Top Six Miami Book Fair Picks

COVID certainly didn’t kill South Florida’s literary scene. When the pandemic hit, Miami Book Fair went online, attracting more people than ever before. The Book Fair’s new platform for virtual attendance has since been adopted as a permanent fixture as a testament to innovation, but now that we’re all attending events live and in person again, it will be great to unplug the laptop and enjoy the festival again on our own two feet.

You remember what that’s like – driving downtown to Miami Dade College, parking in a nearby garage, finding classrooms to attend talks and waiting on lines for author autographs? It’s time to get back to that. Still concerned about COVID? Mask up.

This 39th annual Miami Book Fair runs from Sunday, Nov. 13 through Sunday, Nov. 20. Like every preceding year, there will be more than 400 authors from all over the world reading from their books in English, Spanish, French and Haitian Creole. They’ll be talking about issues of the day through fiction, nonfiction, poetry, photography, illustrations and graphic novels to tell their stories in person, streaming and on demand.

The “big” weekend, which most of us know as Street Fair, is Friday through Sunday, Nov. 18-20, with programming for readers of all ages from 10 a.m. – dusk.

Because everyone’s literary tastes are personal and unique, fairgoers should scope out the Miami Book Fair guide in advance to determine how best to consume this monumental event, but the following are our top six picks for live author appearances on Saturday, Nov. 19, in order of appearance.

1. Former Capitol Police officer Michael Fanone on “Hold the Line: The Insurrection and One Cop’s Battle for America’s Soul” – 10 a.m. in Building 3, Second Floor, Chapman 3210

We’ve all seen him, and feel like we know him after watching Michael Fanone repeatedly tell the story of how he came within an inch of his life while protecting the U.S. Capitol from insurrectionists intent on overturning the election on Jan. 6, 2021. Fanone was tased until he had a heart attack and viciously beaten with a Blue Lives Matter flag as shouts to kill him rang out. That near-death experience ended his 20-year career in law enforcement. His new book tells the whole story and serves as an urgent warning about the growing threat to our democracy. Fanone, a self-described redneck who voted for Trump in 2016, provides a nuanced look into everything from policing to race to politics in a way that is accessible across all party lines.

2. Wall Street Journal reporter Erich Schwartzel on “Red Carpet: Hollywood, China, and the Global Battle for Cultural Supremacy” – 11 a.m., Building 2, First Floor, Room 2106

“Red Carpet” is an eye-opening and deeply reported narrative that details the surprising role of the movie business in the high-stakes contest between the United States and China. Erich Schwartzel delves into how the film industry is the latest battleground in the tense and complex rivalry between these two world powers. He combines original reporting, political history and show-biz intrigue in an exhilarating tour of global entertainment, from propaganda film sets in Beijing and the boardrooms of Hollywood studios to the living rooms in Kenya where families decide whether to watch an American or Chinese movie. Alarming, occasionally absurd and wildly entertaining, “Red Carpet” will not only alter the way we watch movies but also offer essential new perspective on the power struggle of this century.

3. Xochitl Gonzalez on “Olga Dies Dreaming” – Noon, Building 8, Second Floor, Room 8202

A New York Times bestseller and International Latino Book Award Finalist, this debut novel is the tale of a status-driven New York wedding planner named Olga, who is grappling with her social ambitions, congressman brother, absent mother, and Puerto Rican roots – all in the wake of Hurricane Maria. Needless to say, there are family secrets. Olga’s mother was a “Young Lord” turned radical, who abandoned her children to advance a militant political cause, leaving them to be raised by their grandmother. Now, with the winds of hurricane season, Mom has come barreling back into their lives. Xochitl Gonzalez’s “Olga Dies Dreaming” is a story that examines political corruption, familial strife and the very notion of the American dream – all while asking what it really means to weather a storm.

4. Innocence Project attorney M. Chris Fabricant on “Junk Science and the American Criminal Justice System” – 2 p.m., Building 8, Third Floor, Room 8301

This is an insider’s journey into the heart of a broken, racist system of justice and the role junk science plays in maintaining the status quo. In 2012, the Innocence Project began searching for prisoners convicted by junk science, and three men, each convicted of capital murder, became M. Chris Fabricant’s clients. The book chronicles the fights to overturn their wrongful convictions and to end the use of the “science” that destroyed their lives. Weaving together courtroom battles from Mississippi to Texas to New York City and beyond, Fabricant tells a gripping, enraging, illuminating and moving tale. “Junk Science” is a meticulously researched thread of untold stories of wrongful executions, corrupt prosecutors and quackery masquerading as science to create a true crime narrative.

5. Virginia Hartman on “The Marsh Queen” – 4 p.m., Building 8, Second Floor, Room 8202

This powerful debut novel, set amid the lush landscape of the Florida wetlands, delves into past crimes, old memories and the eloquent, limitless expanse of parental love. Loni Mae Murrow’s life as a bird artist at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., is tidy, if a trifle constrained – until she’s abruptly summoned back home to the wetlands of northern Florida, where she grew up. Her mother, critical and difficult, has grown frail and been resentfully consigned to assisted living, and her younger brother, Phil – juggling a job, a wife and two young children – needs her help. Loni may not be her mother’s only child, but there are some things only a daughter can do. Going through her mother’s things when she returns, Loni makes a discovery that calls her father’s supposed suicide into question. Against her better judgment, she finds herself drawn into a dangerous quest to discover the truth about how he died, struggling all the while to reconnect with her mother through the remnants of their past and to reconcile with her brother.

6. Sandra Cisneros on “Woman Without Shame” – 5:30 p.m., Building 1, Second Floor, Auditorium 1261

This is the first book of poetry in 28 years by Sandra Cisneros, the famed bestselling author of “A House on Mango Street.” With dozens of never-before-seen poems, “Woman Without Shame” is a moving collection of songs, elegies and declarations that chronicle her pilgrimage toward rebirth and the recognition of her prerogative as a woman artist. These bluntly honest and often humorous meditations on memory, desire, aging, self-love and her life in Mexico blazes a path toward her own self-awareness. For Cisneros, “Woman Without Shame” is the culmination of her search for home – in the Mexico of her ancestors and in her own heart.

To plan your visit, read the entire, mind-warping eight-day schedule and buy your tickets in advance, visit MiamiBookFair.com.