Meet Arizona authors and celebrate books at the Payson Book Festival! The festival takes place on Saturday, July 23 from 9:00a.m. – 4:00p.m. at Gila Community College (201 N. Mud Springs Road) in Payson. Presented by the Arizona Professional Writers and Gila Community College with support from Arizona Humanities, the festival includes 90 authors, a Young Writer’s Workshop and story time sessions. As the recipient of a Mini Grant Award, the festival aims to nurture a love of reading by providing a friendly environment to cultivate personal interaction between authors and readers. Visitors won’t want to miss children’s author Conrad J. Storad and his beloved “Story Monster.” Additional authors include Roger Naylor, Jan Cleere (also on our AZ Speaks roster) and dozens more!
Arizona Humanities partnered with the Payson Book Festival to bring Navajo Nation Poet Laureate Laura Tohe for a special presentation to share her poetry and stories. An award-winning poet and professor at ASU, Laura Tohe is also on the Arizona Humanities AZ Speaks roster and gives presentations about the Navajo Code Talkers and Indigenous Arizona Women across the state.
Carol Osman Brown, Project Director remarked, “The Payson Book Festival is an important free community event that promotes reading in families and voluntary reading among children; more than twenty children’s book authors are participating.”  She adds, “Our stories connect us, and this book festival engages diverse audiences in creative conversations that cross boundaries of age and culture. It also nurtures a rural writing community and creates an awareness of literacy groups, libraries and museums.”
For the full schedule of events, check out the website at http://www.paysonbookfestival.org.