Getting the Most Out Of a Literary Festival -- And Its Locale

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Getting the Most Out Of a Literary Festival -- And Its Locale

Whether you're attending your first literary festival or your 10th, here are tips on how to make it a rewarding literary and travel experience.

· Bone up on the literature of the region. For the Maine Literary Festival, for example, chairwoman Maryanne Shanahan suggests that festival-goers read "Contemporary Maine Fiction" (Down East Books, $25) as well as individual works by participating authors.

· Ask questions. Darcy Minter, director of communications for the Western Folklife Center, which sponsors the Cowboy Poetry Gathering, encourages participants to call for information. This is especially important for an event like the Cowboy Poetry Gathering, she says, where "there's so much going on, especially during the main three days, when shows are taking place continuously and concurrently on many stages." The staff is expert at helping people decide which performances they might like to attend, she says.

· Request written information. "When I go to festivals," says author Richard Russo, "I like to get all the brochures beforehand and see what I'm most interested in doing and then treat it kind of like an art gallery. . . . I like to scan the materials beforehand, focus in on two or three things that I really want to do, and then not feel overly obligated to do every single thing that's offered."

· Relax and enjoy it. Picking and choosing is not an option at smaller festivals, such as Maine's or the Key West Literary Seminar. "We don't give them a choice; people have to attend everything," says Miles Friedman, the literary seminar's executive director.

-- Elise Hartman Ford