By Helen Harlan

Bookworms in The Big Tomato have reason to rejoice later this month when the second-ever Sacramento Book Festival hits McKinley Park’s Shepard Garden & Arts Center on May 31. The event, hosted by the Sacramento branch of the California Writers Club, is sponsored by over a dozen local book-loving organizations and will feature more than 140 Northern California authors. It’s free to the public and runs from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Tethering off the festival, which was launched in conjunction with the McKinley Park Farmer’s Market on June 2 of last year, this year is the celebration’s first stand-alone venture. And, if late April’s nationwide Independent Bookstore Day was any indication (in which South Sacramento’s Crawford’s Books was left with naked shelves), the dedicated folks putting on the Sacramento Book Festival are on the right track.

“Getting all your reads online puts a reader in a limited bubble, a lonely one without much refreshing energy,” said Judith Starkston, a historical fantasy writer based in Davis, and the festival’s event coordinator. “At the festival, attendees can chat informally with authors, find out what ideas inspired and guided them and happen upon books no algorithm would have dished up.”

Attendees can expect a diverse range of authors, including Elk Grove’s RoseMary Covington-Morgan, who will moderate the Black Women Write panel, as well as a robust lineup of LGBTQ+ writers. One such queer-identifying writer is the festival’s event lead, J. Scott Coatsworth, a sci-fi scribe whose sub-genres include “Alien Contact” and “Space Opera.”

“I have been kind of recruiting folks from my community,” Coatsworth said, wearing a bright yellow Sacramento Book Festival t-shirt that read “Read. Sleep. Repeat.” The tee, along with many festival items, can be purchased here.

“Sacramento is really a wonderful place because it’s such a melting pot of people of different cultures,” noted committee chair and author Tim Schooley. “It’s very diverse, and we wanted the book festival to reflect that. I think we’ve done a decent job of pulling that off this year.”

Schooley is a former Sacramento attorney and even-more-former traveling clown with Ringling Bros., Barnum & Bailey Circus. He is particularly excited for the event’s scavenger hunt.

“We give you a little sheet, and you go to every room, and you get a stamp on your sheet, and then you turn that in, and then you have a chance to win a prize. So it’s a way for us to get people to every corner of the venue,” Schooley observed.

Prizes include a $50 Zocalo gift certificate, two tickets to Broadway Sacramento and a season pass for two to Capital Stage.

Kids and families will find plenty to do at The Kids Zone near the rear of the East Patio, where scheduled readings, activities, balloon animals and art projects will be hosted throughout the day.

Japanese-American author and illustrator Sharon Fujimoto-Johnson will be the first up in The Kids Zone, where she’ll share her books, The Mochi Makers and Shell Song, with young readers and families from 10 to 11:30 a.m.

“I truly believe that many children’s books can be appreciated by readers of all ages,” Fujimoto-Johnson said. “I would love to invite adults attending the festival to come to my readings as well. At past events, children, adults, and even grandmas and grandpas have enjoyed my books.”

When all that mochi talk makes a festival attendee hungry, Juju Burger and Shake will roll in their food truck from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. If one needs a pickup, a mobile coffee cart from The Daily Fix will set up for all six hours of the fair.

Organizers emphasized that the Sacramento Book Festival is both a fundraiser and a celebration. Mustard Seed School, the free private school for children run through Sacramento Loaves & Fishes, will collect books at their event table.

“We’re asking all of the readers and authors to bring a new or gently used children’s book, especially an early reader,” Schooley advised. “Mustard Seed School has so many families. They want to give them books to take with them.”

Street parking and a parking lot reserved for attendees are available. People are encouraged to check their signage upon arrival. Organizers are hoping for a sunny day and emphasized that the show will go on, rain or shine.

“The thing we want to do is give you six hours where you can come in and just enjoy books,” Coatsworth said. “We’re trying to make it a welcoming space for everybody.”

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