Writers, readers, and performers from all around the country will appear at South Lake Tahoe October 21-23, 2016, for WordWave, a three-day festival held on the grounds of Valhalla at the Tallac Historic Site. This literary mash-up will feature theater performances and free readings, panels on craft, and a novel writing camp for kids. Highlights include a one-act playwriting contest, a Maker’s Station demo with bookbinding, letterpress, and found poetry and art. Ticketed events include a steampunk ball.
The Grand Hall at Valhalla in South Lake Tahoe will once again be packed with writers and readers. “Last year we had a fantastic turnout for a first time event, so naturally we are doing it again,” says festival director Jennifer Basye Sander, who co-founded the WordWave festival in 2015 with Kim Wyatt of Bona Fide Books.
On Oct. 21, the festival kicks off with the annual Tall Timber Ball: Steampunk in the Woods fundraising gala. DJ Damien returns for a party you don’t want to miss. Clocks, machinery, Victoriana, and a large mechanical octopus set the stage. “Picture a Jules Verne novel come to life,” Sander says, “Truly an out of this world atmosphere.” Tickets go on sale August 1, at www.valhallatahoe.com.
A partial list of speakers for WordWave on Saturday, Oct. 22, includes Galadrielle Allman, who wrote “Please Be With Me: A Song for My Father,” about the late musician Duane Allman of the Allman Brothers; Melissa Cistaro, the author of the memoir “Pieces of My Mother” and poet Alice Anderson, author of “the watermark,” and the forthcoming memoir from St. Martin’s Press, “Some Bright Morning I’ll Fly Away.”
Free workshops include “The Novel Writing Camp for Kids” with instructor Lewis Buzbee, “Writing the Healing Story” with Melissa Cistaro and “House Afire: Burning Down Expected Narratives to Tell the Difficult Stories” with Alice Anderson.
Last year’s one-act playwriting contest was a big success, and this year WordWave received over 100 entries from new and established writers around the country. Three winners will receive a cash prize and a trip to South Lake Tahoe to prepare a staged reading of the winning works on Oct. 22 at the Boathouse Theatre.
Visit the WordWave website for information and updates at www.tahoewordwave.com.
The 2016 WordWave sponsors include Valhalla, Bona Fide Books, Write By The Lake, Camp Richardson, Face in a Book Bookstore, and Lennard and Cynthia Carlson. Sponsorship opportunities are still available.
Guest speaker Galadrielle Allman
Galadrielle Allman is the author of the memoir Please Be With Me, A Song for My Father Duane Allman, published by Spiegel & Grau in March, 2014. It was chosen by Amazon as a Best Book of 2014. Her story, Only Women Bleed, is included in the forthcoming anthology Crime + Music. The collection of 20 short stories of music themed noir was edited by Jim Fusilli, Music critic for the Wall Street Journal. Galadrielle studied writing at Sarah Lawrence College and lives in Berkeley. She is working on a novel about teenage love and punk rock music.