For a decade, the Hawaii Council of Teachers of English and the Hawaii Writing Project have promoted book clubs — especially for 12- to 24-year-olds — in the Islands through their Celebrate Reading program, founded by Lorna Hershinow, a self-proclaimed "reading activist" and instructor in the University of Hawai'i English department.

Each summer a book list is released and the year of reading novels, short stories and nonfiction culminates in the one-day Literature Festival, where participants get to mingle with authors of the books they've read, literature-circle mentors and book club members.

This 10th anniversary edition features an all-star lineup of local and international writers.

Of particular note is Filipino writer Lakambini Sitoy, who recently released "Jungle Planet," her second collection of steely short stories, in the Philippines. After postgraduate literature studies at Roskilde University in Copenhagen, Denmark, she is back in her hometown working on a novel.

Frequent Hawai'i visitor Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston will talk about "Farewell to Manzanar," her seminal memoir of life in an internment camp, and her historical novel "Legend of Firehorse Woman."

Also on hand will be Oregon-based Graham Salisbury, author of the acclaimed "Eyes of the Emperor," about the 100th Battalion in the wake of Pearl Harbor, and long-distance swimmer Lynn Cox, who recounts her daredevil life (she's the first person to swim a mile in freezing Antarctic waters) in "Swimming to Antarctica."

Festival participants will hear readings and meet with authors in three 45-minute conversations.

Along with the stellar lineup of writers, the organizers pulled off a literary coup by getting Haruki Murakami to give a pre-festival reading and 30-minute question-and-answer session on Thursday.

The event, says Hershinow, can be "transformative for kids who never have a dialogue about the books they read."