Ellen Hopkins is bringing something to Carson City this weekend that should put car shows in the back seat, rodeos off their feed, offensive football games on defense.
It won’t, but her inaugural Carson City Lit Fest at Mills Park is worth your time if you’re a reader. Or even if you’re not. Of course, writers should take note as well, but anyone who’s a writer of ability is a reader by default. You won’t find good writers who aren’t at least two things: readers and re-writers. First drafts are like beer to a suds souse; that is to say, just the first of many drafts.
Anyone reading this column over time knows this scrivener reads and venerates those who do the same. As I’m prone to say to those who mention one of my articles: “Thank you. If I didn’t have readers, I wouldn’t have a job.”
Newspaper work is a lifetime joy, as well as a passionate pursuit, like reading newspapers, magazines, books, even electronic devices that bring words and ideas on a digital conveyor belt.
So, from this perspective, best-selling author Ellen Hopkins has done the community a huge favor by bringing in poets, novelists, memoir writers and others who trade in the printed word or offshoots of it.
For the record, Lit Fest is being put on at Mills Park Friday through Sunday by Hopkins, her Ventana Sierra Youth Housing & Resources Initiative in Carson City, and the Carson City Library. Kudos to her, the library, all involved.
Thanks also go to the writers, including Hopkins, listed as here to provide insights on the craft they pursue. It’s a lonely craft, in many ways, but these aren’t lonely people and they all have lives from which they’ve carved out a weekend to share with Ellen and those interested who show up. Such writers deserve a public nod, so here it is and they are:
Jennifer Armentrout; Jim Averbeck; Kathleen Berry; Linda Boyden; Cecil Castellucci; Joy Castro; Kristin Elizabeth Clark; Tracy Clark; Diane De Las Casas; Eliana De Las Casas; Barry Eisler; Eric Elfman; Terri Farley; Ann Marie Frohoff; Josh Galarza; Jacqueline Garlick; Cindie Geddes; T.M. GoegleinNikki Grimes; Shaunta Grimes; Aaron Hartzler.
Geoff Herbach; Ramsey Hootman; Ellen Hopkins; A.S. King; Grant Korgan; Victoria Laurie; Joyce Lee; Krista Lukas; Laura Newman; Patricia Newman; Lorin Oberweger; Michelle Parker-Rock; Sam Pierstorff; Joy Preble; Robert Leonard Reid; Veronica Rossi; June Sylvester Saraceno; Yvette Schneider; Andrew Smith; John Corey Whaley; CVaro Lynch Williams; Suzanne Morgan Williams, and Joseph Zihuatanejo.
They’ve seen their names in print before, being writers, but deserve to again because they didn’t go to a car show or rodeo. Of course, who knows where they would be if it were football season.
Probably reading or writing.