On Oct. 3, when Kirkus Prize-winning memoirist and poet Saeed Jones delivers his keynote speech kicking off the annual Decatur Book Festival, another book festival will be making its debut 7 miles away in Atlanta.
Founder Alyssa Evans, 25, was unaware of the overlap when she picked that date to launch the inaugural Atlanta Book Festival.
“When we realized it was on the same day, we were like, you know what? Let’s just go ahead and add to the fun of the book festivities that are already happening,” she said.
The ability to focus on the upside of a situation is indicative of the enthusiasm the Douglasville native brings to her endeavors. A graduate of Emory University with a degree in psychology, Evans is pursuing a career in marketing by day — but her passion is for books.
“We always had books in the house,” said Evans. “I grew up an avid reader. I was at the top of my class in reading, and I started my first book club in the third grade.”
After college, Evans moved to Midtown and fell back in love with reading for pleasure. She wasn’t alone. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a lot of people — particularly Gen Zers, like Evans, and millennials — turned to books for comfort and entertainment. And their social media posts about it gave birth to the highly active TikTok subgroup #BookTok.
Evans, who was reading between three and five books a month, would share her reviews on social media. As people engaged with her posts, she detected a sense of community beginning to develop, which she wanted to parlay into face-to-face interactions. So, she started the Atlanta Book Club in late 2023. The first meeting was held at a restaurant in Buckhead. Ten people showed up.
“I knew we had something when people wanted to stay together and go thrifting afterwards across the street,” she said. “Part of the vision and mission when I started it was, I wanted this to be about relationship building and creating a positive impact in Atlanta. I don’t want the book to necessarily be the focus, but I want it to be the launching pad for actual relationships and conversations to happen.”
In addition to traditional monthly book discussions at various locations around town, Atlanta Book Club also hosts socials, book swaps, silent book reads, craft sessions and audio book walks where participants stroll the Beltline together while listening to different audio books on their respective devices.
“But honestly,” said Evans, “half the time, we just start talking. People express themselves in so many different ways. Some people don’t want to just sit at a table and talk about a book. They’d rather be outside. (The Atlanta Book Club) offers so many different things for different kinds of people.”
The club now has more than 400 members. Although participants are primarily female, Black and between the ages of 23 and 50, Evans said everyone 17 or older is welcome, and she’s actively recruiting more male members.
The club reads all genres of fiction and nonfiction, and members vote on which books they read. Recent titles have included “Remarkably Bright Creatures” by Shelby Van Pelt and “And Then There Were None” by Agatha Christie.
“I personally love a good psychological thriller. I like to be kept on my toes,” said Evans. “I also have been recently into sci-fi thrillers. Some of my favorites are by Blake Crouch, ‘Dark Matter’ and ‘Recursion.’ I love the dystopian feel. These books have me reflecting a lot on my own life and how I see myself in this world because of its topic on time travel and the ability to change the past or future.”
In light of the book club’s success, Evans thought organizing a festival was the next natural step. When she began looking into it, she was surprised by what she found.
“I was like, wait, there’s not even a book festival actually here in Atlanta? There’s one in Decatur, there’s one in Conyers, but we don’t have one here for the people in this area.” She also noted that those festivals were for all ages, from children to adults.
“There wasn’t one just for the Gen Z and millennials. … We wanted something just for us. That’s what people love about the book club is they see themselves,” said Evans. “They see people that look like them in so many different ways, whether it’s race, whether it’s the kind of book they like, the genre. In so many different ways, they see similarities across the board, and I wanted to bring that to life with the festival.”
Naturally, Evans plans to put her own twist on the festival.
“We don’t just do the thing,” Evans said. “We have to tweak it and make it more fun.”
The one-day festival starts at 4 p.m. at The Gathering Spot. It will feature an author panel, poetry readings, book sales, crafts, a matcha pop-up and more. The names of participating authors have not yet been released. Tickets are $30-$40, plus fees. For details, go to eventbrite.com.
Leading up the festival, there will be additional events like a Pilates class, a book swap and a dinner with authors. If all goes well, Evans hopes the festival evolves into a multiday event.
To keep up with Atlanta Book Club events, follow them on Instagram.
Suzanne Van Atten is a book critic and contributing editor to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. She may be reached at Suzanne.VanAtten@ajc.com.
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