Please join us as the Vegas Valley Book Festival and The Smith Center for the Performing Arts create a special evening in celebration of local book clubs.

Details

Thursday, September 16 | 6:30 — 8:30 pm
The Smith Center for the Performing Arts
241 West Charleston Boulevard., Ste. 111, Las Vegas, NV 89102
Located downtown in the Holsum Design Center

7pm Program begins with readings from the works of the 2010 book festival keynote authors: T.C. Boyle (Tortilla Curtain) and Dennis Lehane (The Given Day). Readings by Kim Russell and Lisa Davis.

• An informal discussion of book club “best practices” will follow.
• Refreshments and appetizers will be provided.
• This event is free but book clubs must RSVP to reserve space.
• RSVP to Eileen Horn, 454‑9746 or eihorn@aol.com

Related Posts:

• 2010 Book Festival Keynote Authors Announced
• Vegas Valley Book Festival Set for Nov. 3–7
• Local Book Clubs Honored at Upcoming Reception and Performance
• Vegas Valley Book Festival Launches New Book Club Program

LAS VEGAS – Organizers of the Vegas Valley Book Festival are seeking nominations for the festival’s “Crystal Bookmark” award, which is presented annually to an individual or organization working to advance the cause of literature in the Las Vegas Valley. The award recognizes those who have made a major contribution to the encouragement of reading in the community through service or through a body of work that enriches, clarifies, or encourages reading and writing in and about the Vegas Valley.

This year, the festival committee is seeking nominations from the public. A special committee will review nominations and select the recipient. The committee is comprised of the festival’s producing organizations and past award recipients.

To nominate an organization, community advocate, author, or public figure, complete the nomination form. Nomination forms can also be printed from the website and mailed to Vegas Valley Book Festival, 401 S. Fourth Street, Ste. 180, LV, NV, 89101. Nominations will be accepted from September 1 through September 30, 2010. The award recipient will be announced in October and honored at the book festival’s closing keynote address, Sunday November 7, 7 pm at the Clark County Library Theater, 1401 E. Flamingo Road

Past recipients of the Crystal Bookmark Award include:

Kris Darnall — One of the originators of the Vegas Valley Book Festival and a former program manager of Nevada Humanities.

John L. Smith — Award-winning columnist for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the author of a dozen nonfiction books, including Sharks in the Desert and Bluegrass Days, Neon Nights, as well as a contributing author to Restless City, the serial novel project of the 2009 book festival.

The Vegas Valley Book Festival is produced by the City of Las Vegas Office of Cultural Affairs; Las Vegas-Clark County Library District; UNLV’s Black Mountain Institute; Las Vegas Review-Journal; Las Vegas chapter of AIGA, the professional association for design; and Nevada Humanities, a festival founder.

For more information about the “Crystal Bookmark” award, call the Vegas Valley Book Festival at (702) 229‑5431.

Related Posts:

• No Related Posts

The central feature of the book festival is the gathering of 100 writers, primarily Nevada authors, participating in a comprehensive range of panel discussions, book signings, workshops, poetry and spoken word performances, exhibitions, children’s literature events, comic book programs and other special events. Authors represent many genres in contemporary fiction and non fiction. Panel discussions reflect a range of themes including the short story in the modern southwest, local science fiction writing, poetry and conflict, writing for the children’s market, and women writers of the American west. Workshops will address memoire writing, the art of storytelling, writing for young adults, pitching stories to local and regional publications, writing short fiction and the nuts and bolts of dealing with agents.

A complete list of featured authors will be released later in summer.

Related Posts:

• No Related Posts

Two acclaimed authors bookend the 2010 festival:

T. C. Boyle, opening keynote speaker on Wednesday, November 3, 7:00 pm at the UNLV Student Union Theater, is an award winning author of 20 novels and over 100 short stories.  His work embodies a mixture of humor, satire and social exploration and includes World’s End (winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award), The Road to Wellville (adapted into a major motion picture), Drop City (a New York Times bestseller and finalist for the National Book Award), and The Women, a best-selling fictionalized account of the private life of Frank Lloyd Wright.

Dennis Lehane, closing keynote on Sunday, November 7, 7:00 pm at the Clark County Library Theater, is best known for his crime thrillers. He has written several award winning novels, including A Drink Before War and the New York Times bestseller Mystic River, which was later made into an Academy Award-winning film, as was his novel, Shutter Island, currently out in theaters.  His most recent book, The Given Day, is an historical epic that is considered the most ambitious work of his career.

