Tinsel Vandergraph on the inaugural Salt Lake Book Festival at The Gateway, a headliner with nearly thirty novels and the small matter of a venue discrepancy
Saturday 10 October, 6.15am, my kitchen, a bowl of oatmeal and a printed article on the table that I have underlined in three colours.
Dear Diary. There is a book event coming to my city that I am more excited about than a grown woman ought to be, and I want to write down what I know about it, including what I do not know. The source is a Deseret News report by Valerie Jones, published on 25 June 2026, Jodi Picoult at Salt Lake Book Festival. It describes the inaugural Salt Lake Book Festival, set for 17 October at The Gateway in Salt Lake City, with Jodi Picoult as headliner.
The Headliner
According to the article, Picoult is a New York Times bestselling author of nearly 30 novels, best known for her 2004 novel My Sister’s Keeper, which was adapted into a film starring Cameron Diaz and Abigail Breslin. She is also described as an advocate for the freedom to read through PEN America. Tickets for her appearance were on sale on the festival’s website when the article was published.
I have read My Sister’s Keeper, and I read it in two nights, and I do not recommend that, since a novel like that wants a week to settle. I will say that I think she writes the family argument better than most. Her books begin with a situation in which nobody is wrong and everybody is hurt, which is the hardest kind of story to tell.
The Other Authors
The article names Mathilda Zeller, Nghi Vo and Brian Laidlaw as other authors, and says that more would be announced later. Planned activities are author conversations, panel discussions, book signings and a market for books, art and food. The festival director, Amanda Warren, is quoted as saying the aim is to show that books can bring people together. Kase Johnstun, director of the Utah Center for the Book, called it a lovely day for books and book people alike. The Center for the Book is affiliated with the nonprofit Utah Humanities. The article adds that the Utah Humanities Book Festival began in 1998 as The Great Salt Lake Book Festival and is described as Utah’s largest and oldest book festival.
The Discrepancy
Here is the part that made me put my pencil down. The Deseret article says the event is at The Gateway. The festival’s own listing, on the Utah Humanities Book Festival page, shows Brian Laidlaw, Parvati Shallow and Rachel Michele Wilson at The Gateway on 17 October, but puts Jodi Picoult on the same date at 5.30pm at West High School. Both sources agree on the date. They disagree on the venue for Picoult. The festival page is the official one and later than the June article, so I am inclined to trust it for the evening, but I will check the festival website and the ticket confirmation before I set out.
That kind of discrepancy is common when plans change between a June announcement and an October event. It is not a scandal. It is a reason to read your ticket.
What I Will Wear
A more urgent question. I have decided on the green cardigan, the one with the pockets, because an author event requires pockets for a pen, a ticket stub and a tissue. I will bring a copy of My Sister’s Keeper, because it is the one she is best known for and I would like it signed, and a second book as a backup in case she is asked to sign something else and there is a queue.
I am also considering whether to paint something to give her. I paint portraits of babies, which is not the usual gift for a novelist, but I have a small card with a pencil drawing of a baby holding a book, and I can sign it. It might be too much. Another version of me, the sensible one, says to leave it at home.
A London Library Note
Our archive in London has a deep fondness for the public library and the reader’s right to find a book. The piece on London library, quiet defiance in public buildings is the best short statement I know of why the freedom to read matters, and why a library is a form of resistance. The funny companion, the library visit, when British history waits patiently on the shelf, is a pleasure. And the guide to a Bloomsbury walking tour, the British Museum, the squares and literary London is one for the list for any reader who is thinking of crossing the Atlantic.
Why Festivals Matter
I have been to a few, and they follow a pattern. In the morning, there is hope. At lunchtime, there is a queue. In the afternoon, a panel on a subject you did not know you cared about turns out to be the best hour of your year. In the evening, you stand in a line holding a book and feel shy. It is, at its best, a form of community, and the quote from the festival director about books bringing people together struck me as simply true.
Five Rules For Meeting An Author
One. Say something specific about the book. Not that you loved it, but which scene.
Two. Keep it short. There is a line behind you.
Three. Do not ask for a plot summary of the next one.
Four. Be kind. They have been signing for hours.
Five. Read the book afterwards again. It will be different.
For more on how we think about the written word and humour, our how to write satire for the UK guide gives a practical start, Bohiney Magazine offers the American voice, and Newsthump is a fine breakfast companion.
8pm. The article is in my bag. The calendar is circled. The cardigan is on its hanger.
Goodnight, Diary. Check the venue, bring a pen.
SOURCE: bohiney.com