Storytellers and story lovers will come together for a lively celebration of the written word when the Santa Barbara Literary Festival debuts on May 2-3 with a series of keynotes, panels, workshops, and pop-up events throughout downtown Santa Barbara.
This fabulously ambitious undertaking is a true labor of love for founders Lorissa Rinehart and Leslie Zemeckis, who are both Santa Barbara–based authors, TEDX speakers, and passionate advocates for the notion that literature is not just meant to be read, but experienced.
“We had been looking for something to do together,” said Rinehart.
“We spent last year going to a lot of literary festivals around the world,” said Zemekis, a documentary filmmaker and author of the nonfiction books Behind the Burly Q, Goddess of Love Incarnate: The Life of Stripteuse Lili St. Cyr, and Feuding Fan Dancers: Faith Bacon, Sally Rand, and the Golden Age of the Showgirl.
Rinehart was also on the literary circuit promoting her latest book Winning the Earthquake: How Jeannette Rankin Defied All Odds to Become the First Woman in Congress (see story here). She is also the author of First to the Front, a 2023 book about pioneering war correspondent Dickey Chapelle.
“We talked about it a lot and thought that this was a no-brainer destination spot for a literary festival,” said Zemeckis. “We could bring in great quality and high-caliber authors to mix in with all the talent that’s already here in Santa Barbara.”
That’s exactly what happened. The first person that Zemeckis reached out to was Walter Mosley, the wildly popular crime fiction novelist whose first published mystery, Devil in a Blue Dress, was the basis for the 1995 movie starring Denzel Washington. He had recently been a guest on her podcast — The Plotpoint (listen here), which she cohosts with Sara DiVello — and when Zemeckis asked him to come to Santa Barbara to keynote the festival, he agreed.
“That really helped us secure some key people to anchor the festival,” said Zemeckis. Additional keynote speakers include Kim Michele Richardson (The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek), Chris Whitaker (All the Wicked Girls), and Steven Rowley (The Guncle).
“It’s a lot bigger than what I first thought it would be, because this is really Leslie’s vision and Leslie’s contacts that got us here,” said Rinehart. “I’m amazed at the way that it’s come together and the scale of it.”
The community has jumped right in and supported the festival. “Kimpton Canary donated hotel rooms for our keynote speakers. They’ve also provided conference rooms and a cocktail party for the first night,” which will be for the authors, founding members [supporting donors], and VIPs, said Rinehart. The Santa Barbara Public Library is on board and donated the use of Library Plaza, and Chaucer’s is the book sponsor and will have all of the festival authors’ books for sale.
The list of speakers is impressive, with additional authors and participants including: Susan Orlean, Ann Liang, Ariel Sullivan, Katherine Stewart, Paula McLain, Danielle Trussoni, Shannon Watts, Tod Goldberg, Roda Ahmed, Romina Garber, Beatrice Dixon, Mike Bender, Daniel Humm, Stuart Gibbs, Morgan Matson, Pete Oswald, Justina Blakeney, Dawn Tripp, Faith Phillips, Lolá Ákínmádé Åkerström, Jane Borden, Chelsey Goodan, Edward Humes, and more.
There’s a wide variety of panels with the goal of providing something for just about every interest. For example, in addition to fiction, nonfiction, children and teen authors, audiobooks, agents, and memoirists, there is the Culinary Storytellers group of cookbook authors, food historians, memoirists, and artisans; children’s book creators Max Lang and Suzanne Lang will do a read-along of their books Grumpy Monkey Mom for a Day and Archibald and the Furry Dinosaurs; while journalists Ann Louise Bardach, Jerry Roberts, Peter Richardson, Abe Peck, and Charles Perry will topline a discussion of the wild rise of Rolling Stone.
The Santa Barbara Literary Festival takes place May 2-3 throughout downtown Santa Barbara. Several of the events (including children’s programming) are free, and the entire event is free for first responders. See santabarbaraliteraryfestival.org for additional details and to purchase tickets.
