The most interesting Vegas event you haven’t heard of

The best thing happening in Las Vegas this weekend may be something some of you have never heard of.

But more and more people — as well as publishers and authors from outside Southern Nevada — are becoming aware of the Vegas Valley Book Festival, which is marking its 14th year as the place where readers, book-lovers, current events junkies, story-adoring kids and anybody else who appreciates the power of the written, spoken and illustrated word gather.

This year's festival runs Thursday through Saturday and will feature more than 120 authors and 50 events, including panel discussions, seminars, spoken word performances, book signings, exhibits and children's activities.

Opening the festival with a keynote address Thursday will be best-selling author Brad Meltzer, whose work includes political thrillers, nonfiction books, children's books, comic books and, as co-creator of "Jack & Bobby" and host of "Brad Meltzer's Lost History," television.

Meltzer's program will begin at 7 p.m. at the Clark County Library, 1401 E. Flamingo Road. Admission is free, but wristbands will be given out starting at 6 p.m. in the theater courtyard (limit one per person). For more information, visit www.lvccld.org or call 702-507-3459.

Presenting the closing keynote on Saturday will be Colum McCann, author of six novels and two story collections, whose honors include a National Book Award for "Let the Great World Spin" (he is adapting the novel for the screen with J.J. Abrams). His most recent novel, "TransAtlantic," was published in 2013.

McCann's program will begin at 4:15 p.m. Saturday at the Fifth Street School, 401 S. Fourth St., where Saturday's events will take place. The festival is free and open to the public. For a complete schedule and additional information, visit the festival's website (www.vegasvalleybookfestival.org).

Like any good story, the festival has seen twists and turns over the years on its way to becoming one of the valley's most beloved — if, admittedly, not yet best-known — celebrations.

In terms of format, venues and even its mix of offerings, "it is one of those events that has evolved over time," says Geoff Schumacher, literary chairman for this year's festival who also has followed the event, either officially or as an avid book-lover, for most of the years it has existed.

The festival began in 2002 as a project of Nevada Humanities in partnership with Henderson Libraries, and was held that first year at the Henderson Pavilion. In subsequent years, the festival experienced venue changes, and Schumacher remembers an early festival when novelist Walter Mosley presented a keynote address at Sam's Town.

Initially, the festival focused primarily on adult readers. Then, in 2006, a retailer expressed interest in sponsoring a children's festival, notes Patricia Harris, this year's steering committee co-chair, who joined the festival that year.

"We had about six weeks to put it together," Harris recalls, but "we had over 800 children who attended that first performance."

The festival later expanded its youth-oriented offerings even further to include young adult and middle-grades literature, "which meant we had all of the genres, all age groups, covered," Harris says.

Since 2008, the Historic Fifth Street School in downtown Las Vegas has been the site of the bulk of the festival's activities, although a few events — for example, the opening keynote address, held at the larger Clark County Library — continue to be held at other locales.

The format of the festival has been tweaked over the years, too. This year's event begins Thursday with the opening keynote address by author Brad Meltzer, continues on Friday with the unveiling of this year's Las Vegas Writes project, and continues all day Saturday with seminars, panel discussions and programs at the Fifth Street School.

For a few years, the festival also included Sunday sessions "devoted to cookbook authors and cooking demonstrations," Schumacher recalls. "We also, in the past, have had a lot of pre-festival events. So you sort of added the book festival brand to different events going on around town.

"There was a time when the book festival had maybe 10 or 15 different things it was associated with, but we cut back a little bit. But one program that is still ongoing is the Las Vegas Writes project. I started that seven years ago."

Each year, seven to 10 authors are selected to contribute to a themed, Las Vegas-centric anthology. Las Vegas Writes is "very much a book festival project," Schumacher says. "The authors get exposure, and the book produces something of enduring value."

"Another program of the festival is, we also send authors into schools on the day before the festival," Schumacher says. "That's a newer part of the festival and it's really growing. And the important part of that is, we have authors fanning out across the valley, especially at at-risk schools, underserved schools, and doing talks."

The roster of panel discussions, seminars, workshops, storytelling sessions, performances and activities that make up Saturday's programming also is tweaked every year. And while book-lovers and aspiring authors will find much of interest on the schedule, even those who don't consider themselves heavy recreational readers will find something of interest.

While panels featuring authors are popular with literary-minded festivalgoers, "you don't need to be (an avid reader) to be interested in a panel discussion on the 2016 presidential elections," Schumacher says. "And we have that.

"We have another panel on race and ethnicity in America, and we have some really diverse panelists for that. These individuals are African-American and Latino and Iranian and Russian, and they're going to be talking about where we are in America in 2015 in issues of race and ethnicity."

Harris suspects Southern Nevadans who've never attended the festival "don't know how inclusive we are. Maybe you don't read recreationally, but you have an interest in politics or what's happening across our society,or history — we always seem to have a panel for that.

Last year's festival attracted about 11,000 guests over its run, Harris says, and this year's festival has seen "an increase in publishing houses. A couple of publishing houses are launching books from their authors at the festival, which is great."

Schumacher notes that the festival typically "does have a number of local writers participating, but it always has prided itself in bringing in authors from all over."

— Contact reporter John Przybys at 702-383-0280 or jprzybys@reviewjournal.com or follow @JJPrzybys on Twitter.