Wrapping up the Cedar Falls Authors Festival

Post date: Jun 18, 2018 11:38:44 PM

Shortly after I retired from Hawkeye Community College, Barbara Lounsberry invited me to join a committee exploring ways to honor five best-selling authors with Cedar Falls ties: Bess Streeter Aldrich, Ruth Suckow, James Hearst, Nancy Price, and Robert James Waller.

Other committee members included: Rosemary Beach, Jan Andersen, Kim Manning, Mary Taylor, Mary Bremmer, and Scott Cawelti. Together, we created the Cedar Falls Authors Festival.

We began planning in the fall of 2016. We applied for a grant from the Cedar Falls Community Foundation (The Saul and Joan Diamond Community Enhancement Grant) and received $5,000 for our budget. We enlisted the help of a number of organizations around the community: The Cedar Falls Public Library, the Cedar Falls Tourism & Visitors Bureau, The Hearst Center for the Arts, The Rod Library, The Cedar Falls Historical Society, The Western Home Communities, and many others. Since we had a small budget, we used our brochures, Gary Kelley posters, media partners to promote our events, as well as our website and Facebook.

Early on, I discovered a wonderful website created by the students of Dr. Tom Connors at UNI in 2012: https://sites.google.com/site/historicalcedarfalls/. The literature page mentioned all five of our authors and was a wonderful resource. I created our website, www.cfauthorsfestival.org: the only expense was buying the domain name.

Programs began in May 2017 and go through June 9, when we wrap with the Ruth Suckow Memorial Association’s Annual Meeting, and a presentation by Ken Lyftogt, open to the public. We spent a month focusing on each of the five authors, had an August birthday party readathon, invited local authors to participate in a book fair, and launched the second part of our festival in January —celebrating local authors, many of them writing about history or history-based fiction.

We had a finale at the Hearst Center this week to thank participants, partnering organizations, our steering committee and the larger collaborative committee. Here are a few highlights from the program.

By the numbers:

· More than 60 events were held from May 2017 to May 2018

· More than 3,200 guests attended

· Nearly 40 speakers presented

· Seven festival presentations were made to clubs and service groups

A dozen permanent projects have created a lasting legacy

· Gary Kelley’s original artwork for the festival’s poster will be donated to one of our partners for permanent display.

· “Amongst" by UNI student-sculptor Hanna Seggerman honoring Ruth Suckow and Ferner Nuhn is on temporary display in the Hearst Sculpture Garden.

· A commemorative plaque in Seerley Park honors Nancy Price and other writers who lived and wrote there.

· Screening “Sleeping with the Enemy” in Seerley Park prompted the upgrade of its electrical capacity, allowing for new events to be hosted there.

· Additional illustrations by Nancy Price have been added to the Hearst Center’s permanent collection.

· “Red Geraniums” features new James Hearst poems discovered and published by Jim O’Loughlin.

· A commemorative reissue of North American Review magazine from 1974 features James Hearst.

· An updated Bess Streeter Aldrich driving tour featuring sites important to her life and work was produced.

· The plaque honoring Bess Streeter Aldrich in her namesake park in North Cedar has been refurbished and reset. In addition, a plaque has been replaced on a private home where Aldrich once lived.

· A Cedar Falls authors directory has been created and will be posted on the CFAF website.

· Cedar Falls Cable Television Channel 15 has an archive of interviews and footage of festival events.

· The Cedar Falls Authors Festival website, www.cfauthorsfestival.org, continues to provide information on our authors.

· In addition, Nancy Price, one of the original five authors, received an honorary degree from UNI.

As we wind down, we feel a sense of accomplishment. We showcased our five best-selling, nationally known authors and created a greater awareness of Cedar Falls’ historic, literary legacy. We gave an opportunity for local writers to give presentations, serve on panels, participate in a book fair, and attend a free workshop on blogging. We packed the house at many events.

What are my takeaways from this project?

· Cedar Falls is an extraordinary community that cares about literature and literacy, values its public library and museums, and shows up for events.

· Our partners were wonderful: we could not have succeeded without their participation. The Cedar Falls Public Library, Hearst Center for the Arts, and the Rod Library hosted most of our programs, and staff members were helpful.

· Most of the committee members were retired; however, two were hard-working women with a day job. A big thanks to Mary Taylor of Western Home Communities and Kim Manning of the Cedar Falls Tourism and Visitors Bureau.

· Creating Facebook events proved useful: when my husband began using his iPhone to do Facebook Live at events, it was a wonderful experiment. Presenters with relatives in other towns got feedback: “I watched your event!”

Thanks, Cedar Falls! I cannot imagine a better way to start retirement than getting involved with the Cedar Falls Authors Festival: and thank you to our co-chairs, Rosemary Beach and Barbara Lounsberry.

Last updated June 18, 2018