Vegas Valley Book Festival schedule
VEGAS VALLEY BOOK FESTIVAL SCHEDULE
The Vegas Valley Book Festival, which begins Thursday and runs though Saturday will present 100 authors participating in readings, panel discussions, book signings, workshops, spoken word and poetry performances, exhibitions, and children’s literature and social events.
Most sessions and book signings take pale at the Historic Fifth Street School, 401 S. Fourth St. Keynote addresses take place at the Clark County Library, 1401 E. Flamingo Road.
Except for the First Friday “Operation Desert Word Storm” program — which costs $2 — all sessions and programs are free and open to the public.
For more information and complete session descriptions, visit: http://www.artslasvegas.org/vvbf/.
Thursday at Historic Fifth Street School, 401 S. Fourth St. Author sessions will be in the auditorium, while book signings will be in the adjacent gallery.
1- 3 p.m. —- Book signing with Neil Gaiman, pictured at right, author of “American Gods,” “Anansi Boys” and “Coraline,” in the gallery of the Fifth Street School.
1-2:30 p.m. — “Overlooking the Landscape of America: Seeing a thing is not seeing everything else,” a presentation by Matthew Coolidge, director of the Center for Land Use Interpretation and author of “Overlook.”
2:30-3:30 p.m. — “Looking for Las Vegas in Los Angeles” with John Chase, urban designer with the city of West Hollywood and author of “Glitter Stucco & Dumpster Diving” and “LA 2000+.”
3:45 to 4:45 p.m. — “Going Global: Big Projects & Grand Plans” with Greg Hise, a history professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and author of “Magnetic Los Angeles: Planning the Twentieth Century Metropolis.”
Thursday at Clark County Library Theater
7 p.m. — Opening keynote speech, “An Evening with Neil Gaiman,” featuring the author of “American Gods,” “Anansi Boys” and “Coraline.”
Thursday at Mix at Mandalay Bay
9-11 p.m. — Private reception for Neil Gaiman hosted by Women in Film. Tickets are $75 and must be obtained through Women in Flim (228-0398). Proceeds will support the comics festival.
Friday at Historic Fifth Street School. Author sessions are in the auditorium, and book signings in the adjacent gallery.
10-11 a.m. — “A Field Guide to Cool Neighborhoods” featuring Chris Wilson and J.B. Jackson, chair of the architecture and planning school at the University of New Mexico.
11:30 a.m.-12:45 p.m. — “Vegas Confidential,” featuring Review-Journal columnist Norm Clarke, author of “Vegas Confidential: Sinsational Celebrity Tales,” and R-J columnist Mike Weatherford.
1-2 p.m. — “The Other Service Industry: A Conversation with a Former Brothel Madam” with Laraine Russo Harper, author of “Legal Tender: True Tales of a Brothel Madam.”
2:15-3:30 p.m. — “The Mystery/Thriller in the Digital Age” featuring Jay MacLarty, author of the “Courier” series; Brian Rouff, author of “Dice Angel” and “Money Shot”; and Stephen Grogan, author of “Vegas Die.”
3:45-5 p.m. — “Vegas Noir” with authors Tod Goldberg (“Fake Liar Cheat”), Steve Grogan (“Vegas Die”), Lori Kozlowski and editors Jarret Keene and Todd James Pierce.
Writer’s Workshops in the Gallery concurrent sessions:
10-11:15 a.m. — Henderson Writers Group, “Overcoming the Six Pitfalls of Bad Writing”
11:30 a.m.-12:45 p.m. — Henderson Writers Group, “Point of View: Its Dynamic Impact on Your Writing.”
1-2 p.m. — A fiction writing workshop with Red Rock Review contributing editor and Las Vegas-based author H. Lee Barnes.
Friday in the Arts District Downtown
6-10 p.m. — “Operation Desert Word Storm!” features Jarret Keene (“The Underground Guide to Las Vegas”), two-time National Individual Poetry Slam Winner Anis Mojgani, Alaskan fiddling poet Ken Waldman, traditional Hawaiian musician and surf bard Gary Haleamau, African-influenced storytelling group Modern Griot, India-born poetess Mani Rao, hyper-literate indie-rock act Big Friendly Corporation, urban street poet/warrior and Las Vegas police Detective Harry Fagel, the dark electronic rock stylings of Red State Sound System, and Zeitgeist Press publisher and poet Bruce Isaacson.
