The second annual Tombstone Festival of Western Books rides into its namesake town on Friday, March 8.
A cavalcade of 40 authors from as far away as Minnesota and North Dakota will join regional writers and book lovers at the renowned town known for its history of outlaws and gunfights.
“I grew up on the Jicarilla Apache Reservation in the Rio Arriba, a wonderful area full of mystery and people really don’t know much about it. The Rio Arriba is the area north of Santa Fe,” said Doug Hocking, a writer of Southwestern histories and organizer of the event.
Listen to author Doug Hocking talk about the Tombstone book festival
Unlike other festivals, he said some of the guests will come in character, like “Faro Phil,” the world’s leading expert on Faro–a late 17th-century French card gambling game.
“We’ve got Soapy Smith, descended from the Soapy Smith, the famous Old West con man who will show us some of the cons, and Wyatt Earp, the great-grandnephew of Wyatt Earp [who] does a wonderful personification of his uncle.”
The festival will be housed in the iconic Schieffelin Hall in Tombstone from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free.
