Stephen King. Walter Isaacson. Pat Conroy. Some great literary names are coming to the Savannah Book Festival this weekend.

As you'd expect with names like that - and other very important ones as well - the Book Festival is garnering national attention. CSPAN Book TV will feature live coverage of the main festival day Saturday at various venues around Telfair Square.

All due respect to the awesome headliners, but when I first saw the list of festival authors a few months ago, I knew which one I most wanted to interview: S.C. Gwynne, author of what I believe to be one of the best history books of the last several years, Empire of the Summer Moon, an amazing chronicle of violence, war and family on the West Texas frontier.

My talk with Gwynne is in this issue, as well as a nice chat I had with the beloved and always-interesting Janisse Ray, who debuts her new book Drifting Into Darien at the Book Festival.

Speaking of festivals on Telfair Square, you'll notice the special insert in this week's print issue about the upcoming PULSE Festival, sponsored by the Telfair Museums and beginning Feb. 27. We're thrilled to once again be media sponsors for this cutting-edge event which has almost no comparison anywhere else in the country.

We'll have much more in-depth coverage in the weeks to come. And like the Savannah Book Festival, PULSE is also free and open to the public.

Connect is also sponsoring this weekend's No Control Festival, an ambitious all-day gathering of local and regional indie bands. See our story by Bill DeYoung this issue.

Also, big ups to our Jessica Leigh Lebos for the first Connect Savannah chat with new Mayor Edna Jackson. In this issue the mayor speaks at length with Jessica about the recent shuttering of the Food Lion on MLK Boulevard and future options for addressing the "food desert" on the Westside.