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Book Festival

Eighth Book Festival

Saturday, February 28, 2026 @ 10am - 2pm

200 W Oak Ave, Visalia, CA 93291

Tulare County Library is hosting our 8th Book Festival 10 am - 2pm on Saturday, February, 28, 2026!

Mark your calendars!

The library is proud to continue our annual tradition of growing literacy and connectivity in our community with the Book Festival. This festival includes author events, story telling, community partners, the Friends of the Tulare County Library book sale, and more. This FREE festival features books and fun for all ages.

Loud Mouth Poetry Jam

Since 2012, Visalia’s Loud Mouth Poetry Jam has been a home for Central Valley Spoken Word Artists. Each monthly event celebrates the talent of our local poets through open mic and slam competition, as well as bringing out recognized artists from the greater Spoken Word community to feature performances.

Poets from the Loud Mouth Slams are offered opportunities to represent our scene at various Regional and National Level competitions.The Loud Mouth has represented the Central Valley at The Womxn of the World Poetry Slam, Individual World Poetry Slam, National Poetry Slam, Modesto's CHILL List, Portland's Bigfoot Regional Slam, Utah Arts Festival, and Berkeley's Hyphy Invitational.

Workshop: Set the Stage!

This workshop will help introduce spoken word performances to students. The exercises offered will focus on two important fundamentals of spoken word: writing and performance.

Each Workshop will begin with introductions and icebreakers, followed with a minimum of two exercises (one writing and one performance) followed by some time for discussion and an opportunity to share work.

Your host will be Michael Jasso, a Valley Spoken Word Artist with 16 years of experience in the Slam Community.

The Buffalo Soldiers

The Buffalo Soldiers have a storied legacy in Black History, the history of the American West, and the history of the United States Army. This presentation will focus on their remarkable contributions to the development of the state and national park systems here in California. Dorian Yarnelson is a historical interpreter and illustrator with California State Parks, and has been researching the historic trails of the Buffalo Soldiers for over 15 years.

A Wish Your Heart Makes

Join Belle for an Interactive Storytime. Bring the little ones to be our guest during story time at 10 am featuring Belle and the Beast, family-friendly activities, and win prizes throughout the day. There will be board games, DIY bookmarks, a photo booth, and more! Children who participate in our Guess the Story Book Characters activity will receive a small prize and be entered into a drawing for a Build-a-Bear gift card.

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Performers And Presenters

Featuring:

Gary Soto born and raised in Fresno, California, is the author of thirteen poetry collections for adults, most notably NEW AND SELECTED POEMS, a 1995 finalist for both the Los Angeles Times Award and the National Book Award. He has received the Discovery-The Nation Prize and the California Library Association’s John and Patricia Award [twice], in addition to fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts [twice], and the Guggenheim Foundation.

For ITVS, he produced the film “The Pool Party,” which received the 1993 Andrew Carnegie Medal. In 1995, for his work with young people, he was selected NBC Person of the Week. In 1999 he was honored with the Human and Civil Rights Award from the American Education Association, the Literature Award from the Hispanic Heritage Foundation, and the PEN Center West Book Award for his young-adult short story collection PETTY CRIMES.

For the Los Angeles Opera, he wrote the libretto to the opera “Nerdlandia.” In all, his books have sold five million copies, with eight titles translated into French, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Spanish. He lives in Berkeley, California.

Gary Soto

Featured Authors

Margarita Engle is the Cuban-American author of many verse novels, including Wild Dreamers, a Pura Belpré Honor book that was also long listed for the National Book Award. Wings in the Wild received an International Latino Book Award Gold Medal, and The Surrender Tree, received a Newbery Honor.

Other awards includes Pura Belpré Medals, Walter Honors, Américas Awards, a Jane Addams Award, a PEN U.S.A. Award, and the NSK Neustadt Prize. Margarita served as the national 2017-2019 Young People's Poet Laureate. Her newest picture books include Hopeful Heroes and Christiana Figueres, Friend of the Rain Forest. Her most recent verse novels are Island Creatures and Evamar.

Margarita was born in Los Angeles, but developed a deep attachment to her mother's homeland during childhood summers with relatives on the island. She studied agronomy and botany along with creative writing, and now lives in central California with her entomologist husband and soccer playing Border Collie.