New name, new goals
as Lemony Snicket, and Sharon M. Draper, fivetime winner of the Coretta Scott King Literary Award.
Over the coming months, organizers will continue evaluating “all of our programming from the ground up to see what we can grow and what we can expand on,” Haynes-hamblen said.
Brian Kendall, supervisor for the city’s cultural affairs office, said organizers are trying to fill gaps in programming.
For example, “we had a gap between (programs for) the young adult and early childhood age groups, so we started targeting programs for middle grade school authors,” he said.
Organizers continue to wrestle with whether the event is primarily a place for authors to promote and discuss their work or intended to be
BOOKS
more reader-centered.
“You can’t have one without the other,” Haynes-hamblen said.
Also: Is the festival primarily for local authors or for regional and national authors? For example, Southern Nevada authors make up about 25 percent percent of this year’s guests, and the annual Spark! Youth Poetry Competition, Las Vegas Writes — which this year has produced a book of essays by 10 Las Vegans — and the annual Crystal Bookmark Award all involve local authors only.
“The truth is that we look for a balance of authors in terms of their writing style, where they are in their career and whether they’re local, regional or national,” Hayneshamblen said.
While some guests may prefer that the festival showcase national authors they may not have a chance to see again, “I think we have a responsibility — and it’s our pleasure — to support local work by artists and authors and creative professionals based in Las Vegas,” Haynes-hamblen said.
The goal is to create a festival that’s “not just diverse in geography, but diverse in ethnicity and writing style, published or self-published or still looking for publishers, and I think this year’s lineup really speaks to that,” she said. “We don’t say, ‘This percentage has to be this and this percentage has to be that.’ I feel that kind of limits our ability to get the best authors. At the end of the day, what we want is the best authors.”
And the most pressing question: How can festival attendance be increased?
Kendall said last year’s festival drew about 4,000 for the daylong main event, and when ancillary events such as school visits by authors are added, about 12,000 people participated.
Increasing community outreach and expanding the festival to more than one day may eventually be considered. “We anticipate close to 15,000 this year (for all events), and I think, in the next three or four years, I believe we will hit our stride (of ) more like 20,000.”
This year’s festival budget is also typical of recent years — about $96,000. About 20 percent comes from the city’s general fund, and the rest from the Las Vegasclark County Library District, Nevada Humanities and other sponsors (including the Las Vegas Review-journal), as well as from contributors who fund appearances by some of the more well-known authors.
Contact John Przybys at reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0280. Follow @Jjprzybys on Twitter.