Looking back, way back, to the first Tucson Festival of Books in 2009, it is easy to remember such literary lights as Elmore Leonard, Jacqueline Winspear and Craig Childs that weekend. Thomas Perry was there. So was Bob Odenkirk.
But chances are only a few of us will remember a soft-spoken young writing instructor from Pima Community College, a woman whose first book had been released just 17 days before the festival began.
Her name: Jillian Cantor. Her book: “The September Sisters.”
“It’s true, I was there,” Cantor laughed last week. “My first book had just come out, and I talked about it on the Young Adult stage that year. Afterward, I signed a few books. Who knew they’d keep inviting me back?”
Not only have they kept inviting her back — Cantor is making her 12th festival appearance this weekend — she has become one of Tucson’s most popular authors, her ability to fill a room only a step or two behind such festival favorites Luis Alberto Urrea, J.A. Jance and T. Jefferson Parker.
Of all the big names on the marquee this weekend, only a handful will see fewer empty seats than will Cantor.
“Tucson loves her, for sure,” said Jody Hardy, a festival volunteer who selects novelists for the event. “She has been a big draw here for a while now. It’s cool that she was starting out as an author at the same time the festival started out as an event. They’ve kind of grown up together.”
At least some of Cantor’s popularity here is provincial. All 12 of her books have been published since she arrived from Philadelphia in 2000. Still, there is far more to Cantor’s appeal than her ZIP code. Her characters are relatable, her plotlines unique. Her stories always have room for one more participant: you, the reader.
Tucson is simply the headquarters of the Jillian Cantor fan club. Consider this: Her latest novel, “The Fiction Writer,” was released Nov. 28 by Park Row. The initial press run was 75,000 copies, a big number for any modern author.
Tucson author Jillian Cantor is making her 12th Tucson Festival of Books appearance this weekend.
Clearly, the fiction writer who wrote “The Fiction Writer” has come a long way since that first visit to the book festival 15 years ago.
“Honestly, I had no idea what to expect when I drove to the festival that first morning,” Cantor confessed. “My book had just come out two or three weeks before, and I had done a couple of small events here in Tucson. One was at Antigone, I think, the other at the Barnes & Noble store on Broadway. I just assumed the book festival would be something like those. Obviously, it wasn’t. If I’d known how many people would be there, I would have been a lot more nervous about it.”
In 2010, Cantor returned with another young adult novel, “The Life of Glass.” In 2011, it was “The Transformation of Things.”
The tipping point in Cantor’s career came with the release of “Margo” in 2013. Writing this time for adults, she crafted a story featuring Anne Frank’s little-known sister.
“That’s about the time I first starting hearing Jillian’s name,” Hardy said. “When I read ‘Margo’ and found out she lived here in Tucson, I was pretty sure she would become popular here. Historical fiction was really starting to emerge as a popular genre. Jillian was a quality writer who had found her own niche, writing about women who’d been forgotten by history. You see a lot of books like that now, but ‘Margo’ was one of the first.”
Cantor followed a similar formula with “The Hours Count” in 2015, “The Lost Letter” in 2017, and “In Another Time” in 2019. All three found their way onto the book festival’s bestseller lists. Audiences learned to arrive early for her presentations.
Cantor’s last festival appearance was two years ago, when overflow crowds gathered to hear about her Gatsby spinoff, “Beautiful Little Fools.”
Sometimes, the festival finds her in places you wouldn’t expect.
“Not long ago I was out having lunch with a friend, and someone came up and knew who I was because she had seen me at the book festival,” Cantor said. “That’s not the sort of thing that ever happens to me.”
Readers aren’t the only ones who have learned to love Cantor’s work. Her circle of appreciative peers is expanding, too. In the introduction of her own new book, “The Leftover Woman,” author Jean Kwok mentions Cantor by name.
Over the years, the Tucson Festival of Books has become a family outing at the Cantor house.
“I don’t think my boys came the first year, but they always came after that,” she said. “Not to see me. They were both big readers, and they wanted to meet R.L. Stine. They wanted to meet the authors they were reading over the years. They kind of grew up with the book festival, too.”
The tradition will not be ending soon. Cantor is now completing the final edits on her next project, “The Greatest Lie of All,” scheduled for release next December.
FOOTNOTES
Author J.A. Jance has invited the public to join her and the students of Bisbee High School for an on-campus “assembly” Monday, March 11, at 11 a.m. Jance, who will be here for the Tucson Festival of Books, was raised in Bisbee and is a graduate of Bisbee High. Her uber-popular Joanna Brady series of mysteries — featuring the sheriff of Cochise County — is set in Bisbee. Learn more at tucne.ws/jancebisbee.
The life and literature of Aurelie Sheehan will be celebrated Thursday, March 21, at the University of Arizona Poetry Center. The author of six books and a professor in the university’s Department of English for 24 years, Sheehan died on Aug. 13. Friends, colleagues and former students are welcome to attend a program that will begin at 7 p.m. Visit tucne.ws/uapcsheehan for more information.
Pushcart Prize-winning poet John Murillo will appear at the UA Poetry Center Thursday, March 14, at 7 p.m. Get more information at tucne.ws/uapcmurillo.
The 2023 Tucson Festival of Books brought hundreds of authors and large crowds to the University of Arizona Mall March 4-5. Here are some highlights from the festival. Video by Aidan Wohl / Arizona Daily Star
