On Oct. 3, when Kirkus Prize-winning memoirist and poet Saeed Jones delivers his keynote speech kicking off the annual Decatur Book Festival , another book festival will be making its debut 7 miles away in Atlanta.

Founder Alyssa Evans, 25, was unaware of the overlap when she picked that date to launch the inaugural Atlanta Book Festival .

“When we realized it was on the same day, we were like, you know what? Let’s just go ahead and add to the fun of the book festivities that are already happening,” she said.

The ability to focus on the upside of a situation is indicative of the enthusiasm the Douglasville native brings to her endeavors. A graduate of Emory University with a degree in psychology, Evans is pursuing a career in marketing by day — but her passion is for books.

“We a

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