9th Annual Eastern Sierra Book Festival

On Saturday, July 18, 2026, the 9th Annual Eastern Sierra Book Festival will be held at the Mammoth Museum at the Hayden Cabin in Mammoth Lakes. The festival is a free one-day celebration of books, reading, and writing. Come meet the many authors who will presenting their new books, most with local settings or themes. The festival opens at 9 a.m. and continues until 4 p.m., with new and used books for sale at rock bottom prices (including free!). Speakers begin on stage from 10 a.m., and the festival concludes with the Author Variety Show which begins at 2 p.m. Food and drink provided by the festival’s sponsor, Stellar Brew of Mammoth Lakes.

 

The speaker schedule:

9 :00   THE FESTIVAL OPENS — Vendor Booths, Used and New Books for Sale!

10:00        Welcome – Jennifer Crittenden & Robert Joki / A Word from Our Sponsor, Stellar Brew / Welcome to the Mammoth Museum

10:15    Ceanne Faustini – Mono County Library – Good Books

10:45    Suzanne Morgan Williams “Ice & Sage: Rugged Landscapes Shape Resilient Characters”

11:15    Panel: “Anthologies: A Quilting Bee for Authors” – Stacey Powells, Donna McCrohan Rosenthal, Lina Myers Lambert, Jennifer Crittenden

12 :00       Bridey Thelen-Heidel “Who Gets To Tell the Story? Memoir, Truth and Permission”

12:45      Panel: “Writing the Remote: Finding Narrative in Far-Flung Landscapes” – Kayla Anderson, Keith Merson, Danny Nielsen, Bruce Rettig

1:30       Bonnie Henderson – Nellie Bly O’Bryan and the Upside-Down House

1:45        Tyler Childress – Bryce Whitmore and Whitewater Rafting

2:00         uthor Variety Show begins

4:00        THE FESTIVAL CLOSES

 

New books that are featured this year include Robert Marks’s book, “Deep Time in the Mono Lake Basin;” “These Are My  Mountains,” a biography of Nellie Bly Bake O’Bryan (of the Upside-Down house fame) written by Bonnie Henderson; a new anthology from the Ridge Writers of Ridgecrest, “Planet Mojave;” Bruce Rettig’s acclaimed memoir, “Refraction,” Suzanne Morgan Williams’s new book, “Seeing Daylight,” about an Iraq War vet who meets a service dog and his trainer; Ally Tapley’s new children’s book, “Mannie, the Dancing Mammoth;” and Jessica Abbe’s novel about eco-activism in the 1970s, “Some Greater Awakening,” along with many more.

 

More info can be found at easternsierrabookfestival.com. The festival is hosted by the Southern Mono Historical Society and sponsored by Stellar Brew and Whistling Rabbit Press.