YOUR TOWN, YOUR STATE: YALLWEST returns for its sixth year with more than 70 authors presenting on April 25-26, 2020. The annual gathering typically draws over 20,000 readers to Santa Monica High School, but this year’s event will be entirely virtual. The biggest teen and middle-grade book festival in the country is going worldwide (web).
Rebranded as YALLSTAYHOME, this free event will feature a weekend of online panel discussions, giveaways, games and more. Special events will surround the festival, with promotions across social media platforms. Additionally, the festival is connecting participating authors with twenty underserved Los Angeles schools for virtual visits via Zoom and providing e-books to their students.
Full schedule and registration can be found at yallwest.com/schedule.
YALLWEST-2020-press-releaseI was lucky enough to volunteer there for the past few years and though, I’m sad not to be physically there this year, I’m beyond excited and happy to see them bring this book festival to our home.
Don’t forget to register online ahead of time so that you can attend all available panel/special events. There will be exciting talks and you’ll share memorable times with the authors. That I can tell you! Also, it’s your chance to enter the giveaways to win some amazing arcs and bookish prizes.
I wrote this post last year to show you how valuable this event is. This year, it is virtual so no excuses 🙂
Why you should consider attending YallWest as a book lover and a YA writer.
I know I’ll be there. Will you? 🙂
I thought this was a fantastic idea, and I’ve already registered for a couple of sessions.
That’s fantastic. I’m glad you did. 🙂 I did too 🙂