Local authors share limelight at literary festival

Posted on December 3, 2016 By Editor Neighborhood News

The area around the intersection of Park and King Streets in Riverside became the setting of a literary feast Nov. 12 as 25 local authors read excerpts of their works as part of the 2016 JaxbyJax Literary Arts Festival.

Included in the mix were several authors from the neighborhood, including Riverside’s Tim Gilmore and Jim Alabiso, and Andres Rojas, Fred Dale, Sohrab Homi Fracis and Mark Stewart, all of Avondale.

The authors fanned out throughout the commercial district, setting up shop in local restaurants and shops, all within walking distance, to take turns reading in half-hour increments over a three-hour span. A student showcase was held an hour before the main event at Il Desco, with an after-party and book signing later in the evening in the CoRK Arts District on Rosselle Street.

Dale, a senior instructor of English at the University of North Florida shared space with Marcus Pactor of Springfield, also an instructor at UNF, at Nourish Juice Bar on King Street. Dale is the author of “The Cockroach Talks to his Leg and Other Odd Perspectives” while Pactor read short stories and is the author of “Begat Who Begat Who Begat: New Stories.”

Alabiso, who shared space at Sunday Tattoo on Park Street with Sohrab Homi Fracis, the author of “Go Home,” read from his serial fiction work “All the Angels Come: An epic fairytale in the River City.” Providing quiet background music on the clarinet as Alabiso read was Dr. Boja Kragulj, founder and clarinetist of the

Bold City Contem-porary Ensemble. Marcus Williams aka MWill provided a backdrop of four colorful, fram-
ed illustrations of four of five major characters in the story. “All the Angels Come” may be read for free on the Internet by turning to jimalabiso.com.

Down the street at Il Desco, Tim Gilmore, an author of 14 books, read the first chapter of his non-fiction work, “Devil in the Baptist Church: Bob Gray’s Unholy Trinity” to a packed house. Rojas read selections of his poetry at the Cool Moose Café while Stewart’s readings were entitled “Self-Discovery: Choices and Constraints (Readings from Two Novels).”

Also reading during JaxbyJax festival were authors Tricia Booker, Raejeana Brooks, Frances Driscoll, Bill Ectric, Katherine Espano, Joe Flowers, Liz Gibson, Nan Kavanaugh, Grant Kitrell, Matthew Lany, Johnny Masiulewicz, Emily K. Michael, Ebony Payne-English, Heather M. Peters, Caleb Sarvis, Sean T. Smith, Marisella Veiga and Jeff Whipple.