It's Time To Plan Your Book Festival Visit

is less than two weeks away, so you should start thinking about who you want to see and do.

The festival starts Aug. 31. Every event is free, though the keynote address by Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey is a ticketed event.

There are a few changes from last year, of course.

The keynote address has moved to the Emory Schwartz Center from Agnes Scott College. Part of the courthouse law is closed for repairs, so tents and tables will stretch farther down Ponce than before. A $5,000 publishing package has been created for one author from the Emerging Writers stage.

The book festival website is full of great information, including:

• A full festival schedule presented as a grid, arranged by times and stages.

• A list of activities. New this year: An emphasis on environmental issues and valet bike parking.

• A list of authors who will appear. The big names include mystery writers Michael Connelly, Kathy Reichs and Tess Gerritsen; Erin Morgenstern, author of The Night Circus; Meg Cabot of the Princess series; Isabel Wilkerson, author of The Warmth of Other Suns; National Book Award Finalist, Julie Otsuka; and John T. Edge of the Southern Foodways Alliance.

For full information visit the Decatur Book Festival website.