The Deseret News says the inaugural Salt Lake Book Festival is on 17 October, and a nineteen-year-old reader and baby-portrait painter brings a sketchbook
Dear Diary: Salt Lake Gets Its First Book Festival at The Gateway, With Jodi Picoult and a Market for Books, Art and Food
The Deseret News says the inaugural Salt Lake Book Festival is on 17 October, and a nineteen-year-old reader and baby-portrait painter brings a sketchbook
By Tinsel Vandergraph, reader and portrait painter, Salt Lake City
Sunday, After Church, Kitchen Table
Dear diary, I am nineteen, I live in Salt Lake City, I read novels and I paint portraits of babies. I do it every day, and I have the paint on my elbows to prove it. This week I read a Deseret News report from 25 June 2026 about the inaugural Salt Lake Book Festival, which the article gives as taking place on 17 October at The Gateway.
The article does not give the year in its text, but its date is 2026, so I take the 17 October to be this month and the festival to be very recent. I have no report on how it went, and I will not invent one.
What the Article Says
The festival, the article says, will have author conversations, panel discussions, book signings, and a market for books, art and food. Its director is Amanda Warren. The headliner is Jodi Picoult, 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 movie starring Cameron Diaz and Abigail Breslin.
The article adds that she advocates for the freedom to read, including through PEN America.
The Other Authors
Other authors named are Mathilda Zeller, Nghi Vo and Brian Laidlaw, with more expected to be announced later. Tickets were already on sale through the festival’s website, on its author line-up page, at the time of the article.
I have read none of these authors except by reputation, and I try not to say I have read what I have only seen on a shelf. My mother says this is a Christian virtue. I say it is good manners.
The Quotes
Amanda Warren is quoted: “We’re building the Salt Lake Book Festival to celebrate the idea 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.”
I would put both on a banner. A book festival that describes itself as a lovely day for book people has already won my heart.
A Little History
The article says the festival is connected to Utah Humanities, which hosts the statewide Utah Humanities Book Festival. That festival began in 1998 as The Great Salt Lake Book Festival. So the new festival is the child of an old one, and I like a family tree.
I do not know how many people came or whether the weather held. I did not attend. I had a sitting, a baby with a firm view on blue.
On the Baby Portraits
I paint babies because they are the only sitters who do not pretend. They stare, they drool, they look at you as if you were the strange one. I paint one a day, from a photograph, or when I can from life. I will not say who the babies are, because their families trust me.
The thing about portraits and books is that both are about attention. You look closely at one thing for a long time, and it changes.
What I Would Have Done
I would have gone to the market and spent my money on a second-hand paperback and an expensive coffee. I would have listened to the panel with a sketchbook open, and drawn the backs of heads. This is how I attend things. I do not take notes. I take outlines.
If a second festival is announced, I will check the dates, and I will attend with a pencil.
Bedtime Reading
Tonight I will read for an hour, and paint for another. The baby of the day has been put to bed, and the portrait is drying on the windowsill.
Goodnight, diary. May all your sentences have good bones.
Questions From the Reading Circle
Friend one: who is Jodi Picoult? The article calls her a New York Times bestselling author of nearly 30 novels. Friend two: is it free? The article says tickets were on sale through the festival’s website, and does not give prices. Friend three: what is The Gateway? A place in Salt Lake City, according to the article, and the rest I know from walking past.
I answered with the article and a shrug, which is the correct form.
A Word on Freedom to Read
The article says Picoult advocates for the freedom to read, including through PEN America. I put this down because reading is a large part of my life, and because I hold that people should be able to read what they like and talk about it at home. It is not a political remark. It is a library card in a pocket.
Easel Notes
Between sittings I read the comic papers, because paint takes a while to dry. This week the big joke was property: Manila News on slow condo sales in Cebu, the London Prat on retirees asked for character references (it is at https://prat.uk/cebu-estate-agents-demand-character-references/) and Bohiney on a realtor with unsellable beachfront listings. Exaggeration all the way down, but anchored to a real market story. More at prat.uk and bohiney.com.
Note: Philippine authorities are examining unproven allegations about Thomas Markle Sr., who lived in Cebu until earlier this year, as GMA News and the Guardian have reported. No charges have been filed. Child protection is a serious matter; the jokes here are about a property market and the paperwork.
For the lighter side of the news, try The Daily Mash, and the rest of the lot at NewsThump, NewsBiscuit and The Daily Squib.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/cebu-realtor-cant-sell-beachfront-listings/