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2016 Gallup Authors Festival ready to blast off

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Event is brainchild of Library Director Mary Ellen Pellington

GALLUP – For two days next weekend, downtown Gallup becomes the literary hub of the Four Corners with the second annual Gallup Authors Festival. “The Gallup Authors Festival: A Celebration of Cultures” features 32 authors from the Southwest, including Anne Hillerman, Jimmy Santiago Baca and Max Early.

Locally retired University of New Mexico-Gallup instructors Martin Link and John Taylor will be available to discuss their works and sign books.

“We are expecting a lot of people,” Library Director Mary Ellen Pellington said, noting the 800-plus that frequented the festival two years ago. The festival was last held in Gallup two years ago. “In a general sense, we want this to be something whereby we can expand on what we’ve previously done. The goal is to do this every year.”

An opening reception takes place at 7 p.m. on April 8 and includes reading and discussion sessions by Baca, author of Stories from the Edge. Baca is the winner of the Pushcart Prize, the American Book Award and the International Hispanic Heritage Award.

Hillerman will give the festival’s keynote address at at 1 pm Saturday. The author of the New York Times bestselling mystery novels, Spider Woman’s Daughter and Rock With Wings, Hillerman is the founding director of the Santa Fe-based WORDHARVEST Writers Workshop, the Tony Hillerman Writers Conference, and she assisted in the creation of the Tony Hillerman Prize.

Hillerman will be followed by John Fortunato, a former Gallup resident and author of Dark Reservations, winner of the 2014 Tony Hillerman Prize, and Robert Kidera, author of Red Gold, winner of the 2015 Hillerman Award for Best Work of Fiction, Best eBook and Best Mystery.

Taylor said during a telephone interview March 29 that he’s excited about attending the festival and being on hand to field questions and comments about his first ever published book. He said he did not attend the festival the first time around, so that makes things all the more special this time.

“I think it’s something that everyone will enjoy,” Taylor said of the festival. “This is not simply for people who have written books. This is something for everyone.”

Taylor’s book is entitled, “Looking For Dan: The Frontier life of a Puzzling Character – Dan DuBois.”

DuBois lived in the Chichiltah community for many years where he ran a small trading post. DuBois left a lot of descendants in the area and several shed colorful details of DuBois’ life with Taylor, hence the title of the book.

“I started writing the book in 2011 and finished in 2014,” Taylor said. “I think it’s an interesting read.”

Larry Greenly is a retired civil engineer and teacher and wrote a book called, “Eugene Bullard: World’s First Black Fighter Pilot.” Greenly was named a 2015 Booklist Top Ten Multi-Cultural Nonfiction Book for Youth and also won a Gold Medal in the 2014 National Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards.

Originally from Pennsylvania, but now an Albuquerque resident, Greenly said, “I’m looking forward to coming to Gallup. I think festivals like this are fun and represent a learning experience for everyone.”

Greenly’s book is a biography about a pioneering black aviator from his birth in 1895 to his combat experiences in both World War I and II, and Bullard’s return to a segregated America.

“A lot of what Bullard, the grandson of a slave, could or could not do in life a lot of times was based on race, but he didn’t let that become a deterrent,” Greenly explained.

Link is also a former history instructor at the University of New Mexico-Gallup. He is the author of Navajo: A Century of Progress, 1868-1968. In 1976, along with his good friend Geraldine, Link published, “The Goat in the Rug and in 2001 he published the Signers of the Treaty of Peace, June 1, 1868 as a companion document to the poster (original by Irving Toddy).

Children’s Jamboree

There is also a Children’s Jamboree at this festival which takes place Saturday at 1:30 p.m. Ross van Dusen will read from his children’s book, “What makes A Rainbow?” Followed by rainbow-themed games and activities, Pellington said.

There will be a Children’s Jamboree Panel at 2:15 p.m. on Saturday featuring Essie Yazzie, who penned Lester’s Big Cover Up.” Anita Poleahla (Celebrate My Hopi Corn and Celebrate My Hopi Toys) are among the panelists.

By Bernie Dotson
Sun Correspondent

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