Franne Davis was a young college student at the University when she began her career in literature.
After planning book festivals and events for years, she came to work at the Illinois Union Bookstore, or IUB, to continue her passion.
Over the course of the past 10 years as an IUB employee, she hoped to establish a campus-based book festival that would appeal to all audiences.
This year, her vision was realized.
Chosen for their connection to the Champaign-Urbana and literature communities, several people presented excerpts from “To Kill a Mockingbird” on Sunday, the opening day of the IUB’s inaugural Off the Page Summer Book Festival.
The IUB participated in an alternate book festival in Chicago — Printer’s Row — for the past few years, but after a reduction in the bookstore’s budget, Davis and co-worker Scott Baseler found there was not a way to justify the expenditure.
Instead, Davis and Baseler decided to create an an event on the Universiy campus.
They began planning the festival around April, when Davis suggested the event should begin on the 50th anniversary of the publication of the landmark novel “To Kill a Mockingbird”.
“We needed a time to have the event and thought that the 50th anniversary would be a great kickoff for the event,” Baseler said.
“‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ is a great American novel; it was a perfect fit.”
Although the festival kicks off with a literary classic, the week’s agenda has the IUB hosting authors with writings on several topics, Davis said.
“It works well to put a lot of authors together,” Davis said. “I love to see the enthusiasm.”
Baseler said he tried to pick a variety of people when compiling the lineup of speakers, who will speak from July 11 to the 15th.
“We chose people who we knew had an interest in books and a connection to the community,” Baseler said. “We didn’t want to just bring in a bunch of professors.”
The presenters include local authors, alumni and professors, among others. The keynote speaker was Professor Sundiata Cha-Jua, associate professor of History.
Cha-Jua brought the small crowd gathered in the Author’s Corner of the IUB to an attentive silence as he spoke about the importance of “To Kill a Mockingbird” in American history.
All of the members of the audience sat up tall, eyes on Cha-Jua, as his words reverberated around the room.
The guests all sat as the first to fulfill Davis’ vision.
“It really is a great idea to get us to use the summer to get us to focus on the classics,” Cha-Jua said.