The Vegas Valley Book Festival is this Friday night and all-day Saturday with events at the Historic Fifth Street School, the Inspire Theatre, and The Writer’s Block.
KNPR talked with Danielle Milam of the Clark County Public Library. Milam is co-chair of the festival's steering committee.
These are some of the highlights from our talk:
What’s your favorite thing about this festival?
It’s such a great festival. There are a lot of reasons I absolutely love it. First of all, it’s in downtown Las Vegas, and it’s absolutely gorgeous this time of year. And, we’re at the Fifth Street School. And this year we’re stretching it up to East Fremont at the Inspire Theatre after a day of festivities, October 15. That’s just a lovely setting. The second thing is that it’s a festival for all kinds of folks that love writing, that love reading, journalism, graphic novels, illustration. A lot of creatives get together and get involved in the life of the mind in Las Vegas.
Is there any particular workshop or talk that you’re really excited about?
We’ve got several Pulitzer Prize-winning authors coming in. During the day, we’ve got Stacy Schiff. She finished her book on the Salem witch trials (“The Witches: Salem, 1692”). It is a fascinating story. Craig Johnson is the author of the Longmire series. It’s become a really popular TV show (A&E network).
During the evening event - called “After Dark,” – at the Inspire Theatre, we’ll be featuring Katherine Boo who is an amazing journalist. She wrote about the underground world of the slums of Mumbai. She tells some very powerful stories. Also, at the Inspire Theatre we’ll have Adam Johnson. His latest novel is “The Orphan Master’s Son (2012).
Did the “After Dark” stuff come organically because we want to differentiate ourselves from the kid’s books?
You know, this is our fifteenth anniversary year and every year the festival morphs. This year the Black Mountain Institute, Nevada Humanities, and The Writer’s Block really got together this “After Dark” event. This “After Dark” event is going to be a little smaller. The conversations there are going to be really exciting.
Danielle Milam, Planning and Development Director, Clark County Public Library
