[upbeat music] (Lauren) Hello and welcome to State of the Artz, a series dedicated to highlighting different art and cultural events happening here in Tucson and Southern Arizona.

I'm your host, Lauren Roth, and I'm joining you from the University of Arizona Mall, where every year in March, this place transforms into the Tucson Festival of Books.

Apart from the changing landscape and rising temperatures, nothing says springtime in Southern Arizona like the Tucson Festival of Books.

The annual event attracts thousands of Tucsonans, authors, and bookworms from across the state every year.

There is something for everyone, from author presentations for adults to scavenger hunts for kids.

I'm joined now by the festival's steering committee co-chairs, Trisa Schorr and Kim Rosborough.

Thanks for speaking with me today.

(Trisa) You bet.

(Kim) Thanks for having us.

(Lauren) I'd love for you to share a little bit about the Tucson Festival of Books and how it came to be.

(Kim) It's in its 15th year of an active festival.

It started as an idea of the Viners and they pulled in their friends and people came.

(Trisa) Yeah, they went to, they toured other festivals across the country and saw the things that they loved and things that they wanted to add and that's how it came to be.

(Lauren) Well, tell us a little bit about what's new this year.

I understand there are some additions that we should watch out for.

(Kim) In addition to the exhibitors all up and down the mall, we'll now have food trucks and a scavenger hunt.

(Trisa) It's for children from kindergarten through fifth grade.

There are six clues you hunt for the critters from former festival years and solve the clues and then at the end, you can go spin a prize wheel and get a prize.

We also have a new family tent, friends family tent and that will be for parents and their children.

We're going to have authors, children's authors in there.

(Lauren) Is there anything else that you recommend people do as they come to the Festival of Books perhaps for the first time?

(Trisa) Sure, I would say our new executive director Welz likened the festival to a street fair.

And it really is, there's something for everybody here.

So if you haven't been before, it's fun just to wander.

(Lauren) So I'd love to hear more about those great authors.

I know the Tucson Festival of Books is a huge attraction.

Talk to us about exactly what makes it such a draw and why it's so successful.

(Kim) So we've had J.A.

Jance to every single festival and she's just one of our treasures.

We're lucky to have her, William Kent Krueger, lots of authors.

And then with the election year, there's going to be some panels with authors that write political books.

And those should be quite interesting to people.

(Trisa) I'm really excited about a couple of authors.

T.C.

Boyle is coming again and also Abraham Verghese.

So there's something for everyone.

Our authors love coming because they say we treat them like rock stars.

They feel like rock stars when they come to Tucson.

(Lauren) I'm curious what sets the Tucson Festival of Books apart from other festivals.

(Kim) For one thing, it's free.

It's totally free to the public, which is just great.

It gets people that have never been to the U of A campus out with an opportunity to see great authors, eat food, have fun.

(Trisa) I think another thing that sets it apart is that we do raise money through sponsors and through Friends of the Festival, and we donate some of that money to literacy programs in Southern Arizona.

So, there's that impact as well.

We run the festival with 2,400 volunteers over the weekend.

That doesn't include the prep work beforehand.

And there are all kinds of fun jobs that are available.

And we still need some more volunteers.

So if you're interested, you can check out the tucsonfestivalofbooks.org website.

And there's a volunteer button.

Just click on that link.

(Lauren) Perfect.

I know it's a labor of love, and it involves the whole community.

Thank you so much for speaking with me today.

(Trisa) Thank you.

(Kim) Thanks, Lauren.

(Lauren) Welz, welcome to your brand new position as executive director.

I understand this is new for you... (Welz) It is.

(Lauren) ...of The Festival of Books.

Tell us a little bit please about how you came to this position.

I guess what attracted you to it?

(Welz) So I've been in Tucson for a couple of years, and I volunteered for the festival twice.

And I was completely knocked out by the beauty of the mall, the street fair feel of it.

Because I'd been to book fairs, and there was always a kind of elitist, maybe overly intellectual, still fun, but exclusive kind of feel to it.

This one really feels like a street fair, and of course Tucson's famous for street fairs.

And what really makes it feel that way for me is all the kids and families.

It's free.

Not all the festivals in the country are free.

And that makes it a real outing day.

A lot of people come both days.

(Lauren) I'm curious for you to talk a little bit about what makes books still appealing.

I think they ought to be, but it's true that there have been trends and naysayers along the way who have said that books are less in style or they favor electronics and the other opportunities that we have to get our literature.

(Welz) We certainly are in a very screen focused culture right now.

There's no question about that and especially for kids.

And we know just through all sorts of economic data that books have become more popular at the holidays and birthdays and things like that.

So I'm hopeful.

Reading is reading.

If it's on a screen, if it's an audible book, whatever, does it really matter to me at the end of the day as long as people are getting it?

But I think the solid feel of it is actually very true.

A lot of people talk about arts organizations as families.

This is definitely a family.

And you instantly feel it when you're here.

Part of it is that street fair part.

Part of it is that there's so many actual families here as well.

So it's really fun.

(Lauren) Thank you so much, Welz.

We all look forward to the Festival of Books in March.

(Welz) Thanks for your time.

Excellent.

(Lauren) This year's Festival of Books will be held March 9th and 10th, right here on the U of A Mall.

There will be presentations, activities for all ages, and of course, books for all literature lovers.

Thanks so much for joining us today on State of the Artz.

I'm Lauren Roth, and we'll see you again next time.

[MUSIC]