If you Googled Howard Dean, rogue cops, Satchel Paige and China's Cultural Revolution what would possibly come up?
Only one thing, the Concord Festival of Authors.
Entering its 17th season, this year's festival begins Wednesday with a reading from "Howard Dean's Prescription for Real Healthcare Reform" by the former 2004 presidential candidate and concludes Sunday, Nov. 8 with an open mic poetry reading at Emerson Umbrella, 40 Stow St., Concord.
In between, established authors, emerging authors, local authors and authors of some of the season's most timely books will be appearing at venues in and around Concord and Lowell.
Organized by Rob Mitchell, this year's Festival takes place Oct. 21 to Nov. 8 and includes more than 40 authors and 23 events.
"I'm always looking for authors who've written about topics of interest to the reading public. It varies so much from year to year that it's hard to settle on a theme that runs through each festival," he said.
Mitchell said this year's festival seems to have a greater focus on social issues like health care reform, the environment, graceful aging and sensible eating, rather than fiction.
He said attendance over the last several years has ranged from 3,000 to 3,500 and is "almost totally dependent on the renown of the authors."
In a literary doubleheader on Oct. 26, Larry Tye will discuss his new biography "Satchel: The Life and Times of an American Legend" and Dick Lehr will discuss "The Fence: A Police Cover-up Along Boston's Racial Divide" at the Trinitarian Congregational Church, 54 Walden St., Concord. While Tye's book "untangles the myth from the truth" of the baseball career of Leroy "Satchel" Paige, Lehr explores the beating of a black Boston police officer by fellow officers and the cover-up that followed.
Noting both Tye's and Lehr's books explore racial issues in America, Mitchell said their joint appearance is especially timely in light of the recent controversy involving the arrest of Harvard University scholar Louis Gates.
On Nov. 1 at a 3 p.m. presentation of New Literary Voices at the Fowler Library, Wayland author Xujun Eberlein will discuss her book, "Apologies Forthcoming," about growing up during the turmoil of China's Cultural Revolution.
Mitchell expects considerable public interest in Jill Hunting's new memoir, "Finding Pete: Rediscovering the Brother I Lost in Vietnam." She will appear Tuesday, Nov. 3 at Kerem Shalom, 659 Elm St., in Concord.