Related Posts:

• Vegas Valley Book Festival Set for Nov. 3–7

City-sponsored Event Hosts Wide Range Of Cultural Programs For Community

The ninth annual Vegas Valley Book Festival will take place Nov. 3–7, 2010, with most programs scheduled at the downtown Historic Fifth Street School. The largest literary event in Las Vegas, the book festival will bring together more than 100 authors for panel discussions, readings, book signings, workshops, poetry readings, spoken word performances, exhibitions and other special programs. The five-day festival will offer a Children’s Literature Festival, Comic Book Festival, and a new initiative called “Feasting on Words — A Celebration of Food and Literature.”

In addition, a series of pre-festival events are planned from July to October. Most events are free and open to the public.

Two acclaimed authors will serve as this year’s keynote speakers.

T. C. Boyle, opening keynote speaker on Wednesday, Nov. 3, at 7 p.m. at the UNLV Student Union Theater, is an award-winning author of 20 novels and more than 100 short stories. His work embodies a mixture of humor, satire and social exploration, and includes “World’s End” (winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award), “The Road to Wellville” (adapted into a major motion picture), “Drop City” (a New York Times bestseller and finalist for the National Book Award), and “The Women” (a best-selling fictionalized account of the private life of Frank Lloyd Wright).

Dennis Lehane, closing keynote speaker on Sunday, Nov. 7, at 7 p.m. at the Clark County Library Theater, is best known for his crime thrillers. He has written several award-winning novels, including “A Drink Before War” and the New York Times bestseller “Mystic River,” which was later made into an Academy Award-winning film, as was his novel, “Shutter Island,” currently out in theaters. His most recent book, “The Given Day,” is a historical epic that is considered the most ambitious work of his career.

The book festival is produced by the city of Las Vegas Office of Cultural Affairs, Las Vegas-Clark County Library District, UNLV’s Black Mountain Institute, Las Vegas Review-Journal, the local chapter of AIGA, the professional association for design, and Nevada Humanities, a festival founder.

A complete schedule of events, including a roster of featured authors, will be announced in July. For more information about the Vegas Valley Book Festival, please call (702) 229‑5431.

Related Posts:

• Serving the Reading and Writing Communities
• 2010 Book Festival Keynote Authors Announced
• A Celebration of Local Book Clubs
• Vegas Valley Book Festival Launches New Website
• Locations

Stay tuned for more book festival news including:

• A complete list of pre-festival events, June to October
• The Comic Book Festival
• The Children’s’ Literature Festival
• “Feasting on Words – a celebration of food and literature”
• A roster of featured authors appearing at the book festival
• Themes and panel sessions
• The local Book Club Initiative
• Book Signing Expo in the Fountain Courtyard
• Spoken Word & Poetry events
• Las Vegas Writes project
• The Flash Fiction project
• The Community Read
• Project Dinner Table
• The Illustrated Word exhibitions
• The 2010 festival poster

For more information on the book festival, call (702) 229‑5431

Follow the Vegas Valley Book Festival 2010 on Facebook and Twitter

www.vegasvalleybookfestival.org
www.artslasvegas.org

Related Posts:

• No Related Posts

In recent years, the festival found its permanent home at the historic Fifth Street School, 401 S. Fourth Street, a 1930’s Mission-style building that has become a cultural hub in the heart of downtown. Most author sessions take place in the auditorium of the school with some events in the fountain courtyard while the Children’s Book Festival takes place in the adjacent Centennial Plaza. Other programming sites include the Clark County Library at 1401 E. Flamingo, the downtown Arts District (known as 18 b) and venues at UNLV.

Related Posts:

• Vegas Valley Book Festival Set for Nov. 3–7

The festival is planned and coordinated by a 12 member committee representing key producing organizations and representatives of the writing and reading community. With a mission to foster literary and cultural growth in the valley, festival organizers offer “a one stop shopping for literature” through a range of literary programs built around sharing resources, developing audiences, advancing the craft of writing and sharing the joys of reading.

Most programs and events are free and open to the public.

Related Posts:

• Vegas Valley Book Festival Set for Nov. 3–7
• Poetry Crowns the Book Festival
• Vegas Valley Book Festival Launches New Website

The five-day festival is presented by the City of Las Vegas Office of Cultural Affairs, Las Vegas-Clark County Library District, UNLV’s Black Mountain Institute, the American Institute of Graphic Arts, the Las Vegas Review-Journal and Nevada Humanities, a festival founder. In addition, the festival is supported by a wide range of community partners and sponsors.

Related Posts:

• Vegas Valley Book Festival Launches New Book Club Program

Planning is now underway for the Vegas Valley Book Festival, the largest literature event in Las Vegas, to be held November 3–7, 2010. Most events will take place at the historic Fifth Street School downtown. Now in its ninth year, this annual community festival was founded on the simple premise of “bringing together those who write books and those who love to read them.”

Related Posts:

• No Related Posts