Salt Lake book fest packed with brainpower

Never in its critically acclaimed nine-year history has the Great Salt Lake Book Festival been so filled with brainpower and diversity.

Under the guidance of director Rebecca Batt and the auspices of the Utah Humanities Council, the festival's committee has crafted an exceptional program, most of it taking place in the Salt Lake City Main Library, Wednesday-Saturday.

Richard Bushman, Gouverneur Morris professor of history emeritus, Columbia University, author of a new and highly respected biography of the LDS prophet Joseph Smith, "Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling," will deliver the keynote address, "The Problem of Joseph Smith," Thursday, 8 p.m., auditorium.

Robert Hass, U.S. Poet Laureate 1995-97, professor of English at University of California Berkeley, will lead an informal brown-bag lunch "conversation" about the craft of poetry, noon-2 p.m., Friday, fourth-floor conference room, and will give a reading Thursday, 7 p.m., Finch Lane Gallery/Art Barn, as part of the Guest Writers Series.

Jill Lepore, professor of history, Harvard University, author of "New York Burning: Liberty, Slavery and Conspiracy in Eighteenth-Century Manhattan" and a finalist for the 2006 Pulitzer Prize.

Luis Alberto Urrea, poet, novelist, essayist, author of "The Devil's Highway," about 26 men who attempted to cross the Mexican border into the desert of southern Arizona.

Ivan Doig, memoirist, Western novelist, author of eleven novels, including "The Whistling Season."

Tracie Morris, poet, known for her improvised sound poetry, recently adding free jazz, and African and Indian classical music.

Susan Straight, professor of creative writing at University of California, Riverside, will read from her sixth novel, "A Million Nightingales," about a woman born during slavery in Louisiana who tries to buy her own son to save him.

Elizabeth Clement, professor of history, University of Utah, will discuss her prize-winning book "Love for Sale," about the exchange of sex for entertainment expenses in the 20th century, which she argues had a lasting impact on modern sexual values.

Anne Taylor Fleming, author of the novel "As if Love Were Enough" and essayist on "The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer," and Karl Fleming, author of the memoir "Son of the Rough South" and civil-rights reporter for Newsweek.