Saturday at the Historic Fifth Street School, Centennial Plaza/Lewis Avenue
11 a.m.-4 p.m. — Target Children’s Book Festival. The free event features 22 children’s authors, staged readings, food vendors, book signings, performances, arts and crafts, face painters and the participation of 20 area literacy groups.
Saturday at the Historic Fifth Street School gallery
10 a.m.-4 p.m. — A local authors expo featuring 80 local authors who will sign, sell and display their works.
Saturday at The Historic Fifth Street School. Vegas Valley Book Festival sessions take place in the auditorium, while signings will be in the adjacent gallery.
10-11 a.m. — “Environment and Identity: The Shores of Selfhood” featuring poet memoirist Aaron Shurin, novelist and translator Pablo Medina, poet Mani Rao, and Claudia Keelan, English professor at UNLV and published poet.
11:15 a.m.-12:15 p.m. — “Young Writers and the Modern West” featuring Las Vegas author Douglas Unger, Las Vegas native Charles Bock (“Beautiful Children”), Tod Goldberg and Chris Coake.
12:30-1:30 p.m. — “The Poet as Editor/The Editor as Poet” with Donald Revell, Angela Ball, Rusty Morrison and April Ossmann.
1:45-2:45 p.m. — “Poetry in the Courtyard” with readings by Donald Revell, Angela Ball, Rusty Morrison and April Ossmann in the courtyard of the Historic Fifth Street School.
1:45-2:45 p.m. — “Damn the Rejections, Full Speed Ahead: The Bumpy Road to Getting Published” with Maralys Wills, author of “Damn the Rejections, Full Speed Ahead” and Stephens Press publisher Carolyn Hayes Uber in a free-ranging discussion of “getting published.”
3-4 p.m. — “Westward Ho!: John C. Fremont, Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American West” with Sally Denton, author of “Passion and Principle: John and Jessie Fremont, the Couple Whose Power, Politics, and Love Shaped Nineteenth-Century America,” and Hampton Sides, author of “Blood and Thunder: The Epic Story of Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American West.” Michael Green, history professor at College of Southern Nevada, will moderate.
Saturday at the Clark County Library, 1401 E. Flamingo Road: The Vegas Valley Book Festival presents The Comics Expo.
11 a.m. (large conference room) — “30 Minute Download — Breaking Into Comics, the Do’s & Don’ts” with Dwayne McDuffie, Steven Grant and Steve Niles.
Noon (large conference room) — “Drawing for Comics, More Than Still Life” with Deryl Skelton and Gilbert Hernandez.
Noon (Jewel Box Theater) — “Top Shelf, Fantagraphics and the World of Indie Publishing” with Chris Staros and Gary Groth.
1 p.m. (large conference room) — “Comic Books — It’s Not Just for Superheroes Anymore” with Steve Niles, Deryl Skelton and Chris Staros.
1 p.m. (Jewel Box Theater) — “In the Aether: the Future of Online Comics” with Steven Grant, Charles Holbert and Drew Edwards.
2 p.m. (large conference room) — “Sex & Race in Comics” with Dwayne McDuffie and Gilbert Hernandez.
2 p.m. (Jewel Box Theater) — “The 10 Cent Plague — The Great Comic Book Scare and How it Changed America,” featuring author David Hajdu interviewed by journalist Jarret Keene (book signing to follow).
Saturday Films in the Theater at the Clark County Library, 1401 E. Flamingo Road
11:30 a.m. — “Batman: Gotham Knight”
1 p.m. — “Iron Man”
Saturday book signing schedule in the Clark County Library theater courtyard, 1401 E. Flamingo Road
11 a.m. — Deryl Skelton
Noon — Dwayne McDuffie, Steven Grant
1 p.m. — Gilbert Hernandez and Natalia Hernandez
2 p.m. — Steve Niles, Gary Groth
Saturday in the theater courtyard, Clark County Library, 1401 E. Flamingo Road
11 a.m.-3 p.m. — Comic book vendors
Saturday in the theater lobby, Clark County Library, 1401 E. Flamingo Road
11 a.m.-3 p.m. — Publishers and informational booths
Saturday at the theater of the Clark County Library, 1401 E. Flamingo Road
6 p.m. — Closing keynote speech by Michael Chabon, pictured at right, author of “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay,” “The Mysteries of Pittsburgh,” “Wonder Boys,” “The Yiddish Policemen’s Union” and “Gentlemen of the Road.”
