Wyoming Book Festival, September 15, 2007, Cheyenne
The Wyoming Book Festival is planned as a community-centered, family-friendly celebration that will draw thousands of readers and potential readers to the State Capitol grounds in the heart of historic Cheyenne. Goals for the event are to have 50-100 invited authors drawing a crowd of 10,000 to 15,000 people.
About book festivals
Book festivals promote reading, books and authors. Research done at other festivals has shown that attendees:
- Travel significant distances to go to a book festival.
- Make unplanned book purchases at the festivals.
- Try a new author or genre because of meeting an author.
- Increase their book buying after the festival is over.
Wyoming's writers
Wyoming is sparsely populated but it has a surprisingly strong writing community and a rich literary heritage. The Wyoming Book Festival will focus primarily on authors with a Wyoming connection - those who have lived or worked here, and those who write about this place.
The state's natural beauty and open spaces have informed and inspired many books, from Owen Wister's The Virginian to the contemporary works of Annie Proulx, C.J. Box and Mark Spragg.
Wyoming's readers
Reading has a high value to the state's residents:
- As part of the Mountain West region, they have one of the highest rates of literary reading in the country. (Data from National Endowment for the Arts)
- Wyoming readers embrace the state's authors through community "One Book" events and local book events.
- Wyoming residents exceed the national average for library visits and checking out library books.
About Cheyenne
Founded in 1867 along the Union Pacific Railroad, Cheyenne is Wyoming's State Capitol, its largest city, and home to one of the biggest rodeos on the professional circuit, Cheyenne Frontier Days. The University of Wyoming is located in Laramie, just 45 miles away.
- Cheyenne is conveniently located at the junction of I-25 and I-80, with easy access to western Nebraska, Colorado's Front Range and the Denver metro area.
- More than 1 million people live within a 90 mile radius of Cheyenne.
- More than 3 million people live within a 120-mile radius.
- Two-fifths of Wyoming's population lives within a 120-mile radius.
- No other major book festival is currently held within 120 miles of Cheyenne.
Support for the Book Festival
The Wyoming Book Festival has support from Wyoming's libraries, State Government and the Wyoming Center for the Book. Find out how you can support the festival.
For more information, contact:
Susan Vittitow at 307/777-5915
or Tina Lackey at 307/777-6338
bookfest@state.wy.us
Last Updated 7/31/07
