The Abridged version:<\/p>\n
The Sacramento Book Festival will be held at the Scottish Rite Masonic Center on Sunday, April 19, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.<\/p>\n
More than 250 authors will showcase their books and attend signings.<\/p>\n
The festival is free for all visitors.<\/p>\n
This story was reported by a member of the\u00a0Abridged by PBS KVIE Community Reporters program<\/a>. The Community Reporters program empowers local residents to report stories with guidance and support from the Abridged editorial staff.<\/p>\n The Sacramento Book Festival<\/a> returns for its third year this weekend at the Scottish Rite Masonic Center \u2014 its biggest venue yet \u2014 featuring the most authors the event has ever hosted.<\/p>\n From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday, April 19, readers and their families can attend children\u2019s book readings, cookbook panels, author signings and conversations about Sacramento\u2019s favorite genres, all with free admission.\u00a0<\/p>\n Award-winning science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson and young adult author Wendelin Van Draanen will give the keynote addresses, but writers from the romance, LGBTQ+, fantasy, science fiction, historical fiction, nonfiction, thriller, mystery, young adult and children\u2019s genres \u2014 250 authors in total \u2014 will all be in attendance.\u00a0<\/p>\n Organized by the California Writers Club Sacramento Branch, those 250 authors will spend the day meeting readers, selling their books and participating in panel discussions. Sacramento Book Festival Chair Scott Coatsworth said that just as many are eager for a table.<\/p>\n \u201cWe actually sold out for the authors\u2019 side on the first day in the first six hours,\u201d Coatsworth said. \u201cAnd we\u2019ve got about 190 authors on the wait list right now.\u201d<\/p>\n A growing festival<\/p>\n Last year\u2019s event at the much smaller Shephard Garden & Arts Center had 130 authors and 5,000 attendees and, according to the festival\u2019s co-chair Tim Schooley, it was one of the hottest days of the year. He recalled what it was like to see the festival flourish.<\/p>\n \u201cI was sitting next to another member of our committee,\u201d Schooley said. \u201cWe were at author tables trying to sell our own books. And we suddenly realized that the Shepherd Center was so packed, people couldn\u2019t get in.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\tKeep up with Community Reporters<\/p>\n Stories from Abridged by PBS KVIE Community Reporters are regularly featured in our morning newsletter.<\/p>\n Now with a bigger space for more authors, attendees and food trucks \u2014 plus plenty of parking \u2014 organizers are ready for an equally large turnout. Schooley says the demand has never been greater for a festival like this.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a renaissance, and there\u2019s just great interest among readers to meet new authors,\u201d Schooley said. \u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing from statistics is that the largest number of readers right now are millennials who are coming into their own adulthood and reading voraciously.\u201d<\/p>\n Representing the region<\/p>\n Coatsworth estimates 80% of the attending authors are from the greater Sacramento region, including writers from Stockton, Turlock, Placerville, Vacaville and Davis.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019ll be good representation from the LGBTQ community, as well as from the Black community and from the Filipino community and from the disabled community,\u201d Coatsworth said. \u201cWe\u2019re really trying to have everybody come together.\u201d<\/p>\n Roseville children\u2019s book author and illustrator Sharon Fujimoto-Johnson<\/a> will be signing copies of both of her books, \u201cThe Mochi Makers\u201d and \u201cShell Song.\u201d Both are stories that come from her own life and family history. She says that not just writing them down, but meeting the children and adults who read them, make this her \u201cfavorite work [she\u2019s] ever done.\u201d<\/p>\n Read next: Sacramento library regulars choosing electronic options over old-school books<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cReaders respond to the heart in a children\u2019s book. That\u2019s really rewarding to see,\u201d Fujimoto-Johnson said. \u201cAs creators, we work in our little caves as we make our books. To take it out into the world is a whole different experience.\u201d<\/p>\n Fujimoto-Johnson will also speak on the \u201cHome Grown: SacTown Authors\u201d panel hosted by Beth Ruyak featuring authors Brianna Heath, Rachel L. Ertassi and Archana Maniar.<\/p>\n