A local bookstore owner says remembering the following statistic reminds him daily not to take his work too seriously:

Dan Brown has, of last count, sold 40 million copies of his novel “The Da Vinci Code,” making it far and away one of the most widely read books of all time.

What more could a former English teacher ask for? How about the ratings of “American Idol,” which regularly draws nearly 30 million viewers each week?

This comparison might discourage some writers. If that’s true of those involved in putting on Newburyport’s first-ever literary festival this weekend, they’re not talking about it.

They’re too focused on the irreplaceable, intimate pleasure books still offer in a multi-media world.

“Books don’t give you all the information. You have to use your imagination. You bring different brain cells to the equations,” says organizer Vicki Hendrickson, who was raised in the “cliché but true” storytelling South in an era before television. “I don’t play video games, but I can say that there’s something very sensual about the pages, the typeset, the book jacket, just the intimacy of the language. It’s so personal in many ways.

“Not all books, of course, are this way. To find a really good book, you might have to browse a bit, it requires more of you I think, but your return is so much more significant.”

The Newburyport Literary Festival, taking place throughout downtown on Friday, April 28, and Saturday, April 29, will honor not only the role that books still play in our world, but also the contributions of more than five dozen presenting writers. It will also celebrate the life and work of Andre Dubus, a “writer’s writer” who was counted among the top literary figures in the country and influenced another generation through his weekly Thursday night writing groups at his home in Haverhill until he died in 1999.

“He brought a real spiritual intensity to the process, and believed in it as an important thing to do. That’s very supportive to a younger writer,” says event organizer Dick Ravin, who joined Dubus’ writing group in 1993 when he was ready to begin revising the first draft of his novel. Ravin now teaches and leads a writing group at Newburyport Adult and Community Education, in which he models what he learned from Dubus, offering budding authors the opportunity to be in the company of other writers and to learn not just to write like writers, but think like writers.

“I probably didn’t think of myself as a writer until being in Andre’s workshop. I felt a kind of intimacy. Someone of his incredible accomplishments felt my work was worthy to be talked about. And he was incredibly helpful. At one point I was stuck on a construction problem. It was hanging me up for months. Finally I went to his house in the middle of the day, and in about 30 seconds he said, ‘do this,’ ‘try that.’ And it was exactly the right thing to do. He was incredibly generous in his concern for other people.”

Ravin’s peers in the writing group are too numerous to name in full, but those who will be presenting at the festival include Richard Russo, Edie Clark, Frieda Arkin, Elizabeth Brink and Peter Orner, whose novel “The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo” just received an enviable review in the Boston Globe. Ravin and others continue to meet on a biweekly schedule.

With the support of Newburyport Five Cents Savings Bank and the Institution for Savings and additional funding from Provident Bank, organizers plan to foster that same sense of community through the festival, in memory of Dubus this year and in honor of others for many years to come.

“Because it’s the first time we’ve done it, we have no idea what we’ve done. It feels right it feels very good. It feels rich,” says program committee member and literary agent David Miller, who helped secure some of the authors.

“For the authors, we hope they have a chance to enjoy a really lovely setting and a fun event, that they can connect with readers. We worked hard at making it an event we hope the authors will enjoy,” Miller says, observing that most authors’ tours take them to huge auditoriums or the backs of bookstores. “When Richard Russo reads at the Unitarian Church, we hope it’s filled with 600 people, and it’s my guess that he hasn’t done a reading in such a beautiful space.”

At this moment, on trains, at lunch tables, in bathtubs, at coffeehouses around the globe, countless readers are in a state of suspended animation, temporarily removed from their bodies while their minds journey through time, across continents, even deeper into themselves. Hendrickson says she wants everyone who comes to the festival to leave excited about this transcendental alchemy.

“I want people to take away an enthusiasm about books and reading, getting to know writers and having book discussions,” she says. “If you ask people their favorite book, if you start a conversation about books, people get so enthusiastic about it, they can’t wait to tell you about reading experiences they’ve had that really impacted their life. They’re not just nostalgic about it, but they talk about how it impacted them.”

