Héctor Tobar and Lynn Wiese Sneyd discuss Tucson Festival of Books

Héctor Tobar and Lynn Wiese Sneyd talked about the 13th Annual Tucson Festival of Books. Last year’s festival was canceled due to the pandemic, but the festival has been reimagined virtually. Héctor Tobar discussed his latest novel “The Last Great Road Bum.” He will be in discussion with festival favorite Luis Alberto Urrea and moderator Ernesto Portillo, Jr. on Sunday, March 7 at 1 pm. Information on how you can sign up for sessions is at the bottom of this post.

Héctor Tobar is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and novelist. He is the author of the New York Times best-seller “Deep Down Dark,” as well as “The Barbarian Nurseries,” “Translation Nation” and “The Tattooed Soldier.” Tobar is also a contributing writer for the New York Times opinion pages and an associate professor at the University of California, Irvine. He has written for The New Yorker, the Los Angeles Times, and other publications. His short fiction has appeared in Best American Short Stories, L.A. Noir, ZYZZYVA, and Slate. The son of Guatemalan immigrants, he is a native of Los Angeles, where he lives with his family. His new novel is “The Last Great Road Bum.”

Lynn Wiese Sneyd is the literary consultant for the Tucson Festival of Books and the owner of LWS Literary Services, an agency focusing on editing and publicity for authors. She has written numerous books including the award-winning memoirs “The Horse Lover” and “Cowboy Up,” both co-authored with Alan Day. Last June, the writing team launched The Cowboy Up Podcast, which airs on Apple and Spotify. 

Recorded and produced by Amanda Shauger

Pre-Register for your favorite festival sessions now!

Festival Staff / February 26, 2021

Festival events will be available to view on March 6 beginning at 9:00 am. Most festival events will be taking place live (click here for a schedule) and will allow you to chat with your fellow audience members and ask the author/authors questions! Pre-registering won’t allow you to access festival sessions early, but it will make it faster to get in on event day. Want to learn how? Click here for a short video created by our friends at the Arizona Daily Star.

Not interested in watching a video? Here are step-by-step instructions:

How to sign up for this weekend’s festival presentations and the Friday Night Event.

There are two ways to watch Tucson Festival of Books author presentations this weekend. And a third way to watch Friday night’s pre-festival extravaganza.

The festival is using a video tool similar to Facebook or Zoom. The video tool is called Crowdcast. Just like Zoom you use your email to sign up for Crowdcast. Unlike zoom, you will not end up on the screen as part of the presentation.

The Friday Night Event sign-up is pretty simple. Click on the link below, type in your email address and we’ll send you an email when it’s time for you to join us on Friday, March 5 at 5:30 p.m. Hosted by festival favorite and NPR host Scott Simon, this exciting hourlong event will begin with entertainment by Willy Vlautin, includes the presentation of the Tucson Festival of Books Founders Award to best-selling author Lisa See and is followed by a conversation between Scott and U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins.

Don’t miss this kick-off of our 2021 virtual festival! Register here today!

The two ways to watch the Tucson Festival of Books author presentations are nearly equally as simple, just different.

Way No. 1.

Go to the Presenting Author Schedule, which is live on our website at tucsonfestivalofbooks.org

Browse through the extensive list of sessions we will offer on March 6 & 7 and make a personalized list of events you want to see. Click here to see the full schedule. 

Once you are on that schedule, click on the title/name of the event you want to watch. For example: Searching for Heroes with Brad Meltzer–do not click the name of the presenting author(s) you will not be taken to the correct place.

This is what you’ll find:

Searching for Heroes with Brad Meltzer

If there is one thing he has learned and one thread that connects all of Brad Meltzer’s best-selling books, it is that ordinary people become heroes who save the world. Cases in point? The heroes and books he will discuss with us today: “The Lincoln Conspiracy,” “I Am Frida Kahlo” and “A New Day.”

See the broadcast icon followed by “Watch broadcast”? Click on that and you’ll be asked for your email. If you have not already created a crowdcast account, you will be sent an email to register for the session. You will need to exit the festival website and go to your email to login. Remember, this email is from crowdcast and may land in your junk/SPAM folder. That email won’t work for all presentations on festival weekend, just this one session. You will need to follow these steps for each session you would like to see.

Way No. 2–Big Timesaver on Festival Days

Go to crowdcast.io/tfob

You’ll think you’re in the wrong place because you won’t see the schedule of TFOB events. Don’t worry. You’re at the right place. In the left-hand corner are three lines and three figures (people icons). Go to “sign in.” I know, that doesn’t seem right, but it is. Type in your email address, click on the arrow and an email link will be sent to your email. Go to your email and click on the link to sign into Crowdcast. Once there you can add a password to your account. Adding this password will save you tons of time on festival weekend because you will be able to enter sessions without having to go back and forth between festival sessions and your email to get in. To add a password, click the icon in the upper left corner again, scroll down to settings. Once in settings scroll way, way down to the bottom past the payment info. Crowdcast accounts are always free for viewers. Enter a password in the box that says add password. After signing in so you can quickly click on the events you want to see when the weekend rolls around. In essence, You now have a password that works for every event.

It is some work…but will save you time!

Note that your crowdcast username and password will get you into all events (unless they fill up). This is unlike previous years where you needed individual tickets for each of the events you wanted to see.

Important! All of these steps and presentations work much more smoothly on a laptop or desktop computer. Much of the functionality of these programs are lost on a tablet or phone. The ability to chat, sign up for a password, and/or ask a question of a presenter during the festival weekend are often difficult or entirely absent when using a tablet (iPad) or phone.

Questions? Email [email protected].