By Kathy G. Short, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
A festival is a great place to meet authors who have popular appeal, authors who are critically acclaimed, and new emerging authors in sessions that offer laughter and thoughtful discussions of critical issues. The Tucson Festival of Books has over 300 authors across multiple genres and 130,000 attendees. 65 of those authors are picturebook author/illustrators, middle grade authors, graphic novel creators, and young adult authors, who present over 100 sessions. Many of the sessions are in rooms that seat 40-50 people to allow for more intimate interactions with authors, instead of only large auditoriums where authors are at a distance. This WOW Currents highlights the sessions and some of the authors who are coming this March. Go to the festival website for a full list of authors and sessions for the entire festival. A list of the children/teen authors and illustrators can be found here.
Recent award-winning authors and illustrators appearing at the festival include Rebecca Lee Kunz who awarded the 2025 Caldecott medal for Chooch Helped. Tiffany Jackson received the Margaret A. Edwards Award for a significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature. Rex Ogle received a Printz Honor and Stonewall Honor for Road Home and John Schu received a Schneider Honor for Louder than Hunger. The Great Cool Ranch Dorito in the Sky by Josh Galarza and Buffalo Dreamer by Violet Duncan are debut novels that were named 2025 National Book Award Finalists.
Most of the sessions with children’s authors and illustrators occur in the College of Education. Room 211, the Kiva auditorium, highlights authors with strong popular appeal who pull large audiences, including Tui Sutherland, Soman Chainani, David Shannon, Nick Bruel, Loren Long, Matt de la Peña, Kwame Mbalia, and J.C. Cervantes. Two “speed dating: carousels with middle grade and young adult authors are a big hit with children and teens. Authors move every 8 minutes to a new table to share their newest book. The final session on Sunday is the very popular Illustrator Draw-Off, moderated by Adam Rex, where illustrators compete at easels in the front of the room and children use small whiteboards to draw along with the illustrators.
Panels of middle grade authors include Jasmine Warga, Guojing, Angela Dominguez, Jose Pimienta, Eric Lide, Rosanne Parry, Leah Johnson, Tom Angleberger, Megan Freeman, Violet Duncan, Dawn Quigley, and Ginger Reno. The panels focus on topics such as courage in the wild, a touch of magic, Indigenous voices of resilience, and hope in a broken world. Picturebook author/illustrators include Ryan T. Higgins, Cynthia Harmony, Beth Ferry & Tom Lichtenheld, Bob Shea, Zachariah OHora, Nikkolas Smith, Kyle Lukoff, Andrea Rogers & Rebecca Lee Kunz, Laura Numeroff, and Eliza Kinkz on panels about belonging, the ups and downs of life, dreaming big, and bright ideas.
Book Biz sessions are scheduled for adults so that authors and illustrators can share their insights on topics, such as writing fierce girls as lead characters, the process of creating picturebooks, writing a middle grade novel, getting published and forming a writing group. In Illustrator Studios, adults interested in illustration observe demonstrations by illustrators of their use of a medium like acrylics, collage and watercolor or techniques like texture, humor and digital painting. An overhead camera allows attendees to view each step of the illustrator’s process. Illustrators providing these studios include David Shannon, Loren Long, Eliza Kinkz, Rebecca Lee Kunz, Nikkolas Smith, Guojing, and Ryan Higgins.
One strand for parents and educators highlights book recommendations and strategies to engage readers. Sessions this year focus on award-winning books from major national awards including Notable Books for a Global Society, Orbis Pictus nonfiction, Notable Children’s Books in the Language Arts, Notable Poetry and Verse Novels, the Grand Canyon award and the Middle East award. In addition, there are sessions on children’s responses to banned books, speaking to children’s hearts through story, and maps and mapping in books.
Authors and illustrators also offer drawing and writing workshops for children, such as a poetry workshop with Tom Angleberger and John Schu, drawing a superhero with Nikkolas Smith, drawing David with David Shannon, drawing Bruce with Ryan Higgins, drawing “Bob shapes” with Bob Shea, and a cartooning workshop with Eric Lide. There are also many activities for children in the children’s area outside the College of Education in the Tent for Tots and Creativity Corner and free books at the Book Give-Away Tent. The Children’s Stage offers entertainment by musicians, theatre groups, and storytellers, including Jose-Luis Orozco. Authors and illustrators read aloud their books and interact with children at the Story Blanket Tent.
The Teen Area is located at the University of Arizona Library. The YA Author Stage is an outside stage with panels of YA authors, such as Victoria Aveyard, Kendare Blake, Tiffany Jackson, Nic Stone, Libba Bray, Scott Reintgen, Andrea Rogers, Vanessa Le, Gayle Forman, Tricia Levenseller, and Matt Mendez. The panels focus on dark fantasy, magic systems, fighting for justice, trauma and healing, romantasy, bad ass girls and horror thrillers. Inside the library are YA Workshops on topics such as writing horror, worldbuilding, graphic novels, comics and zines. Small groups of teens also meet with an author to record an audio interview that is edited into a podcast to post online and there is a Teen Activity Tent and a Teen Book Give-Away Tent.
And then, of course, there are books galore to purchase at the bookstore and opportunities to get signatures at the book signing booths after a session. If that’s not enough options, another 200 authors and sessions can be found in the adult genres of current events, literary fiction, nonfiction, sports, romance, mystery, poetry, a Western Parks Stage and the Nuestra Raices stage. The center mall is full of booths, Indie Author Pavilions, and lots of food options.
Throughout the day on Saturday and Sunday, there are a plethora of sessions at every time slot from 10-5 p.m., so making decisions about where to spend your time will be a major problem. The schedule for the entire festival is posted on the festival website, but the children/teen schedule is available HERE for those who want to make their selections ahead of time. The festival remains my favorite place to interact with authors whose books have been my favorites and gain insights into the stories behind their books and writing/illustrating processes, while also being introduced to emerging authors and adding them to my list of favorites. Authors and illustrators become people I know rather than just a name on a book cover, and I read their books with greater insight and connection. Make plans to join us on March 15-16, 2025.
WOW Currents is a space to talk about forward-thinking trends in global children’s and adolescent literature and how we use that literature with students. “Currents” is a play on words for trends and timeliness and the way we talk about social media. We encourage you to participate by leaving comments and sharing this post with your peers. To view our complete offerings of WOW Currents, please visit its archival stream.
- Themes: Kathy Short, Tucson Festival of Books
- Descriptors: Books & Resources, WOW Currents