Ravin is fond of a truism that emerges in one of Dubus’ writings, based on an interview with author Richard Yates, who had been his instructor at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Yates had recently received a very modest grant.

“Andre explains in this piece about being a little embarrassed at Yates being so grateful for such a small amount of money. So he asks him about it. Yates says, ‘I don’t need money, Andre, I need readers.’

“It’s that idea that he always put forward. The connection to readers. That magical thing that happens when you put it on a page and do it well,” Ravin says.

schedule of events

Tickets for a gala on Friday night are $50, but all other events are free. A full schedule, complete program descriptions and a map are available online at www.newburyportliteraryfestival.org. Program guides will be available at the Information Center tent at Market Square. Most authors will be available to sign their works at scheduled times throughout the day.

8:30am
Stella’s of Middle Street–Poetry //
Breakfast with the Poets, with presenters Rhina P. Espaillat, Karen Nelson, Alfred Nicol and Richard Wollman, moderated by Michael Cantor.

9:00am
Montessori School–Children’s //
Ant Dancers and Spaghetti Mice: Kids will learn will how to illustrate their own books as Ed Emberley reads aloud and illustrates a new story. Bring a pad of paper, pens, markers, crayons, and anything else that will get your creative juices flowing.

10:00am
• Licorice & Sloe–Fiction //

Pushcart Prize nominee Elisabeth Brink reads from “Save Your Own”

• Jabberwocky Bookstore–Fiction

Acclaimed author Ellen Cooney reads from “A Private Hotel for Gentle Ladies”

• The Book Rack–Fiction //

Peter Orner, author of the acclaimed Esther Stories, reads from “The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo”

• Newburyport Public Library Program Room–Poetry //

Poetry in Translation: noted translators will discuss their work and how they do it. Presenters include Bill Coyle, Rhina P. Espaillat, Midge Goldberg, A. M. Juster, José Edmundo Ocampo Reyes and Jan Schreiber, with moderator Len Krisak.

• First Religious Society, UU Church–Fiction // Doctor, You’re Killing Me: Three practitioners of the medical mystery/thriller read from their work and discuss where they get their inspiration and what they love about the form, with presenters Keith Ablow, Hallie Ephron and Tess Gerritsen.

• Location TBA–Fiction // Reading Andre Dubus, with a presenter to be determined

• Old South Church–Nonfiction //

“Timothy; or, Notes of an Abject Reptile” with author Verlyn Klinkenborg

10:30am

• City Hall Council Chambers– Fiction // The Stories That Come: Join Margaret-Love Denman and three short story masters (Steve Almond, Pamela Painter and Nancy Zafris) as they read from their works and discuss the process of crafting what Tobias Wolff has called “the perfect American form.”

• Firehouse Center–Fiction //

Working with Andre Dubus: Over the course of three decades, Andre Dubus published 12 books of fiction and two collections of essays. A writer’s writer, he commanded a loyal following of readers. What was it like to guide and shape his work and his career? Andre’s literary agent, Philip Spitzer, and two of his editors, William B. Goodman and Edie Clark, share stories from the front lines of the publishing world. Here’s what it took to get one of America’s master writers into print.

11am-5pm
Newburyport Art Association–Exhibit// Artists’ Books from Boston Book Arts

11am
Montessori School–Children’s // Take a Ride with Chris Demarest, who shares his experiences flying with the U.S. Coast Guard and Hurricane Hunters gathering research for his books.

11:30am
• The Book Rack–Fiction // Freida Arkin reads from “Hedwig and Berti”

• Jabberwocky Bookstore–Nonfiction // Bill Littlefield reads from “Baseball Days”

Noon
• Newburyport Public Library Program Room–Poetry // X. J. Kennedy reads from “The Lords of Misrule” and other poems

• First Religious Society, UU Church–Fiction // Richard Russo reads from “The Whore’s Child”

• Old South Church–Fiction // Rum, Royals, Carnegie & Carthage: Turning Historical Fact into Fiction, a panel discussion with presenters Ellen Cooney, David Anthony Durham, Anne Easter Smith and Dawn Clifton Tripp.

