Inaugural Riverside Book Festival coming to city’s downtown library – Press Enterprise

Years ago, pre-Inlandia, I read a poem by Jo Scott-Coe about a cave of books that was perpetually on the brink of collapse, encroaching on the speaker of the poem like the giant trash compactor in Star Wars.

Needless to say, that poem spoke to me. There but for the grace of a sturdy bookcase go I.

If you are reading this column, I assume you like books too, so you will be happy to learn that the inaugural Riverside Book Festival is coming Oct. 11 — in just about one week — at Riverside Main Library, downtown.

Bringing a book festival to Riverside has long been a dream and is a natural addition to all of the festivals Riverside, City of Arts and Innovation, annually hosts. Who’s going to be there? The California State Poet Laureate Lee Herrick, for starters. I had the pleasure of meeting him earlier this year when I was in Sacramento for the state Poetry Out Loud finals. When I invited him to be our keynote speaker he was delighted. As an adoptee from Korea, his story is one of love and resilience. He was just appointed for a second term and is the first Asian American to ever hold that post.

We will also be hosting a trio of authors whose names will be familiar to most readers of this column: Alex Espinoza (“The Sons of El Rey”), Tod Goldberg (“The Low Desert”), and Susan Straight (“Mecca”), on writing the Inland Empire. Alex is the Tomás Rivera Endowed Chair of Creative Writing at UC Riverside, Tod is the founder of UCR’s low residency MFA program at the Palm Desert campus, and Susan, a distinguished professor of creative writing at UCR, is a local treasure who lives just blocks from where she was born.

If you have kids, or are curious about writing and illustrating books for young people, bring your curiosity and questions and hear Isabel Quintero (“My Papi Has a Motorcycle”), a writer born and raised in the Inland Empire, alongside another acclaimed local author of books for young people, Nydia Armendia-Sanchez (“Frida Kahlo’s Flower Crown”), and her award-winning illustrator, Loris Lora.

Are you a fan of true stories? Memoir brings those true stories to life and lets you inhabit another person’s experiences for the duration of the book. We will have three acclaimed Southern California memoirists talking about truth in memoir, Samantha Dunn (“Not By Accident”), Casandra Lane (“We Are Bridges”) and JD Mathes (“Ahead of the Flaming Front”).

Are you curious to learn how a novel is born? Former senior correspondent for People Magazine and People in Español, Ron Arias (“The Road to Tamazunchale”), will speak with Carlos Cortés (“Scouts’ Honor”), Riverside’s own expert in multiculturalism and consultant for “Dora the Explorer” and “Go, Diego Go!,” about writing novels well into their fourth quarter of life.

The Riverside Women Creating Change will also be taking the stage, with project leads Deborah Wong and Nicolette Rohr talking with interviewees Rose Mayes, Elizabeth Ayala, Connie Confer, and Penny Newman about community organizing from the ground up.

The indigenous-owned book store Quiet Quail Books will be there, as will Get Lit Books & Things, a bookstore that celebrates underrepresented voices, all in the New Books Discovery Zone where you’ll also find the local authors’ stage; Children’s Pavilion will host activities for families throughout the day; Writers support organizations will be there, including Diamond Valley Writers Guild, Inland Empire California Writers Club, and Temecula Valley Writers and Illustrators, plus food trucks, and Desert Catopia a cat rescue organization because books + cats = heaven. Also, a VIP experience. And the first 200 people to the Festival will receive a free commemorative tote bag.

In many ways, the Riverside Book Festival is my parting gift to Inlandia. As many of you may have read, I will be stepping away from my post as executive director of Inlandia at the end of this year. I have loved every minute of my work, but it’s time for me to make space for someone new.