Book and music lovers, don't plan an out-of-town vacation the weekend of May 17-18. That's when the third annual Hawai'i Book & Music Festival will take place on the Honolulu Hale campus, with national and local writers, entertainment, storytelling and poetry slams, a children's area, theatrical performances food and more.

The first event drew 10,000 attendees, the second 20,000, according to event planners.

Writer Michael Ondaatje, winner of a Booker Prize for "The English Patient" (1987), which received an Academy Award for its film version, has committed to appearing. Ondaatje, 64, a Sri Lankan by birth, is the author of five novels and a memoir, "Running in the Family (1982)." His latest is "Divisadero" (Knopf, hardcover, $25), released in May of this year. "Few experiences in contemporary fiction are as sensual and absorbing as making one's way through the pages of an Ondaatje novel," writes Pico Eyer in the New York Review of Books.

Planners are excited that Target, which will open a store on O'ahu in 2009, will be a 2008 sponsor, assisting with the Children's Festival, which will comprise a Keiki Stage, a Meet the Authors Pavilion and a Children's Activities Pavilion.

Event planner Amy Hammond will handle logistics and public relations for the event; she helps put together the widely popular Made in Hawaii festival for the Hawaii Food Industry Association. Volunteer coordinator is Caroline Bond Davis, cbdavis@hawaiiliteracy.org; 349-1874; 200 volunteers are needed.

Information: www.hawaiibookandmusicfestival.org

Reach Wanda A. Adams at wadams@honoluluadvertiser.com.