T he 25th anniversary of the Miami Book Fair International is a milestone for Miami Dade College and the community. November 9 through 16, thousands of book lovers are expected to attend readings and discussions featuring prize-winning, best -selling and emerging authors from the United States and around the world. A quote from The New York Times states “the current wave of book fairs in many ways stems from the Miami Book Fair, which got its start in 1983 and has come to be the model for the others.”
In 2002, the Fair became part of Miami Dade College’s Florida Center for Literary Arts. According to the center’s executive director, Alina Interian, “In 25 years, thanks to our many partners and, especially, the community we serve, the Book Fair has grown into the largest, finest and most innovative literary gathering in the hemisphere.”
One who was active in the creation of the Miami Book Fair was librarian Juanita Ross Johnson. She was born and raised in Mississippi. A graduate of Fisk University in Nashville with a major in history, she earned a master’s degree in library science from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.
Miami Book Fair
Also participating in the Miami Book Fair was Louise A. Geer, Esq. CASE 69 SASS 71, an editor at Hermes Press. Louise and her daughter, Eileen Sabrina Herman, CASE freshman, were in Miami to premier two new books which Louise edited: Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, the complete newspaper dailies: Volume One 1929-1930 and James Bond, the history of the illustrated 007 by Alan J. Porter.
When she is not practicing law, Louise develops projects for Hermes Press about the development of popular culture and its history and the artists. Her ‘first’ essay in the area was a research paper titled “Death by Violence in Little Orphan Annie, a comment on right wing violence in America” for the first American Studies class at CASE taught in 1967 by Bill Randall, PhD, Esq and well known radio talk show host in Cleveland, in the sociology department.