This weekend, Literacy Lubbock is hosting the annual Lubbock Book Festival, where multiple authors across all genres come together for a signing event to connect with readers while celebrating the most vital and beloved skill: reading.
The book festival will be held at the Cotton Court Hotel in downtown Lubbock on Saturday, November 4 from 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. and Sunday, November 5 from 1 p.m. - 5 p.m. At the festival, authors will have a chance to interact with readers through signings and selling copies of their published works.
Frenship ISD's very own Jared Kitchens, the Gifted and Talented teacher at Crestview Elementary and Jefferson Marshall, an English teacher at the Reese Education Center, will have books available at the annual book festival.
Kitchens wrote his first book, Seasons of the Wither, back in 2000, but held off publishing the novel until 2017. It’s a sci-fi and fantasy novel about the destruction of a planet, very similar to ours, at the hands of a manipulative time god. Since that first book, Kitchens has gone on to publish four more books; The Temporal Trinity, Quondam et Futurus, Spiral Sisterhood, and States of Matter: Up and Atom.
This will be Kitchens third year hosting a table at the book festival. He first became involved with Literacy Lubbock by meeting their staff at other book events hosted in the area. This year Kitchens will be sharing a table with Traci Sexton, a former teacher from Crestview.
Marshall is not only a Frenship teacher but was a member of the 2008 Frenship High School graduating class. He writes a children's book series about the Texas State Parks. Each new book finds a group of five friends in a new park exploring the nature, activities, and history of the park. Marshall was inspired to write after attending a conference at the National Ranching Heritage Center. A week after his visit, he published his first book, The Creature of Caprock Canyons, during the spring of 2020.
Marshall expressed his gratitude for his former teacher for encouraging his creativity throughout the years and stated his excitement about being back home at Frenship. “I'm glad to be a part of the Frenship community,” said Marshall. “I enjoy using my love for writing, reading, and the outdoors to encourage others to achieve their goals and pursue their passions.”
When Marshall heard about the book festival from the Lubbock Caprock Writer's and Illustrator's Alliance (CWIA) he immediately hopped on board. For the last two years he has hosted a table at the event; however, Marshall will not be at his table this year as he was asked to participate in the Centennial Celebration of the Texas State Parks.
Both Kitchens and Marshall encourage everyone to attend the festival, not just avid readers and bookworms.
“I will be selling my books, but I’d like to encourage everyone to attend the festival even if they don’t plan on buying anything,” said Kitchens. “It’s always fun to meet local authors, ask questions about the craft of writing, and experience everything Lubbock Literacy has to offer.”
The festival is packed full of local authors with genres ranging from horror, non-fiction, war stories, westerns, romance, comics, graphic novels, and children's books. There are books to accommodate anyone's interest.
“I personally know quite a few of these authors,” said Marshall. “They are imaginative authors who are supportive of their local community.”
The Lubbock Book Festival is Literacy Lubbock's annual fundraiser, which is a local organization that promotes literacy. The proceeds from the event go towards their adult education programs. They strive to teach adults how to read, teach English as a second language, and help adult students who dropped out of high school earn their GED credential.
For more information about the Lubbock Book Festival and to purchase tickets, check out their webpage HERE.
To learn more about Kitchen and Marhsall's books, click on their names below.