Tucson Festival of Books

Tucson Festival of Books
Status Active
Frequency Annually
Venue University of Arizona Mall
Location(s) Tucson, Arizona
Inaugurated March 14, 2009 (2009-03-14)
Founders Bill Viner, Frank Farias, John M. Humenik, Bruce Beach, Brenda Viner
Attendance 135,000 (2017)
Organized by The Tucson Festival of Books Foundation
Filing status 501(c)3 non-profit organization
Sponsors The Arizona Daily Star, The University of Arizona, Tucson Medical Center, Others
Website http://tucsonfestivalofbooks.org

The Tucson Festival of Books is a free annual book fair held in Tucson, Arizona during the second weekend in March. It was established in 2009 by Bill Viner, Frank Farias, John M. Humenik, Bruce Beach, and Brenda Viner.

History

The first annual festival featured around 450 authors and welcomed over 50,000 regional visitors. For most recent Festival in 2017, attendance reached over 135,000.[1] The event typically includes special programming for children and teens, panels by best-selling and emerging authors, a literary circus, culturally diverse programs, a poetry venue, exhibitor booths and two food courts.[2][3] The Festival's mission is to improve literacy rates among children and adults in Southern Arizona. Since its creation, the Festival has donated over $1.65 million to agencies that improve literacy in the community such as Reading Seed, Literacy Connects, and University of Arizona Literacy Outreach Programs.[4][5] In addition to aiding the fight against illiteracy, the festival also helps the local community tremendously. In a study by a students at the Eller College of Management at the University of Arizona, the festival was found to pump an estimated $4 million into Tucson’s economy annually.[6] The festival has also been covered by C-SPAN in the past, with over 120 videos in the C-SPAN Video Library.[7]

Festival Founders Award

In 2011, the Festival Founders Award was established to recognize exceptional literary achievement. Below is a list of past winners.[8]

YearAuthor
2011Elmore Leonard
2012Larry McMurtry & Diana Ossana
2013R.L. Stine
2014Richard Russo
2015Mitch Albom, Dave Barry, Sam Barry, Greg Isles, Ridley Pearson, Amy Tan & Scott Turow - The Rock Bottom Remainders
2016J.A. Jance
2017T.C. Boyle
2018Billy Collins

See also

References

  1. ↑ "History and Festival Founders". tucsonfestivalofbooks.org. Retrieved 2018-02-02.
  2. ↑ "10th Annual Tucson Festival of Books". visittucson.com. Retrieved 2018-02-02.
  3. ↑ "Tucson Festival of Books". pw.org. Retrieved 2018-02-15.
  4. ↑ "Frequently Asked Questions". tucsonfestivalofbooks.org. Retrieved 2018-02-02.
  5. ↑ "The 2018 Tucson Festival of Books". authorhouse.com. Retrieved 2018-02-15.
  6. ↑ "Tucson Festival of Books Is an Economic Powerhouse". tucson.com. Retrieved 2018-02-02.
  7. ↑ "Tucson Festival of Books". c-span.org. Retrieved 2018-02-15.
  8. ↑ "Digital Marketing Toolkit". tucsonfestivalofbooks.org. Retrieved 2018-02-15.
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