This year’s Fort Collins Book Fest is all about getting back “Up, Up & Out” into the world after a solitary year of reading alone in quarantine. 

The festival kicks off with writing workshops on Wednesday, Oct. 20, and runs through Oct. 24 with a combination of in-person and virtual events.

The Fort Collins Book Fest — sponsored by Colorado State University, the City of Fort Collins, and others — includes a session, “Real Women in History Fiction with EJ Levy and Samantha Silva,” with an introduction by President Joyce McConnell. The talk will be moderated by CSU Libraries Writer-in-Residence Eliana Meyer on Friday, Oct. 22, from noon to 1 p.m.

The in-person keynote is free, but attendees have to register ahead of time through the Lincoln Center Box Office and wear masks while inside the venue’s main performance hall. Face coverings are highly encouraged in all other indoor spaces. 

Other Fort Collins Book Fest events include: 

• A talk by CSU alumnus and author Jim Davidson, who was on Mount Everest when a 7.8-magnitude earthquake released avalanches all around his team, trapping them at 20,000 feet and killing nearly 8,900 people in Nepal. 
• A performance by music duo 123! Andres Live. 
• A love letter to the slasher genre by horror author Stephen Graham Jones. 
• A session with local children’s book illustrator Julie Rowan-Zoch who will teach kids and their families all about the art of illustration.
• A discussion with author Alex Elle who will explore her book After the Rain and the 15 lessons she has learned about how to “overcome obstacles, build confidence and cultivate abundance.”