Mississippi Book Festival goes online amid COVID concerns

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The Mississippi Book Festival is being shown online after the in-person event was canceled because of concerns about the coronavirus pandemic. Organizers say videos of 31 panel discussions have been recorded in the past month. Those will become available Tuesday on the festival’s website, msbookfestival.com. Among the authors speaking are Kiese Laymon, W. Ralph Eubanks, Catherine Pierce, Beth Ann Fennelly, Mitch Landrieu and Angie Thomas. The festival originally was scheduled for Aug. 21 at the Mississippi Capitol and nearby Galloway United Methodist Church. Organizers switched to the online format because the state was experiencing a surge of COVID-19 cases.