Las Vegas Book Festival Turns the Page With Their Annual Celebration of Literature
By: Catherine Daleo
Reading time: 2 minutes
The Las Vegas Book Festival, the largest literary event in Nevada, is currently in the middle of their Virtual Book Week now through the 24th.
The festival, produced by the City of Las Vegas and Nevada Humanities, is “the annual celebration of the written, spoken, and illustrated word” and is free and open to the public.
For the first time, it is being held virtually due to COVID-10 restrictions, so book-lovers can attend from the comfort of their home this year and participate at their leisure and availability. Ally Haynes-Hamblen, the City of Las Vegas Director of Cultural Affairs, shared that this is also the first time their festival is being recorded and available online. No matter what people’s schedules are, they can still get to experience everything.
The event features programs for all age groups throughout the week, including story readings, panel discussions, and more, all of which are being shared through the festival’s YouTube channel and Facebook page.
The schedule for the festival is as follows:
- Panel discussions will take place daily at 10 AM and 7 PM;
- Children’s author readings and family-friendly activities will take place at noon and 3 AM respectively;
- Daily poetry session at 8 AM and 5 PM.; and,
- On Saturday, October 24, programming will run continuously from 8 AM. to 7:30 PM to follow the traditional book festival schedule.
Some of the speakers at the festival this year include “60 Minutes” correspondent, political analyst, and author of the New York Times best-seller “The Hardest Job in the World: The American Presidency” John Dickerson; Matthew O’Brien, author of “Dark Days, Bright Nights: Surviving the Las Vegas Storm Drains”; and, all of the authors who contributed to this year’s book, “A Valley of Light and Shadow: Las Vegas Writers on Good and Evil”
Another major part of the festival is the ‘Spark! Youth Poetry Competition’, where local high school students in the 9th through the 12th grade, had until October 1st to register to participate in the contest. To enter, students had to submit three poems which will be judged by a panel that will include poets, authors, educators, and other community members.
Poems could be any of the following styles: prose poetry, free verse, structured poetry, and spoken word.
Three winners will be selected, with the first place winner winning $300, second place winning $200, and third place winning $100.
People can also get involved with this year’s celebration of literature by submitting a selfie with their favorite book in the Best Book Submission.
Send a picture of you and “the best book you’ve read in 2020” for a chance to be showcased on the website or on the festival’s social media platforms. You can do so by emailing your selfie to vegasbookfest@gmail.com.
Lastly, Haynes-Hamblen spoke of the set up for this year’s festival, with it having a “particular focus on Las Vegas authors and themes most relevant to Las Vegas as we centered honoring our community in this year’s festival.”
“The festival is planned and programmed by a team of local literary experts and education specialists representing many sectors of Las Vegas and Southern Nevada,” she said. “This is the 19th year of the festival and we are looking forward to next year’s milestone of year 20.”
The Las Vegas Book Festival is supported by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, and is sponsored by partners like the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the Las Vegas Sun, 98.5 KLUC, NBC Channel 3, and the Mayor’s Fund for LV Life.
For more information or to get updates for the festival, visit their website at http://www.lasvegasbookfestival.com/, and check out their Twitter and Facebook.
* This piece has been updated to make a correction to the sponsor list: Vegas PBS is not a sponsor this year, and the schedule for the event has been amended. *
Sources
Website
https://www.lasvegasnevada.gov/Residents/Arts-Culture/Las-Vegas-Book-Festival
