Pensacola’s first Books by the Bay brought everything bookish to the Museum Plaza at 120 Church Street in historic downtown: authors across a dozen genres, panel discussions, a literary walking tour, youth author readings, a storytelling circle, children’s story time, and a performance by the African American Heritage Society’s Readers Ensemble. The event, held on a Saturday from 10 to 4, spread across the plaza and two adjacent buildings, the Bowden Building classrooms and The Voices of Pensacola, and it announced that the Emerald Coast had a literary festival of its own.
The engine behind it was Tonya Dalhaus, the event coordinator whose enthusiasm for the project was, by every account, the reason it existed at all.
The Organizer
Dalhaus is a writer herself. She has journaled for years and has a children’s book in the works, and she found her footing in the area through Emerald Coast Writers, the regional network that supports writers of every genre. “There is the most incredible support for writers of every genre in our Emerald Coast Writers Group,” she says. The festival grew out of that community: a desire to showcase the region’s authors, poets, and storytellers in one place, outdoors, for free.
Her path to Pensacola was circuitous. She is from New Hampshire, did stand-up comedy in Boston, and moved west to Colorado before the Gulf Coast pulled her in. What she found here surprised her: turquoise water, white sand, and people she describes as the friendliest she has ever met. The arts community, she says, is amazing, supportive of every person and every writing style. Her one concession: if she had discovered Fairhope first, she might have crossed the bay instead.
The Lineup
The inaugural program leaned on name talent and local depth alike. Featured speakers included graphic novelist John Patrick Green, young adult author Ginny Myers Sain of “Dark and Shallow Lies,” historical novelist Paula Lenor Webb of “Such a Woman,” and performance poet Asia Samson, described as the highest-booked college poetry act in the market. Twenty-one notable authors gave presentations and readings throughout the day, alongside local writers selling and signing their own work.
Children were not an afterthought. The schedule included youth author readings, children’s story time, craft-making, and enough exuberance to fill the plaza’s quieter corners. Authors and their books were available outdoors with readings on the Main Stage, while the two adjacent buildings hosted panels and indoor sessions.
Chickens in the Office
Dalhaus’ other creative venture, she admits, has feathers: two pet chickens who live in her home, in diapers. They are, she says, intelligent and loyal, and they inspired her forthcoming children’s book. It is exactly the kind of detail that makes sense once you meet the woman who organized a literary festival with the energy of someone who believes any idea can work if enough volunteers show up.
Writers who attended found what regional festivals do best: face time with readers, tables side by side with authors they had only known online, and a room, or in this case a plaza, full of people who take books seriously. For the Emerald Coast Writers group, it was also a proof of concept that the Gulf Coast’s reading public is large enough to sustain an annual event of its own.
Pensacola’s literary scene had the writers, the readers, and the venues all along. Books by the Bay gave them a date on the calendar and a plaza to fill.