Northern Arizona Book Festival

The Northern Arizona Book Festival (NOAZBF) is a literary nonprofit based out of Kinłání (a.k.a., the bordertown of Flagstaff, Arizona). Its goal is to foster community through showcasing, publishing, and facilitating discussions about the contemporary literary arts from Northern Arizona and beyond. As part of its regular programming, the NOAZBF includes the Indigenous Writers' Symposium and Young Readers' Festival. Our all-volunteer board is comprised of readers, writers, students and educators

The Northern Arizona Book Festival was founded in 1997 by the Literacy Volunteers of Coconino County to cultivate literacy through the literary arts. Over the years, the festival has featured Nobel Prize winners Toni Morison and Czeslaw Milosz; MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship recipients Ofelia Zepeda, Leslie Marmon Silko, and Natalie Diaz; United States Poets Laureate Robert Pinsky and Joy Harjo; Navajo Nation Poets Laureate Luci Tapahonso, Laura Tohe, and Rex Lee Jim; Arizona State Poet Laureate Alberto Alvaro Rios; and award-winning authors like Michael Ondaatje, Russell Banks, Daniel Handler (Lemony Snicket), Dagoberto Gilb, Tim Seibles; Ansel Elkins; Rodrigo Toscano; Benjamin Garcia; Sherwin Bitsui; and Jake Skeets. In addition to its annual festival programming throughout downtown Flagstaff, the organization has grown into a hub for adjacent literary organizations who benefit from collaboration, operational support, and promotional activity. Beginning it 2015, it debuted distinct programs that align with different facets of its mission, including the Indigenous Writers' Symposium, which initiated partnerships that have redefined the cultural scope and social purpose of the work the organization sets out to do. The book festival continues to deliver high-caliber programming in the literary arts while centering Indigenous voices, particularly those who call Kinlani, the Colorado Plateau, and American Southwest home.

Mission Statement in Full:

Established in 1997, the Northern Arizona Book Festival (NOAZBF) is a literary nonprofit based out of Kinłání (a.k.a., the bordertown of Flagstaff, Arizona). Its goal is to foster community through showcasing, publishing, and facilitating discussions about the contemporary literary arts from Northern Arizona and beyond. As part of its regular programming, the NOAZBF includes the Indigenous Writers' Symposium and Young Readers' Festival. Our all-volunteer board is comprised of readers and writers, students and educators, editors and publishers, librarians and journalists, community organizers and scholars. Through deliberate planning and
collaboration with an array of stakeholders who call this region home, we coordinate events that reflect the interests and cultural issues that define life in the Colorado Plateau while helping to educate and enliven its diverse communities. In recent years, the NOAZBF has partnered, supported, and collaborated with the Northern Arizona Playwriting Showcase, the NAU's MFA Program, NAU Honors College, Cinder Skies Reading Series, Juniper House Reading Series, Flagstaff Poetry Slam, Red Ink, Thin Air Magazine, Carbon Copy, Curios, Eggtooth Editions, Tolsun Books, Salina Bookshelf, Radio Sunnyside's Words & Notes, Abalone Mountain Press, Outspokin' and Bookish Zine Collective, Poetry Out Loud, Kin'Lani Bordertown Dormitory, the National Park Service, Northern Arizona Museum, Liminal, Uptown Pubhouse, and Bright Side Bookshop, among other community institutions, nonprofits, and businesses.