Festival of Books brings authors to Sisters

The Sisters Festival of Books will celebrate the rich diversity of the creative spirit of writers in a three-day event set for Friday-Sunday, September 13-15.

The weekend starts with a community StorySlam event at The Belfry on Friday, September 13, featuring storytelling and story-oriented music.

The festival will also offer three workshops: Notions of wealth - a generative writing workshop exploring poverty and creativity, Friday, September 13, 4 to 5:30 p.m. facilitated by Christina Vega & Tina Ontiveros; Writing Workshop for Parents Sunday, September 15, 9:30 to 11 a.m., facilitated by Christina Vega; and Poetry of Belonging: A Workshop for the Poetry-Curious on Sunday, September 15, 3:30 to 5 p.m., facilitated by Beth Wood.

Saturday will serve up a full day of author readings at Sisters Movie House, where attendees can enjoy food and drink while interacting with authors across genres ranging from historical non-fiction to historical fiction, romance to sports writing, true crime to literary fiction.

Sunday, September 15, is devoted to a celebration of local and regional authors.

"We're trying to create a wide range of offerings, starting with the StorySlam on Friday night, to the author faire on Sunday," said organizer Lane Jacobson.

Jacobson said that participants will get to mingle and socialize with authors across a wide range of genres and subject matter.

Among those participating are:

Randall Sullivan, "The Devil's Best Trick: How the Face of Evil Disappeared" (History, Theology); John Larison, "The Ancients" (Speculative, Nature/Environment); Chris Vega, "Vega," (Poetry); William Sullivan, "The Ship in the Ice" (Viking Saga Book 4) (Historical Fiction); and Amanda Skenandore, "The Medicine Woman of Galveston" (Historical Fiction). The full lineup may be found with the online version of this story at http://www.nuggetnews.com.

Authors were recruited through "a combination of 'traditional' methods - going through the publisher and publicists - but also a lot of leaning on our friends in the industry," Jacobson said. "It's a small book world."

He also noted that Sisters' natural beauty and reputation as an arts community are a strong selling point.

"It's not hard to get people to visit Sisters," Jacobson said. "Other than scheduling conflicts, there's no reason to say no."

Jacobson said the festival is committed to both celebrating the local community's creativity, and "bring(ing) more outside authors into contact with our community, which is very arts-heavy, but is only so big."

Jacobson is the owner of Paulina Springs Books, but he emphasizes that the Sisters Festival of Books is "a separate entity from the bookstore."

Sisters Festival of Books is in the process of becoming a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. One of its missions is to develop grants to support local school libraries.

"They really have to fight tooth and nail for funding. It's a mission-driven project, for sure."

Jacobson is looking forward to the event and appreciates the warm support it's received from the community.

"I think it's going to be fun," he said. "We're excited about the different venues."

For more information, visit https://www.sistersfob.org/.

Note: Jim Cornelius is a member of the board of directors of Sisters Festival of Books.