After covering the fall of the Taliban in Afghanistan for NPR, author Sarah Chayes decided to stay in the country and start a non-profit. The many types of corruption Chayes witnessed there firsthand, led her to write the book, Thieves of State: Why Corruption Threatens Global Security. She argues that while everyone around the world agrees corruption is bad, it’s a subject that usually get’s pushed to the back burner.
“We’re under-appreciating the degree to which a lot of the turmoil we’re seeing the world today is actually sparked by indignation at acute public corruption,” says Chayes.
Vanessa Diffenbaugh also writes about social issues she cares deeply about, but she's a novelist. After the success of her first book, which centered around the topic of children aging out of the foster care system, Diffenbaugh started a network to help kids transition into adulthood.
Both of these authors are featured during Bookmania.
It's a festival that runs from October 7-15 in Traverse City.
In addition to author interviews, there will be Q&A sessions and opportunities for book lovers to hang out in various venues around town.
Doug Stanton, is the organizer of Bookmania. He says the festival is all about changing people through the power of a good story.
“The book is just the vehicle which transmits the story into the culture,” he says.
Plus, October is here and we want to hear the scariest two-sentence horror story you can think of.
Leave your story on our comment line at 231-276-4444, send it in an email to ipr@interlochen.org, or easier still, leave it on our Facebook page— we just might feature it in an upcoming show.
