click to enlarge Photo by Harlan McCarthy.

Calling all bibliophiles!The Central West End Business Community Improvement District has announced the creation of the first-ever BookFest St. Louis, a book festival featuring local and international writers and related activities for all ages. The festival will take place on September 23 in Central West End's Writer's Corner, home ofas well as busts of St. Louis authors T.S. Eliot, Kate Chopin and Tennessee Williams.The event will include panels featuring the best of contemporary literary fiction, poetry, mystery, science fiction, memoir, history and young adult fiction. There will also be kids programming, live music, poetry slams, literary crafts, booths for St. Louis arts and literary organizations and, of course, the opportunity to buy books. Activities will take place in the main festival area on McPherson Avenue, as well as other locations throughout the Central West End.Headlining BookFest St. Louis is Sherman Alexie, author of the award-winning young adult novel. Alexie will present a keynote address to kick off the event on September 22. Alexie will speak about his career and his latest memoir,. Other authors will include George Hodgman, Ann Leckie, Charlie Jane Anders and more.Alexie's keynote address will be a ticketed event, and information about tickets will be available on the BookFest website later this week. All other events, unless otherwise noted as updates become available, will be free and open to the public."We are so proud to be able to bring this event to life, and to be able to work with the incredible team at Left Bank Books to welcome so many interesting and important authors to our neighborhood," Kate Haher, executive director of the Central West End Business Community Improvement District, said in a press release. "Our neighborhood has such a rich cultural history, as well as an incredible active contemporary arts scene, and BookFest St. Louis will be a wonderful opportunity for us to showcase that to book lovers from the neighborhood, the city and throughout the region."BookFest St. Louis is presented by the Central West End, Left Bank Books and the Left Bank Books Foundation. The family-friendly programming set for the morning of September 23 will be in cooperation with the St. Louis Public Library's Schlafly Branch. For more information about BookFest St. Louis and to sign up for updates, visit bookfeststl.com