It's going to be a big weekend for Southern Arizona's lovers of books, writers and all things literary, as the third annual Tucson Festival of Books takes over the University of Arizona campus.
Congrats to the organizers of the event, who have assembled one hell of a lineup.
I've heard some local writers complaining that the event has an overly corporate look this year. Honestly, I have no qualms with the list of sponsors; if, say, McDonald's wants to throw some cash at something that promotes books and reading, I am more than OK with that.
However, I do have some qualms with one of the sponsors.
In recent years, the Arizona Daily Star has severely slashed the coverage it gives to local books and authors. Case in point: The paper's Sunday books coverage over the past few years has largely been wire copy. And as a subscriber to the Star, I think that sucks.
It baffles me that, on one hand, the Star has largely neglected local writers, while on the other, they've thrown a ton of marketing and public-relations resources into the Tucson Festival of Books.
Over here at Weekly World Central, we have not had any direct sponsorship involvement with the Tucson Festival of Books. Instead, we feel that—being a newspaper—we should dedicate our limited resources to covering books with a local/Southwestern author, publisher or angle, each and every week. No wire copy here.
Continuing our mission of regularly covering Southern Arizona's books and authors, we present to you our 2011 Literary Issue. Enjoy.
