Tuesday, April 20, 2010

2010 Equality State Book Festival set for Casper College Sept. 24-25

In case you haven't heard, the Equality State Book Festival will be held Sept. 24-25 at Casper College. Here are some details from the bookfest web site:

In 2006, the first statewide book festival, The Equality State Book Festival, was held in Casper. Four years later with two book fests now under our belts, we proudly mark the 24th anniversary of the Annual Casper College/ARTCORE Literary Conference by once again celebrating books, authors and the written word in Wyoming with two days of fun in Casper, September 24-25. We hope you will join us for readings, panel discussions, book signings, craft talks, a banquet and a late-night poetry slam. All events are open to the public without charge except for the banquet.

This year we will feature around 15 authors and illustrators, including but not limited to, Jack Gantos, Larry Watson, Jaimee Wriston Colbert, Zak Pullen, Gene Gagliano, Ravi Shankar and John Vernon. Wyoming Arts Council fellowship judge, Lee Gutkind, and three fellowship winners who will be announced later this summer, will join us for readings as well. Nina McConigley, Honors Program instructor from the University of Wyoming, returns to Casper for the Fest where she will appear on a panel and read for us. And the ever-popular George Vlastos has agreed to emcee the poetry slam which is always a lot of fun!

Visit this page regularly to learn more about the authors and events as we will update it often during the planning process. Registration links for the banquet will be made available later this summer.

We'd like to thank the Natrona County Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) for their early, generous support, as well as UW/CC and the English department at the University of Wyoming. Funding sources we will be applying to include the Casper College Foundation, Casper Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, Natrona County School District, Wyoming Arts Council, The Wyoming Community Foundation, The Wyoming Cultural Trust, Kinder Morgan and the Rocky Mountain Power Foundation. Finally, we'd like to express our appreciation to Casper College and ARTCORE for over two decades of steady support for an annual literary conference in Casper.

Laurie Lye and Holly Wendt, Co-directors, ESBF