The West Texas Book and Music Festival visits Abilene this week and will stay through Friday, Sept. 24. Featured authors include Mike Cox, Paulette Jiles, Scott Zesch, and many more. Some featured musicians include The Geezer Brothers, Tony Barker Band, and Catclaw Creek.

Two ACU authors will attend the event: Karen Witemeyer, university testing center coordinator, and Benny P. Gallaway, a professor emeritus in the Department of History. Witemeyer is a Christian fiction writer and has written two books – Head in the Clouds and A Tailor-Made Bride. Gallaway is the author of The Ragged Rebel: A Common Soldier in W.H. Parsons’ Texas Cavalry.

The festival began 10 years ago and was started by Glen Dromgoole and Jane Jones as a takeoff from an event the Friends of the Abilene Public Library Support Group started in the 1950s. In the 1980s they started hosting a dinner once a year to honor the many local authors that had been published in the past twelve months. Their mission was to support authors and promote reading. As the years went on, the event started dying and was not well attended.

The festival was created to promote reading and literacy, and Dromgoole and Jones thought it was a fun activity, however, neither of them had ever been to a book festival. They began going around to different festivals to figure out what they wanted to do at their event in Abilene. As the years passed, they honored other Texas authors,  not just those from Abilene. Music later became an interest in the festival and was added about five years ago when the organizers decided that writing poetry and lyrics is just as creative as writing a book.

Many people participate in the festival, and the organizers make sure that the programs appeal to various age groups to make everyone feel welcome. They will have many Hall of Texas authors and brown bag lunches Wednesday through Friday this week at noon. It is a great environment to ask authors questions about their books and themselves. Several free events will take place this week, and everyone is encouraged to come out and support these great authors and musicians.

“Our newest event is our Gospel Music Concert that will take place on Saturday at 3pm and will feature the bands Catclaw Creek and Cornerstone,” said Janis Test, who is in charge of public relations for the event. “For students it is an interesting event to see your professors out of the classroom.”

More information about the West Texas Book and Music Festival can be found online at www.abilenetx.com/apl.