Called “nirvana for bibliophiles” and “the Woodstock of book festivals,” the second annual Atlanta Journal-Constitution Decatur Book Festival presented by DeKalb Medical (DBF) brought 60,000 people to the Decatur Square over Labor Day weekend to hear 240 authors on 14 stages.

Standing-room-only crowds packed Agnes Scott College’s Presser Hall for each of two keynote addresses — author and humorist Kinky Friedman on Friday and National Book Award winner Charles Frazier on Saturday. Overflow crowds continued through the weekend at the Old Decatur Courthouse, the Decatur Library, Decatur City Hall, Decatur Presbyterian Church and other locations on the Decatur Square.

“This year’s festival was even bigger than last year. We are thrilled with the overwhelming community support for the event and thank the hundreds of volunteers and business partners who helped us make it successful,” said DBF Executive Director Daren Wang. “We have already started planning for the 2008 festival, so mark your calendars now for next Labor Day weekend.”

Local merchants reported brisk business through the weekend as crowds spilled over into restaurants and retail outlets in the downtown Decatur area. “Last year during the book festival we set an all-time record for our business. This year we broke that record both days,” said Jessica Williams, co-owner of Java Monkey.

The festival kicked off Saturday with 700 children and parents parading through the streets, many in costumes, and then gathering at the Target Children’s Stage on the MARTA plaza to hear Public Broadcasting Atlanta’s Alicia Ames Steele read from the Maurice Sendak book, “Where the Wild Things Are.” “This year the festival more than quadrupled the size of the tent that housed the Target Children’s Stage and still had standing-room-only at most events.” Wang said.

The festival closed Sunday night with a concert by popular Atlanta singer/songwriter Shawn Mullins.

This year the festival also added field trips on Friday in partnership with local schools. Close to 2,000 students came to hear authors and storytellers and watch illustrators demonstrate their craft. Other festival highlights this year included a Health and Wellness studio, sponsored by DeKalb Medical, and the Azul Book Market Stage for festival exhibitors. Local and regional authors were featured at the Java Monkey Local Authors stage while numerous singer/songwriters filled the Eddie’s Attic Stage and the 99X Music Stage.

Poetry was big news at this year’s festival which featured two Pulitzer Prize-winning poets. Decatur resident Natasha Trethewey, winner of the 2007 Pulitzer for Poetry, was featured in conversation with 2006 Pulitzer winner Claudia Emerson. They are the first two southern women to win the Pulitzer in poetry.

Trethewey and another festival featured author, Matt Lassiter, were honored with the 2007 Lillian Smith Awards. Presented by the Southern Regional Council and the University of Georgia Libraries, the award honors authors for outstanding writing about the American South. Awards went to Trethewey for “Native Guard” and Lassiter for “The Silent Majority: Suburban Politics in the Sunbelt South.”

With authors from renowned native American novelist Sherman Alexie, and culinary mystery queen Diane Mott Davidson to Jamaican native novelist and Atlanta resident Fiona Zedde, book lovers found an alphabet soup of authors to suit every taste.