It is impossible to write a book, until it isn鈥檛. It鈥檚 impossible to publish a book, until you find the right press. It鈥檚 impossible to find the books you want, until you go to Bright Side, and a staff member suggests the perfect one. And sometimes it鈥檚 impossible to find people with whom to celebrate books, until the Northern Arizona Book Festival arrives. But for the first time since I started my job at NAU in 2008, I won鈥檛 be there.
I have a reading/writing/book celebration gig in Minneapolis. It pays, in ways attending the book festival doesn鈥檛, but I was torn before committing. To miss the book fest is to miss one of the most fun, deepest, interconnecting events in Flagstaff.
In celebration of this year鈥檚 festival and to assuage my guilt for missing out, I asked people who have been involved in various ways over the past few years to tell me stories about the festival.
Tom Carpenter, who was one of the first people outside of the English department that I met in Flagstaff, was an early force for the book fest. Tom joined the festival as a board member in 2000. Tom recalls that during the ten-year anniversary festival in 2007, Lemony Snicket was a featured writer.
鈥淭he main events were held in the Orpheum Theatre that year,鈥� he said. 鈥淎fter his reading on Saturday afternoon, to a full house of children and parents, Lemony was scheduled to have a book signing in Starrlight Books. The line for the signing stretched from Starrlight and back up the alley and deep into the Orpheum. We had scheduled the signing for an hour and a half, but that wasn't enough time. Lemony stayed and signed books until there were no children left. He spoke to each child individually and made a connection with each of them. That signing was the whole mission of the festival wrapped up in one event.鈥�
When I was on the board, we stressed about money all the time. Jesse Sensibar, vice-president, was a genius at convincing local businesses to donate money and venue space, but when your budget goes from $100,000 in its first years to $5,000, it changes the nature of things. But some of that change spurred some exciting events.
James Jay, who supported the festival for nearly 20 years, both as president of the board and with donations, explained that the 2007 recession nearly destroyed the book festival.
鈥淲e had a fraction of the budget and an expectation to bring in nationally and internationally renowned writers," he said "We leaned into the strengths of Flagstaff and northern Arizona: unique people and being one of the most gorgeous places on the planet. I wrote a letter to the agent for Robert Bly, a longtime New York Times best-seller, prolific translator鈥攖he first person to bring the poets of Neruda and Machado into English and one of the most important poets of the latter half of the twentieth century. She let him read my letter explaining my love for the Canyon, the plateau, the rim, all of that. I included a book from Ramson Lomatewama, a Hopi artist and poet. I knew Mr. Bly always worked on anthologies and promoting writers, so I figured a new writer for him would be a treasure. I received a call a few days later from his agent letting me know he was in.
鈥淗e arrived at Flagstaff Pulliam Airport by private jet, flown by one of his fans who hosted the event in Santa Clara the night before. It had been a packed house of well over a thousand who paid over $100 a ticket. In Flagstaff, he'd fill the eight-hundred or so seats at the Orpheum. The plan was for Mr. Bly to leave the next day, but he liked the town and the folks he met. And he stuck around for four more days. We had a chance to go to the Canyon to hike in the aspens, browse the local bookstores. When he finally decided to leave, no private plane. My last image of him is waving goodbye from the bus pulling onto Milton Road.鈥�
The amount of time and sweat dedicated to making the book fest succeed reminds me of Flagstaff in general. This is where people are willing to do a lot not for glory or cash reward but because it makes this place better. Margarita Cruz, the current president of the fest, describes her commitment:
鈥淚n 2020, I was hospitalized for a heart surgery, which happened to be at the same time Lawrence Lenhart and Erik Bitsui and I were planning it. I was really out of it. When they allowed me to have my laptop, the very first thing I read in my email was about taking a hiatus on the book festival because no one was sure what was happening to me. My muscles had atrophied during my time in the hospital, so my tiny laptop felt heavy. And it was hard to type a response, but I managed to email back that I wanted the book fest to continue. I still to this day joke that some part of me came to or survived because I wanted the book fest to continue. I felt like I had returned from the dead just to prove that we couldn't stop the book festival.鈥�
This year marks the 27th anniversary. May the celebration continue forever.