Lydia Peelle, featured author at 2017 Telluride Literary Arts FestivalReading is a solitary pleasure. Open up a book, and shut out the rest of the world. Except for this weekend—this weekend, celebrate your love of the written word with a bunch of like-minded readers, writers, and poets at the Telluride Literary Arts Festival.
This year’s featured guest is Lydia Peelle. Peelle is the author of the recently released novel The Midnight Cool. Her previous book, Reasons For and Advantages of Breathing, was a New York Times Book Review Critics’ Choice book and received an honorable mention for the PEN/Hemingway Award. She is also the recipient of two Pushcart Prizes, an O. Henry Prize, and the National Book Foundation’s “5 Under 35” Honor. She also received the Anahid Award for Armenian-American writers. Peelle will be featured at an author brunch at 11 a.m. on Sunday, May 21, at the Wilkinson Public Library.
Also appearing at the festival is former Western Slope Poet Laureate Aaron Abeyta, winner of the Colorado Book Award for his poetry collection Colcha and recipient of a Colorado Council on the Arts fellowship for poetry. Abeyta will give a reading at 8 p.m. at the Liberty Bar on Friday, May 19, followed by an open mic.
The Literary Festival will also honor the 2017 award winner of the Fischer Poetry Prize, as well as celebrate the naming of the next Western Slope Poet Laureate. One of the festival’s most popular events is Literary Burlesque, where poets bare their souls and give powerful poetry readings. This year’s theme is “Geography of Resistance: Body Politic, Body Erotic” and the event takes place at the Ah Haa School at 8 p.m. on Saturday, May 20. Doors and the cash bar open at 7 p.m., and make sure you get there early as this part of the festival typically sells out.
There are also events for the kids, a fine art exhibit of select bookbinding projects, and other fun activities—check out the full schedule here.