Why you should go the f*** to the Gaithersburg Book Festival! Novelists in conversation – Part 1

One of the hallmarks of the Gaithersburg Book Festival has been our annual “Conversation with…” feature, where Ron Charles, fiction editor for the Washington Post Book World, hosts a discussion with one of the festival’s biggest novelists. This year, Ron will be playing host/interviewer to Adam Mansbach, whose new novel, “Rage is Back,” was Amazon.com’s January 2013 Book of the Month. If Adam’s name doesn’t immediately ring a bell, his last book probably will. Adam is the author of the #1 New York Timesbest seller “Go the F**k to Sleep,” which has been translated into 40 languages and is forthcoming as a feature film from Fox 2000. If you have questions for Adam, we encourage you to send your questions to Ron via Twitter, using the #GBF13 hashtag, or post them below and we’ll pass them along. (You’ll have to come see the conversation in person to find out if Ron uses your question!)
Equally exciting, this year, we’re expanding our “Conversations with…” feature and adding two additional interview-format Q&A sessions hosted by Book Maven Bethanne Patrick, creator of the ridiculously popular #fridayreads Twitter hashtag.

Bethanne will interview novelist and humorist Jon Methven about his first novel, “This is Your Captain Speaking,” which was published in June 2012. If we’re lucky, Jon will share will Bethanne and the audience “things you can only dream of knowing, or can learn if willing to work for minimum wage.” (His words, not ours. And he should know about what you learn working for minimum wage. Jon has worked as a paperboy, a dishwasher, a Ponderosa meat cook (everything medium well), a pizza deliverer, a golf course grounds crewman, a barbecue seasoning filter employee, an illegal barbecue seasoning filter employee since he was living in Australia without a work visa at the time, a bartender, a mascot at Yankee Stadium (Mr. Popcorn), a journalist, a taste tester, and a cubicle dweller.

She also will interview Benjamin Percy, whose latest novel is “Red Moon.” Benjamin has won a Whiting Writers Award, a Plimpton Prize, two Pushcart Prizes, and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. He also is the author of the novel “The Wilding” and two short story collections, “Refresh, Refresh” and “The Language of Elk.”

If you have questions for either Benjamin or Jon, feel free to post them below and we’ll pass them on to Bethanne before the festival. Or tweet them to her. Just make sure you use the #GBF13 hashtag.

So, to paraphrase Adam Mansbach, Go the F**k to the Gaithersburg Book Festival on May 18!