YALLWEST returns for it's fourth year on May 4 - 5th, and will feature more than 100 authors. The premiere young adult book festival will be held at Santa Monica High School. YALLWEST, and its sister festival YALLFEST, are the biggest teen and middle grade book festivals in the country. Last year YALLWEST drew over 20,000 attendees, and donated thousands of dollars in book sale proceeds to school libraries in the Santa Monica Malibu School District, as well as hundreds of books to students in the Los Angeles Unified School District. San Diego Literary Scene is pleased to announce that we will be reporting from YALLWEST this year. Look for our interviews with Becky Albertalli, Margaret Stohl, Melissa de la Cruz, and Alexandra Monir, and more!
Featured events include Tamora Pierce (Tempests and Slaughter) in conversation with Tomi Adeyemi (Children of Blood and Bone) for the morning keynote, and Veronica Roth (Divergent and Carve the Mark) will be in conversation with Sabaa Tahir (Ember in the Ashes) for the afternoon keynote. Both events will take place at Barnum Hall on the Santa Monica High School campus and are ticketed events ($8) for space. Additonally, Pseudonymous Bosch will host the festival’s closing YALLWEST SMACKDOWN variety show with dozens of authors on stage at 6:00 PM.
YALLWEST is the brainchild of a group of bestselling YA authors and YALLFEST organizers/alumni, including co-directors Melissa de la Cruz and Margaret Stohl. Additional authors on the board include Kami Garcia, Pseudonymous Bosch, Marie Lu, Ransom Riggs, Tahereh Mafi, Richelle Mead, Leigh Bardugo, Brendan Reichs, Ally Condie, Holly Goldberg Sloan and Veronica Roth, as well as Gabriel Sandoval, Jonathan Sanchez, and Patrick Dolan.
Friday, May 4th will be a Fierce Friday Preview event at the Santa Monica Public Library from 6PM-8PM. Fierce Friday includes signings, giveaways and games. This event is also free, but registration is required. On Saturday May 5th from 9AM-7PM, YALLWEST will offer a full day of panels, signings, music, photobooths, food trucks, bookselling, cupcake parties, Quidditch gaming, giveaways and nonstop fun.
Additional information:
https://www.yallwest.com/
