Colorado Authors Heading to the 2022 National Book Festival

Two of Colorado’s most notable authors – one from the literary tradition and the other serving young readers – are headed (virtually) to Washington, D.C., for the 2022 National Book Festival. Kali Fajardo-Anstine, whose collection Sabrina & Corina won the American Book Award and was short-listed for the National Book Award, was chosen for her new novel, Woman of Light. For the younger readers, Gregory Barrington will speak about his book Cow Boy Is Not a Cowboy.

Both books are part of the Library of Congress’s Center for the Book’s Great Reads From Great Places program, which seeks to spotlight books and their authors representing literary heritage from all over the United States. The National Book Festival has been one of the most prominent literary events in the nation since its inception in 2001. Every year, it brings together best-selling authors, poets and artists for panel discussions, readings, book signings and much more, reaching hundreds of thousands of participants both on site and online. The program has been serving the youth literary market for over two decades, and this is the first year adult readers will be included.

Josephine Jones, director of programs for Colorado Humanities, guesses that this inclusivity will become the new status quo for the NBF. “The Library [of Congress] doesn’t move in a direction it doesn’t intend to maintain, because it’s so gigantic. We’re lucky that here in Colorado we have a vibrant and active Center for the Book,” Jones says.

According to Jones and Center for the Book programs coordinator Mary Hickey, choosing a kids’ lit book for the NBF is relatively simple for Colorado. Given the intense vetting process and already-in-place judging system for the Colorado Book Awards, it’s historically been a work by the winner of that event’s children’s section.

In 2022, that was the laugh-out-loud funny Cow Boy Is Not a Cowboy. Author Gregory Barrington spins a yarn about Goat Girl, who lives on Humdrum Farm, where everything is ordinary. When she meets Merle – a cow and a boy – she mistakes him for a cowboy and can’t wait to introduce herself. An annoyed Merle insists he’s not a cowboy – but will he change his mind when his rootin-tootin’ dream becomes possible? Like a lot of good kids’ lit, it’s a tale designed to entertain kids while also appealing to the adults with some wry humor. “It’s so accessible,” Jones promises. “And so much a product of our Western region.”

It was the addition of the Adult Lit category for the NBF that made things a little more complicated. “Oh, my,” says Jones. “We didn’t have that same pre-selection in the case of adult readers. It could be any genre, which means it could come from nearly any of the categories [of the CBAs].” For 2022, that meant a dozen categories from which to choose.

“So I consulted my group of literary advisers,” Jones says, “and the word came back right away: Kali has a new book out. It’s got to be Kali. It was everyone’s answer; it was like a chorus. So Kali it was.”

Woman of Light is, like Sabrina & Corina, very much rooted in the culture and history of Denver. The book tells the story of Luz “Little Light” Lopez, a tea leaf reader and laundress who’s left to fend for herself after her older brother is run out of town by a violent white mob. As the reader follows Luz through the Mile High City of the 1930s and some thrilling and revelatory prose, they join her in bearing witness to the sinister forces that have devastated her people and their homelands for generations. It falls to Luz to save her family stories from disappearing into oblivion. Jones says the book goes a long way toward spotlighting the too-often quieted voices that represent the “multiplicity of cultures” in Colorado.

Fajardo-Anstine and Barrington will take place in online panel conversations with other chosen authors from states in the Western II region, which is defined as “non-coastal” Western states such as Arizona and Texas.

This year’s National Book Festival will take place on Saturday, September 3, and will include many livestreamed and recorded programs, including those in which Fajardo-Anstine and Barrington participate. All online content from the National Book Festival will be posted on the NBF website and the Library of Congress YouTube channel.

For more information, including links to the panel discussions, see the Colorado Humanities and Center for the Book website.