WYOMING BOOKFEST IN 2006: A few months ago, the planning committee for the Casper College Literary Conference began talking about a Wyoming Book Festival in summer 2006. We all thought it was a grand idea. WYO is one of the few states without a book festival. Our southern neighbor, Colorado, used to have a huge bookfest (I was on the original planning committee) but it died a slow death. A reenergized CO Center for the Book is talking about resurrecting it. WYO did have a bookfest in October 2001, planned by a handful of writers and arts administrators, yours truly among them. It featured a Friday evening reading by the four state poets laureate from UTWYONECO, and a Saturday filed with panel discussions, teen readings, and a book fair. U.S. Sen. Mike Enzi from Gillette, a diehard reader and arts supporter, opened the Friday reading. He and his staff were glad to be in WYO – they had just fled the post-9/11 anthrax attack on their D.C. office building. That 2001 outing was pretty successful but it was more a Laramie County event than a statewide one. So who wants to help plan this shindig? So far, the state’s Arts Council, Humanities Council, and Center for the Book have agreed to participate in one way or another. Casper College is interested in wrapping its annual literary conference into any bookfest – as long as it’s held in Casper. That committee is looking at the 2006 weekends of Aug. 4-5 or 11-12. We’re open to other possibilities. Any ideas?

- posted by Michael Shay @ 4:13 PM