey.

“There’s always at least one surprise at the Bangor Book Festival,” say Bangor Public Library Director Barbara McDade. “A new author I hadn’t known about, a book that is a gem but hasn’t gotten big press, an new field I hadn’t explored. I find out about them by hearing an author speak at the Festival.

“The Bangor Book Festival also gives me the opportunity to hear the authors whose work has already grabbed my attention and reminded me why I fell in love with literature in the first place. Richard Russo is one of those writers.”

Russo, who lives with his wife in Camden, ME, was awarded the 2002 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction for the novel Empire Falls. Other novels by the author include That Old Cape Magic, Straight Man: A Novel, Mohawk, Nobody’s Fool and The Risk Pool. His newest work, Interventions, is a collection of three short stories and a novella. Each of the four separate volumes is packaged in a slipcase and includes a postcard-sized print of a painting by Kate Russo, the author’s daughter. Interventions, which will not be sold as an e-book, has been called an homage to the printed book.

Russo will address Festival attendees at an event to be held at the Hammond Street Senior Center on Friday, October 19.

The Festival will open on Thursday, October 18 with MPBN’s Richard Tozier reading Henry David Throreau’s Ktaadn in a world-premiere performance featuring music by composer Don Stratton. Dan Barrett and Ted Nokes will direct the music for this opening night event.

For more information, please contact the Festival at info@bangorbookfest.org, or c/o Bangor Public Library, 145 Harlow St., Bangor, ME 04401; 207/947-8336.