A partnership between NAU and the Northern Arizona Book Festival is resulting in a Young Author’s Festival at the College of Education from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Friday, April 20.
About 500 students from local schools will hear authors from the book festival read from their work and discuss the ins and outs of being an author. College of Education student-teachers will be in charge of the activities, including discussions and workshops where students can write and bind their own books.
“This is a great opportunity for our pre-service teachers to learn on the job,” said Jim Manley, a lecturer in teaching and learning. “They will manage the workshops and get to see that the pleasure of a reading-writing classroom is the look on a child’s face when they see their work in a published form.”
The festival will feature readings by young authors as well as NAU writers, including Ann Cummins, a professor of creative writing, who recently published Yellowcake, a fictional tale about a Navajo family living with the effects of uranium milling. Blues musician Steve Willis will accompany the reading.
Martha Brady, an associate professor of teaching and learning, will read from a collection of short stories she has written, and Sig Boloz, a lecturer in teaching and learning, will entertain with humorous poetry.
“For the past nine years we have tried to include local schools by sending an author into every school,” said Rebecca Byrkit, executive director of the Northern Arizona Book Festival, which runs from April 20-23 at the Orpheum Theater in downtown Flagstaff. “Now we bring the schools to us.”
Other performers at the Young Authors Festival will include songwriter Chuck Cheeseman and poets Matt Hall and Karl Jones.
Information is available online.