Oliver Stone, Alan Cumming to Speak at Book Festival in Boca

Oliver Stone and Alan Cumming are among the heavy hitters from “History & Hollywood”—the shared theme of this year’s festivities—who will speak at the eighth iteration of the Palm Beach Book Festival, slated for March 12 at Florida Atlantic University.

Returning to in-person programming after a two-year hiatus (last year’s Book Festival was presented virtually), the events lineup welcomes four literary and cultural luminaries for moderated discussions with expert journalists and thinkers.

It opens 10 a.m. March 12 with Dr. Imani Perry, the Hughes-Rogers Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University, whose wide range of scholarly work spans from theatre to racial equality studies to hip-hop. She will discuss her newly released book South to America, about how the history, rituals and landscapes of the American South inform the country as a whole, with moderator Leigh Haber, editor of Oprah’s Book Club.

At 11:15, Joseph Papa, a best-selling author and publicist, will moderate a discussion with irrepressible bon vivant Alan Cumming, the multi-hyphenate singer, dancer, actor and author of children’s books and the best-selling memoir Not My Father’s Son, which doubles as a whodunit about Cumming’s mysterious genealogy.

After an hour-long lunch break, the festival continues at 1:15 p.m. with esteemed journalist Garrett Graff, whose 700-page, fastidiously researched Watergate: A New History may well be the last word on this most consequential presidential scandal of the modern era. Mark Thompson, president and CEO of the New York Times Company, will moderate the discussion.

The festival concludes at 2:30 p.m. with Oliver Stone, who will receive its Change Maker Award, honoring an icon, mover or shaker. Screenwriter Alan Loeb will moderate a conversation with the controversial filmmaker and conspiracy theorist, whose five decades of film have shaped American conversations about war, music, politics and beyond through titles such as “Platoon,” “Born on the Fourth of July,” “Wall Street,” “The Doors” and “JFK.” Stone has authored or co-authored eight books, and will discuss his memoir Chasing the Light: Writing, Directing, and Surviving Platoon, Midnight Express, Scarface, Salvador, and the Movie Game.

Tickets are $25 per discussion and can be purchased at fauevents.com or by calling 561/297-6124.

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