YALLWEST book festival comes to Santa Monica

The YALLWEST festival is hitting the West Coast for the first time in Santa Monica. The enormously popular festival that typically takes place in South Carolina as YALLFest will now be held on the Samo campus on April 10 from 10 p.m. to 8 p.m. and at Santa Monica Main Public Library on April 11 from 12 a.m. to 5 p.m.The festival was founded by a group of Young Adult (YA) authors who wanted to create a book festival geared towards middle school through high school students. The idea of bringing the festival to the west was championed by YA authors Margaret Stohl and Melissa de la Cruz and Robert Graves of the Santa Monica Public Library.“This is a huge festival,” Samo librarian Dana Bart-Bell said. “It will have over eighty authors including New York best sellers and award-winning authors. South Carolina gets between 5,000 to 8,000 people and because it is happening for the first time in Santa Monica, they are expecting 2,500 to 3,000 people.”According to Bart-Bell, the event will also include illustrators, graphic novelists and book-to-film Hollywood directors, as well as swag giveaways from publishers and food trucks from places such as In-N-Out.In addition to panels on different topics, three main ticketed panel events will be held in Barnum Hall: Ransom Riggs, the author of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children joined with the Samohi Jazz band, Marie Lu, author of the "LEGEND" trilogy and Veronica Roth of "Divergent." The YA “Smack Down,” an event in which authors challenge each other and perform skits, will also take place.“Many of these authors are huge and lots of people are excited at the possibility of meeting these authors,” Bart-Bell said. “There will be people flying in from South Carolina and New York for this event.”Tickets for main event panelists are being sold online at yallwest.com. With the purchase of a ticket, there is an automatic food truck credit of $5, a free tote bag or the chance to donate to the Santa Monica Public Library.“If anything, It’s going to be a fun free day to meet people, listen to authors, find new ones, purchase books or get them signed,” Bart-Bell said.Admission to book festival is free, but there are ticketed events; a schedule of events can be found at yallwest.com.***Melissa de la Cruz, co-organizer of YALLWEST and author of young-adult fiction such as "Witches of East End" and the “Blue Bloods” series, shares her inspirations and insights about the creative writing process in an interview with The Samohi.The Samohi: What do you find interesting about YA novels in general? Are there particular topics or themes that you love that are utterly unique to them? Why?Melissa de la Cruz: I always say I love YA because at seventeen, the guy who hot-wires stolen cars, cuts class and is a total rebel is a hottie, but is a total loser at thirty-two. It’s a time in your life when the universe is literally open to you — when you can make so many mistakes and it’s okay, because every path is unchosen yet, everything is new, the world is full of firsts — first kiss, first love, first heartbreak. So much heightened emotion and so much possibility. I think that’s what I love about it — there is none of that adult disappointment and cynicism. It’s full of youthful idealism and hope. And yes, I think that is unique to YA and that is why a lot of people are drawn to it, not just me.TS: The majority of people who read YA novels are open-minded, inquisitive teens who are still trying to make their decisions about the world around them. What lessons do you want your audience to take away from your works? Do you feel your adult readers take away different lessons? Why do you feel these lessons are important, and what are some challenges that you face in imparting them?MC: Oh dear. I hate lessons. I hate preachy message books and I think lately, there is a trend where YA authors are being a bit as didactic in their work as picture books teaching manners and morals for preschoolers. So I hate if anyone reads my books searching for a lesson in them. I hope to entertain readers, and if in the process they also come away with inspiration — for travel, for an appreciation of art and poetry, or somehow find the courage to keep going in their own lives, I’m always floored and moved by that. A lot of Gulf War soldiers and Hurricane Katrina survivors wrote me during the “Blue Bloods” years saying the books inspired them. I also have some very intense adult readers who love the books for their introduction to mythology. Everyone comes away with something.TS: You are influenced by writers of classic books, including Leo Tolstoy. What elements of classic works do you try to imbue within your novels, and why are they relevant to your audience? How have these works inspired you in terms of characterization, motifs, and plot?MC: “War and Peace” is my favorite novel of all time, I always tell the kids (teens that I speak to when I visit schools, etc.) that I love it because it’s a beautiful book about happiness; it shows how happiness is just as complicated as misery. I find a lot of current literary fiction is obsessed with the minutia of misery, as the thinking is that “happiness writes a blank page” — that there’s nothing interesting about functional families, about good marriages, great friendships. “War and Peace” just proves all that wrong. It depicts a happy family, interesting romances between strong characters (even a bit of a love triangle), the love between parents and children, between siblings in a full, lush, developed story — and as for a blank page — the novel is a thousand pages long! So I think what I take from the book is the license to write about happiness. That it’s as much a worthy theme and literary subject as the opposite. And I think happiness is a YA theme, seeking it, trying to hold on to it, from eternal love to the courage to rise up in a dystopian society.