Inaugural San Diego Festival of Books features a mix of veteran, new authors

When it comes to book festivals, Kiersten White’s voice is one of experience.

The Carlsbad author is among the more than 40 local writers appearing at the inaugural San Diego Festival of Books, scheduled for Aug. 26 at Liberty Station. Based on what she’s seen at similar events on both coasts, she has an idea of what to expect.

“It’s akin to Comic-Con,” White said. “Everybody is just happy to be there. You’re hanging out with a bunch of book nerds who are your people.”

And this: “When you are at a festival, you get the sense right away about how readers, old and young, are connected to books. They are often holding them to their chests, just cradling them. It’s not just that they’re willing to give up a day or a weekend to talk books. It’s that books really matter to them.”

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Not that long ago, the idea of people reading books, let alone cradling them, seemed in doubt. Bookstores were closing. Amazon was selling more e-books than hardbacks. A leading technology guru forecast the demise of traditional page-turning by 2015.

But in recent years the plot has shifted. Sales of e-readers flattened and the number of bookstores (as measured by membership in a national association) has risen. Annual sales in bookstores increased last year compared to the previous one.

And across the country, in cities large and small, people are going to book festivals, where they hear and meet authors, buy books, and generally celebrate as a group something they usually do alone: reading.

“We’ve seen our audience grow every year,” said Scott Dallavo, director of events for the Los Angeles Times, which hosted its annual book festival in April and drew about 150,000 people. “There’s something about the tactile experience of being around books, a lot of pent-up desire for that old bookstore feel.”

The Times festival bills itself as the largest in the country. It stretches over two days at the University of Southern California. Dallavo wasn’t there when it started in 1996, but he said there’s a fun bit of lore surrounding it, an origin story passed down that speaks to the sometimes-hidden world of book lovers in a community.

“From what people have told me,” Dallavo said, “organizers that first year were there at about 9 a.m. They had no precedent to work from so they were wondering if anybody was going to show up. Then they looked up and 40,000 people were coming over the hill.”

Variety of offerings

The San Diego festival on Aug. 26 is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Liberty Station. It’s free to the public.

The lineup features veteran authors, including mystery writer T. Jefferson Parker of Fallbrook, who has penned almost two dozen books, and newcomers such as Danielle Mages Amato of North Park, a Young Adult novelist who just published her first. Bill Walton, the TV announcer and retired basketball star, will talk about his memoir, “Back From the Dead.”

Also appearing will be Lynn Vincent, whose books (“Heaven is for Real,” “Same Kind of Different,” “Going Rogue”) have been on New York Times bestseller lists; Laura McNeal, a finalist for a National Book Award; and the Union-Tribune’s Steve Breen, who writes children’s books when he’s not drawing political cartoons that have twice won him a Pulitzer Prize.

There will be discussions devoted to contemporary fiction, history, memoirs, the process of writing, the military, mysteries, romance, and “fake news.” There will be a children’s area.

KPBS, which is partnering with the Union-Tribune to host the festival, will hand out 300 copies of this year’s “One Book, One San Diego” winner, “The Sandcastle Girls,” by Chris Bohjalian. The “One Book” program turns the city into a giant book club, with thousands of people reading the same book at the same time and then getting together to talk about it at dozens of events in the community. During the festival, One Book organizers will announce this year’s selections for teen, kids and Sin Frontreras books.

The variety of authors and discussions at books festivals is part of what makes them fun, said White, who just came out with “Now I Rise,” the second in a historical-adventure trilogy set in the mid-15th century during the Ottoman Empire.

“When you have an individual event at a bookstore, the people who come tend to be familiar with your books,” she said. “At a festival, there are people discovering your work for the first time, and as an author that’s exciting.”

She’s been to the L.A. festival and also to the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C., which is organized by the Library of Congress and typically features nationally prominent authors. (This year’s lineup includes Michael Lewis, Roxanne Gay, Juan Felipe Herrera and Elizabeth Strout.)

“You see people lining up like they do for some big celebrity and you realize the people they’re lining up for are authors,” White said. “At one point, I was walking behind Salman Rushdie. Salman Rushdie! Some of these writers are people I grew up reading, and to be included as one of their peers was overwhelming.”

‘Celebration of reading and writing’

Book festivals have been around for centuries — one fair in Frankfurt, Germany, dates to the 1200s — but they have had mixed results in San Diego.

At Point Loma Nazarene University, the Writer’s Symposium by the Sea has been held for more than 20 years and has drawn such notable authors as Tracy Kidder, Nikki Giovanni, Amy Tan and Joseph Wambaugh. Already booked for next year: Pulitzer winner Jane Smiley.

The San Diego Jewish Book Fair, which also has a history that dates back more than two decades and was one of the largest of its kind in the nation, is getting a makeover. Traditionally held in the Fall, it is moving to the Spring to avoid “calendar competition” with various holidays, organizers said. Author-related events will also be held throughout the year.

San Diego City College had an International Book Fair for 10 years, but it is no longer. Instead, the college has book readings during the year as part of its City Voices program.

The county library system launched an ambitious festival in 2009, with events at various branches, then scaled it back to a single location in 2010, and no longer hosts it.

Organizers of the new Festival of Books are billing it as “a celebration of reading and writing and the important role they play in our lives and in our communities.”

The goal, they said, “is to provide a place where readers and authors can connect to share stories, ideas, and enthusiasm for the traditions, culture and values of the written word.”

In Los Angeles, Dallavo said the growth of the festival has enabled it to expand its offerings beyond books. “We are the epicenter of storytelling, with movies, TV and music also in the mix,” he said. “Our author content didn’t decrease, but there was an increasing desire for all forms of storytelling to be a part of the festival.”

According to self-reporting by attendees, the average festival-goer spends 7.5 hours there, Dallavo said.

“What’s really encouraging,” he added, “is that the number of teens and people in their 20s has been increasing.” That’s happened even though the festival sometimes has been on the same weekend as Coachella, the wildly popular music event held near Indio.

Those who opted for the written word even came up with their own social media hashtag: #bookchella.

john.wilkens@sduniontribune.com