nce upon a time,
three Tucson, Arizona, community leaders and University of Arizona alumni, dreamed of sharing their love of books, their university, and the southern Arizona community. Bill Viner 71 (CEO of Pepper Viner Homes in Tucson), Brenda Viner 71 (active community volunteer), and Bruce Beach 72 73 (principal of Beach Fleischman & Co., CPAs in Tucson), shared their vision of a community event that would draw together many talented authors. The three alumni discussed their vision with Frank Farias, executive director of the UA BookStores, broadened the group to include UA faculty, staff, and professors, giving life to the dream that came to be known as the Arizona Daily Star Tucson Festival of Books, which made its debut Saturday, March 14, and Sunday, March 15, 2009, on The University of Arizona Mall.
Sponsored by the Arizona Daily Star, The University of Arizona, and University Medical Center, the inaugural festival in 2009 attracted over 50,000 enthusiastic book lovers in a two-day celebration of reading and literacy. Over 400 authors participated. There were 18 indoor venues and five outdoor stages for author presentations, panel discussions, and workshops. Booksellers, publishers, vendors, restaurants, and literary organizations were all in attendance.
The Tucson Festival of Books Foundation is a nonprofit community-based organization. Net proceeds support literacy programs in southern Arizona.
The UA Alumni Association
Hosted an Alumni Authors Tent
To enable alumni and the community to meet UA alumni authors, including recent graduates of the UA's creative writing MFA program, the UA Alumni Association hosted a UA alumni authors tent where published alumni writers participated in a variety of activities, including discussion and signing of their books. The Association collaborated with the local arm of Las Comadres Para Las Americas in hosting the tent. Las Comadres has recently started a national book club with local chapters quickly growing in various cities throughout the U.S. making them the perfect partner.
The UA Alumni Authors tent offered the public a good setting to ask questions, discuss new ideas, and get excited about reading.
The following were among the well-known alumni authors and personalities who appearanced at the 2009 Tucson Festival of Books UA Alumni authors tent: David Fitzsimmons, J.A. Jance, Patrick Michael Finn, and Tom Miller, who is published by the University of Arizona Press.
The End is the Beginning
ike all good stories,
this one ends with a moral: have faith in your dreams and others will adopt them as their own. The first annual Tucson Festival of Books has now taken its place among the many wonderful traditions at The University of Arizona—enriching students, faculty, staff, and the community at large.
If you are an author whose books are published by a mainstream publishing company, and are interested in participating in the Tucson Festival of Books UA Alumni authors tent in 2010, we would love to hear from you. Please send an e-mail indicating your interest and include your full name, graduation year and college, address and telephone number to Lori Crouch, Coordinator, UA Alumni Authors tent at: Bookfest@al.arizona.edu.
(UA faculty)
Lederman 80
Macowsky 77
(deceased)
UA faculty