1:00pm
• Firehouse Center–Nonfiction //

Songbird Celebration with ornithologist Miyoko Chu and philosopher and musician David Rothenberg

• Montessori School/Children’s // Make Your Own Book with Susan Kapuscinski Gaylord

• The Book Rack–Fiction // Steve Almond Reads from “The Evil B. B. Chow and Other Stories”

• Location TBA–Fiction // Pamela Painter reads from her collection of short fiction “The Long and Short of It” and discusses how to write like a writer and think like a writer with “What If?,” her book of fiction writing exercises.

1:30pm
City Hall Council Chambers–Nonfiction // Biographer John Belohlavek discusses Newburyport’s first mayor and his book “Broken Glass: Caleb Cushing and the Shattering of the Union”

2:00pm
• Newburyport Public Library Program Room–Poetry // Readings from The Powow River Anthology, as popular local group with a national reputation. Presenters include David Berman, Michael Cantor, Robert Crawford, Rhina P. Espaillat, Lois Frankenberger, A. M. Juster, Len Krisak, Deborah Warren and Richard Wollman, moderated by Alfred Nicol.

• Old South Church–Fiction

Writing Short: A Conversation on a Greater Form with David Crouse and Nancy Zafris.

• First Religious Society, UU Church–Fiction // Tess Gerritsen reads from “Vanish,” the latest of her best-selling thrillers to feature Boston medical examiner Maura Isles and homicide detective Jane Rizzoli.

• The Book Rack–Nonfiction // Jim Collins reads from “The Last Best League” about the Cape Cod summer baseball league

2:30pm
Jabberwocky Bookstore–Fiction

Dawn Clifton Tripp reads from “The Season of Open Water,” the second in her Westport, Mass.-based trilogy

3:00pm
• Plum Island Coffee Roasters–Poetry//

Young Adult Poetry Slam, open to anyone ages 14 to 25, hosted by Simone Beaubien

• Firehouse Center–Fiction // Fiction to Film, with presenters  Jonas Goodman and Richard Russo, moderated by Gerald Peary.

• Montessori School–Nonfiction // A Sense of Where You Are with presenters Jane Brox from Maine, Nancy Weare from Plum Island, and Aine Greaney from Ireland and Newburyport.
 

3:30pm
The Book Rack–Nonfiction // Edie Clark reads from “The View From Mary’s Farm,” a new collection of pieces first published in Yankee Magazine.

4:00pm
• Old South Church–Nonfiction //

Writing on the Basepaths: Jim Collins, Herb Crehan, Bill Littlefield and Bill Nowlin discuss unpacking the myths, taking on the mercenary, and capturing the magic of baseball for the page.

• First Religious Society, UU Church–Fiction // Thursday Night at Andre’s: Five writers—Frieda Arkin, Deborah Joy Corey, Joseph Hurka, Peter Orner and Dick Ravin—who emerged from Dubus’ Thursday night workshop read from their work and talk about what they learned from Andre and their fellow writers

• Location TBA–Fiction // Margaret-Love Denman reads from her recent novel, “Daily Before Your Eyes”

• Newburyport Public Library Program Room–Poetry

Noted poet, translator, critic and reviewer Jan Schreiber reads selections from his five published books, and new work from his manuscript now in progress.

4:30pm
The Purple Onion–Children’s // Mark Karlins reads “Music Over Manhattan”

5:00pm
Newburyport Public Library Program Room–Fiction // Dominican poets Juan Matos and César Sánchez Beras read from their works

7:30pm
Firehouse Center–Fiction // Black & White & Read All Over: Professional actors read short stories by some of the writers celebrated during the festival. Presenters include Andre Dubus III, Rhina Espaillat, Anna Smulowitz, John Tavano and David Zoffoli, with moderator Suzanne Dubus.