Three authors share Tucson Festival of Books distinction

It is an unlikely group, to be sure, these “Three Amigos” who have become the heart of the Tucson Festival of Books.

J.A. Jance grew up in Bisbee, earned her degrees from the UA, and became one of America’s most popular storytellers. Now 77, she has written 49 books. All of them have been law-and-order mysteries set in the West, many in Cochise County.

Luis Alberto Urrea was born in Tijuana, raised in San Diego, and is known for his novels about Mexican American life along the border. He first endeared himself to Tucson — and vice versa — while researching “The Hummingbird’s Daughter” in the early 2000s.

Thomas Perry is a native New Yorker and graduate of Cornell. He was a TV screenwriter and producer before beginning his full-time career as an author of urban mysteries.

As different as they are, personally, the three authors have one significant thing in common: They have taken part in all 12 previous Tucson book festivals, and they will make it 13-for-13 the weekend of March 12-13 at the University of Arizona.

Festival planners began unveiling their 2022 author list this week and Jance, Urrea and Perry were at the top of the list. Other participants will include Billy Collins, C.J. Box, Craig Johnson, Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker, Lisa Genova, Fiona Davis and Mary Roach.

Bob Odenkirk is coming. So is Jason Mott, who received this year’s National Book Award for fiction.

“We couldn’t be happier with the authors who’ve agreed to come,” Executive Director Melanie Morgan said. “It’s been a strange, difficult 18 months. I think all of us are looking forward to seeing each other again.”

This will be Tucson’s first in-person book festival since the spring of 2019. In 2020, the event was canceled at the last minute due to COVID. The 2021 festival, held last spring, was a virtual affair. Authors participated from home and the programs were streamed online.

Of the 255 authors scheduled to appear in March, none are more familiar with Tucson — or us with them — than Jance, Urrea and Perry.

They met at the first festival, in 2009. Over time they became friends. One of the reasons they keep coming back is to catch up with one another.

Another? Tucson itself.

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“I’ll have at least one meal at Le Rendez-vous,” Jance said. Urrea will visit The Cup at Hotel Congress. “Chilaquiles!” he said. “And as much desert as I can get, even if it’s just a drive through Gate’s Pass.”

A third reason for coming is the warm reception they get from their audiences at the festival. Their sessions usually attract capacity crowds. Their books are always bestsellers at the UA Bookstore.

Jance and Urrea were familiar faces here even before they received those first invitations to the 2009 Tucson festival. Not only did Jance live nearby, her Joanna Brady series of mysteries were set in and around Bisbee. Urrea also lived here for a time. Tucson is where he met his wife, Cindy, then a reporter for the Tucson Citizen.

Perry had no such connection here, but he did have a fan: Bill Viner, one of the festival’s co-founders. “I like to read mysteries,” Viner explained. “I liked reading his. I thought he’d be a good fit.”

Perry was pleasantly surprised by the experience. “I had appeared at the Poisoned Pen Bookstore in Scottsdale, but I’d never been to Tucson,” he recalled. “I was prepared to take part in a small, first-time event that was just getting organized. Instead, my first night there I walked into a reception with hundreds of guests and some ladies playing harps!”

His favorite moment? “The highlight was getting to have a one-on-one conversation with Elmore Leonard. He was as wise, witty and unassuming as his books.”

Jance now lives near Seattle, Urrea near Chicago and Perry near Los Angeles. All three have become literary stars, but each of them blocks early March for their annual pilgrimage back to Tucson.

“Honestly, it’s one of the best literary festivals in the country and I’m honored to be one of the ‘founding authors,’” Urrea said. “If I could only do one festival a year, this would be it.”

Footnotes

Should the public health environment change between now and early March, festival planners will adapt to the situation. They communicate regularly with Dr. Richard Carmona, the university’s Office of Campus Health, and the Pima County Health Department. “If conditions change, we’ll change,” Morgan said. “I think we proved two years ago that we’ll do what we need to do to keep people safe.” In 2020, the festival was the first major event in Arizona to cancel because of the emerging pandemic.

T. Jefferson Parker, another festival favorite, has his own streak going in Tucson. He will make his 11th straight festival appearance in March. For a complete list of festival authors visit tucsonfestivalofbooks.org.

The Pima County Public Library played a critical role in the early days of the book festival, particularly in the recruitment of authors. Cases in point: Jance was lured to the festival by library staffer Nancy Ledeboer. One of her library associates, Helene Woodhams, first recruited Urrea. Ledeboer and Woodhams were the first two chairs of the festival’s Book and Author Committee, the team of volunteers that screens and invites authors to the festival.