{"id":106299,"date":"2026-10-07T16:05:57","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T23:05:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=106299"},"modified":"2026-10-09T16:08:36","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T23:08:36","slug":"10-17-inaugural-salt-lake-book-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/10-17-inaugural-salt-lake-book-festival\/","title":{"rendered":"10\/17 Inaugural Salt Lake Book Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Salt Lake City
\nOct. 16- 17<\/p>\n

On Saturday, Oct. 17, The Gateway will welcome reading enthusiasts of all ages for a day of books, conversations, and community featuring more than two dozen authors, a curated market of booksellers and local creators, family programming, signings, and live events across multiple stages.<\/p>\n

A day full of stories<\/p>\n

Festival programming will run from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 17 at The Gateway, with author conversations and panels on the Main Stage and Kiln Stage, dedicated programming for younger readers, and a free public market along Rio Grande Street.<\/p>\n

Highlights include:<\/p>\n

Magic, Desire, and Destiny: Inside the World of Romantasy, featuring Jennifer K. Lambert, Bel Banta, and Nghi Vo<\/p>\n

Outwit, Outplay, Out-Plot, featuring Samantha Allen, Lovell Holder, Erica Hendry, and Parvati Shallow<\/p>\n

Into the Dark: A Conversation on Horror, featuring Alexis Powell, Mathilda Zeller, Taylor Grothe, and Abe Moss<\/p>\n

Been There, Done That: A History Lesson for Right Now, featuring Greg Jackson in conversation with Salt Lake Tribune columnist, Robert Gehrke<\/p>\n

The Language of Stone, featuring Brian Laidlaw, Nicholas Triolo and Gabriel Tallent<\/p>\n

Perspectives Over Pints: Is It a Book?, featuring Lyuba Basin and Theadora Soter<\/p>\n

What the Land Knows:Ecology and the Living Planet, featuring Merritt R. Turetsky and Jason Dove Mark<\/p>\n

Habibi Means Beloved: A Queer Memoir on War, Stuttering, and Belonging, featuring Moudi Sbeity in conversation with Erin Geesaman Rabke<\/p>\n

A full slate of free programming for younger readers, including a Spanish language storytime, conversations with Alexis Powell, Kaela Rivera, A.M. Luzzader, Aly McKnight, Bree Despain, Lindsay Lovise, and John Stephens<\/p>\n

The festival will continue at West High School with A Conversation with Jodi Picoult. Each $49 ticket includes a signed hardcover copy of Picoult\u2019s new novel, Hollow Bones, and a professional photo with the author.<\/p>\n

How tickets work<\/p>\n

The Salt Lake Book Festival itself is free to attend. Visitors do not need a ticket to explore the festival grounds, shop the public market, or spend the day at The Gateway. Because seating at author conversations is limited, tickets or RSVPs are required for individual stage events.<\/p>\n

Most ticketed author conversations and panels are $10 per person, but all family and young-reader programs scheduled on the Kids Corner Stage are free, with advance RSVPs requested to reserve space. Tickets and RSVPs are available now at saltlakebookfestival.org.<\/p>\n

Start the story early<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Sept. 17, readers can take their books on the rails during Read & Ride with UTA, a FrontRunner train takeover from Salt Lake City to Provo and back. Tickets are $10 and include a FrontRunner pass, with proceeds supporting the Salt Lake Book Festival.<\/p>\n

Then, on Friday, Oct. 16, the festival will take over the downtown Salt Lake City Library\u2019s rooftop for The Prologue, its official opening-night celebration. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., followed by an Adult Spelling Bee from 7 to 8 p.m. and a rooftop social and literacy book sale from 8 to 10 p.m. The evening will include special appearances by Jodi Picoult and Parvati Shallow, drinks, dancing, merch, and a chance for readers and writers to gather before Saturday\u2019s main event.<\/p>\n

The complete schedule, individual event descriptions, and ticket links are available at saltlakebookfestival.org\/festival-schedule<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Salt Lake City Oct. 16- 17 On Saturday, Oct. 17, The Gateway will welcome reading enthusiasts of all ages for a day of books, conversations, and community featuring more than two dozen authors, a curated market of booksellers and local creators, family programming, signings, and live events across […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":106300,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[171,2782],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-106299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","category-literary-events"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":true,"date":"2026-10-19 16:05:57","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[0],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106299"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":106301,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106299\/revisions\/106301"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}