The Mesa Verde Literary Festival in Mancos is expecting 50 authors to attend various panels, presentations and other events on Saturday. The event is free and open to the public.
According to the Mancos Creative District, there will be 38 individual presentations and 11 panels throughout the community in restaurants, coffee shops, art galleries, patios, shops and more in downtown Mancos. The panels will include a variety of topics on reading and writing in all genres.
Authors will be traveling to Mancos from other areas of Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Wyoming, Montana, Missouri, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont and Pennsylvania. The authors write in a variety of genres, including nonfiction, poetry, memoir, fiction, literary, mystery, thriller, horror, young adult and romance.
There will also be a festival bookstore at the Mancos Community Center, managed by Hand in Hand bookshop. Festival attendees can buy books and have them signed.
The festival will also offer two writing workshops for teens ages 13 to 18 at Mancos Opera House, and these workshops will be taught by teachers Kira Taylor and Alys Hansen.
Featured speakers include Pam Houston with Byron Aspaas at Fenceline Cider at 5 p.m. and Tim Weed from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Mancos Opera House.
The festival will begin at 9 a.m. and run through 8 p.m. at such downtown Mancos venues as Fenceline Cider, Bomdiggity Mystical Market, Kilgore American Indian Art, El Rio Cantina, The Boathouse on Grand, Painted Turtle and Columbine Restaurant.
Panels will be held at the Mancos Community Center Fenceline Cider and the Mancos Public Library.
Presentation topics by individual authors include: “Life Is Serious but it’s Okay to Laugh,” “Creating And Writing A Successful Fiction Series,” “Where We Are Is Who We Are,” “Pure Land and the Healing Power of Nature,” “Path to Publication – Never Give Up on A Book,” “Mustangs & More: Mixing Place, Passion and Art,” and “Writing the Transformative Adventure Memoir – Rowing an Ocean.”
There will also be panels for writers to discuss writing, genres and topics including romance, historical fiction, literary fiction, crime fiction, poetry and much more.
“The festival will turn downtown Mancos into an upbeat celebration of books, stories, reading and writing,” Mancos Creative District Executive Director Chelsea Lunders said. “We are thrilled with the variety of writers who are coming to Mancos to share their writing journeys and their books. We encourage readers to come meet their favorite writers or learn about new authors, too. And plan to fill up book bags at Hand in Hand.”
Attending writers include Suzanne Stauffer, Fleur Bradley, Mario Acevedo, Bethany Turner, Jim Tritten, Kevin Jones, Chuck Greaves, Angie Hodapp, Renata Golden, Nikki Flynn, Sid Sibo, Gail Binkly, Susan Carpenter Noble, Dan Chiras, L.E. Harrison, Catlyn Ladd, Mariko Tatsumoto, Eugenio Volpe, Jasmine Tritten, Charlie Chase, Jim O’Donnell; Kase Johnstun, Travis Tougaw, Karen B. McCoy, Mark Fleisher, Scott Graham, Karin Anderson, Shannon Lawrence, DelSheree Gladden, Annette McGivney, Monica Barron, Wendy J. Fox, A. D. Uhlar, Dita Dow, Saleema Ishq, Katayoun Medhat, Terry Nichols, Kathleen Saville, William A. Liggett, Becca Lawton, P K Stuart, Kathryn Wilder, Sylvia McDaniel, C.C. Harrison, Deidre Bjorson, Jenny Dandy, Lisa C. Taylor and Art Goodtimes.
The Mesa Verde Literary Festival follows the third annual Mesa Verde Writers Conference, which will take place this year at Mancos Commons on Thursday, July 10 and Friday, July 11.
Though the conference has been full since the end of April, there is a public reading at Fenceline Cider on Wednesdaym, July 9 from 5 p.m. to 6:15 p.m., and all are welcome. This year’s faculty for the conference is January Gill O’Neil, Angie Hodapp, Mark Stevens and Lisa C. Taylor.
There will be books for sale at the reading.
More information about these events can be found online at www.mancoscreativedistrict.com/
