Columnist Maureen Dowd, novelist T.C. Boyle and U.S. Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera will be among the best-selling, noted authors heading to the 2017 Tucson Festival of Books, which writes its ninth chapter March 11-12 as the third-largest book festival in the nation.
About 350 established and emerging authors, 185 exhibitors and 29 food vendors will pack the University of Arizona Mall and adjacent buildings for two days of presentations, panel discussions, workshops, demonstrations, tours, book signings and performances.
Here is a quick overview of a few things you can expect at this year’s Tucson Festival of Books:
A few names and topics:
Thomas Coraghessan Boyle has written a shelf full of novels and short stories. His newest, “The Terranauts,” is a story of the escapades of the four women and four men shut into “Ecosphere 2,” a fictionalized version of Biosphere 2, the biodome just north of Tucson in Oracle.
Dowd, the sassy, acerbic New York Times columnist who writes about American politics, popular culture and international affairs, can have you laughing or spitting your morning coffee across the table. Her latest book is on the 2016 presidential race, “The Year of Voting Dangerously.”
Named U.S. poet laureate in 2015, Herrera is the nation’s first Chicano laureate and the author of more than 30 books, including his celebrated “Half the World in Light: New and Selected Poems.”
In addition, Tyler Meier, executive director of UA Poetry Center and a TFOB Literary Committee member, says that Arizona’s Poet Laureate, Alberto Ríos, will team up with Herrera on a panel titled “Because We Come from Everything: Poetry and Migration.”
Dava Sobel combines sass and science in her book “The Glass Universe,” which is about women astronomers overcoming the biases of the profession. “Sounds like the stellar sibling of the movie ‘Hidden Figures’,” says TFOB steering committee member Darrell Durham.
John Sandford is the nom de plume of John Roswell Camp, who won the Pulitzer Prize in journalism in 1986 for a series written during the midwest farm crisis. The author of about 40 novels, his take-your-breath-away thrillers have been described as “exquisitely paced,” with “realistic, smart-aleck dialogue and laser-sharp characters.”
Teens and young adults will recognize James Dashner, author of “The Maze Runner” series, which has been made into two movies, with a third scheduled for release in 2018. His newest book is “Fever Code,” a prequel to “The Maze Runner.”
Must sees
• Kids stuff — Children’s chair Kathy Short says there will be 55 authors in children’s and teens area, several of whom have won or were contenders for the Caldecott, Newbery and other major awards. For instance, Nikki Grimes was chosen as the 2017 Laura Ingalls Wilder Award winner at the American Library Association meeting earlier this month.
Of course, there will also be costumed characters, interactive activities with authors and storytelling to engage and entertain kids (and their parents).
- Can’t-believe-your-eyes science — Be prepared to exclaim “Oh, wow!” as Science City at the book festival will once again merge literacy and science to spark curiosity and interest in STEM — science, technology, engineering and math — and demonstrate how science impacts and interacts with daily lives.
Science City, co-hosted by the UA’s College of Science and Bio5 Institute, is divided into thematic “neighborhoods” — Science in Art, Science of Food, Science of Natural World, Science of Tomorrow and Science of You. There will also be tours and open houses at UA labs.
- What’s cooking? “We’re very excited about this year’s lineup, and I think it represents a great cross-section of last year’s top cookbooks,” says Jennifer Slothower, who heads the Culinary tent with Mary Barker.
“This year is a bit more of a mash-up of different styles, cuisines and personalities,” she says.
A few of the front-burner authors include:
Julia Turshen, whose “Small Victories” has been listed on nearly every “best cookbooks of 2016” list “and has heaps of praise ladled onto it,” says Slothower.
John Ash, whose “Cooking Wild” touches on foraged and uncultivated products.
Kelly Vaughn, editor of Arizona Highways magazine, brings the love of cooking and food back to some of our favorite restaurants across the state.
•The Pima County Public Library’s Nuestra Raíces line-up includes Julissa Arce, whose book “My (Underground) American Dream” explores how she became a major figure on Wall Street despite being undocumented, says Helene Woodhams, who heads the festival’s literary committee . The lineup includes discussions on immigration and human rights, and a panel on fiction without borders featuring Álvaro Enrigue.
- Harrison tribute — A panel honoring poet, novelist and essayist Jim Harrison, who died in March at his home in Patagonia, will feature his good friends Philip Caputo, Doug Peacock and Terry O’Donnell, says Woodhams.
Caputo, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, was Harrison’s neighbor and hunting buddy in Patagonia. Peacock is a “renegade environmentalist” who was the model for Ed Abbey’s character of Hayduke in “The Monkey Wrench Gang,” and O’Donnell was Harrison’s editor for many years.
“I think this will be a lively discussion — the participants (and Harrison) all came up during the early seventies and hung out with the likes of Ed Abbey, Hunter S. Thompson, and the new journalism crowd,” says Woodhams. “I don’t think this will be a discussion you’ll hear just anywhere.”
Start planning
It’s not too early to start planning how to experience the Tucson Festival of Books. Find the list of festival presenters at TucsonFestivalofBook.org
The presenters are listed alphabetically and by genre with venue, a short bio, photo and work.
