The Daily Agenda: Navigating Tucson's literary paradise

Our favorite local event of the year is coming up this weekend ... We've got some tips to help you navigate the Tucson Festival of Books like a pro ... Robbins takes a pay cut.

Tucson has no shortage of amazing events, with residents and visitors experiencing a nearly year-round cycle of music festivals, makers markets and celebrations showcasing the region’s food and heritage.

We love them all, but our favorite each year is the Tucson Festival of Books, which brings hundreds of authors and thousands of book lovers to the University of Arizona campus for two days of literary wonder.

The book festival returns this weekend and the UA Mall will be in full swing Saturday and Sunday from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Caitlin and Curt have both been involved with the festival for years, moderating panels and talking with attendees at the Arizona Daily Star’s tent, and we’ll be back again this year to drum up support for the Tucson Agenda (more about that later.)

If you take time out of your day to read the Agenda, we figure there’s a good chance you also enjoy reading books. And since we’re both regular attendees, we wanted to share some tips with our subscribers to help you navigate the festival like a pro and ensure the best possible festival experience.

First, we recommend downloading the Tucson Festival of Books app to your smartphone. There will be paper copies of the festival guide on site (and you can pick them up at the library this week,) but with the app, you can add the sessions you want to attend to your phone’s calendar, making it easy to keep track of where and when you have to be.

The app also lets you find exhibitors on an interactive map, which is really helpful, since there will be literally hundreds of organizations and vendors with tables and booths set up along the mall.

We also suggest arriving to the festival early if you want to find on-site parking or avoid the biggest crowds. The garages will fill up by 10 a.m. and foot traffic is at its peak during the late-morning/early-afternoon hours.

Also plan to arrive early to sessions, even if you have a ticket. Advanced ticketing for some of the larger venues opened yesterday at noon and will run through Friday. If you have a ticket, you need to be in line at least 20 minutes before the session starts to prevent your seat from being given away.

And if you don’t have a ticket, don’t worry. The venues still reserve plenty of seating for non-ticketed patrons, but you should still plan to arrive early (at least 30 minutes) if you want to make sure you secure a seat.

It’s also a good idea to have a backup session in mind in case your first choice fills up before you can get in. There are a few dozen different panels and presentations offered during each time slot, so there are plenty of options.

If you aren’t able to get in to hear from your favorite author, you can still pick up a signed copy of their book. Authors will be signing books after their sessions and some exhibitors will be hosting authors for signing sessions in their tents during specific times (you can find the authors’ signing schedule in the festival guide or on the app.)

If you want your book signed, plan to buy a copy before the author’s session. You’ll be pressed for time if you wait until the session is over and have to wait in the sales line before getting into the author’s signing line. The UA Bookstore at the student union will have books for sale, as will the UA Bookstore tent on the mall and exhibitors that are hosting authors will also have books on hand.

If you’re hoping for a more leisurely festival experience, plan to attend Sunday. Attendance on Sunday is 25% less than Saturday and sessions rarely “sell out.” On top of that, the pace is just less hectic than that on Saturday, when the first-day energy is high and excitement is at its peak.

Caitlin and Curt will be at the festival throughout the weekend and we’ll be armed with Tucson Agenda stickers and bookmarks. We’ll be wearing our black Agenda t-shirts, so don’t be afraid to come up and ask us for some swag.

We’ll also be moderating panels on Saturday. Curt will be talking with authors Jennifer Carlson, Cameron McWhirter and Edwin Raymond about gun violence at 10 a.m. At 11:30 a.m. Caitlin will be talking about tennis champions Naomi Osaka and Althea Gibson with authors Ben Rothenberg and Sally Jacobs at 11:30 a.m.

The festival is truly a literary paradise, but it’s more than just books and authors. It’s also a great place to learn about our community and connect with people and organizations that are out there doing good work.

Our industry colleagues at the Arizona Luminaria, This is Tucson and Arizona Public Media all have booths, and nonprofit the Homing Project will be on site with a tiny house for attendees to explore. The Arizona Daily Star has been a driving force behind the festival from the start, and its tent is the place to go for festival swag.

We hope you have a blast at the festival and don’t forget to keep an eye out for us. We’d love the chance to say “hello” and thank you for your support.

Today is a great day to upgrade your subscription and join the nearly 700 paid subscribers who support the Tucson Agenda.

Costly red flags: The University of Arizona may have to pay back the loans taken on by students of the troubled online school the UA acquired four years ago, Axios Phoenix’s Jessica Boehm reports. The UA bought Ashford University, even though the for-profit school had been accused of deceptive practices, and rebranded it the UA Global Campus. Now the U.S. Department of Education says the UA is on the hook for the loans, which could come to $72 million. 

Bye-bye bonuses: UA President Robert C. Robbins is going to take a pay cut, at his own request, and eliminate his at-risk and multiple year performance compensation, the Arizona Board of Regents said in a news release Monday. We wrote about his at-risk compensation back in January, which Robbins gets when he achieves certain goals in his contract, such as enhancing the UA’s Global Campus or establishing a satellite campus in Maricopa. 

Creative thinking: The Marana Unified School District is turning a vacant urgent care building into a new school, KGUN’s Denelle Veselik reports. The district used state funds to remodel the building, which will become a personalized learning academy for high schoolers when it’s completed next year. 

"This is really a first-of-its-kind project, and it could really serve as the future of Arizona," MUSD Superintendent Dan Streeter said. "Of how school districts can utilize existing square footage within their district boundaries and really find an innovative way to fund school construction."

Electric input: Tucson Electric Power is going to hold an open house on March 28 to discuss its plans to build transmission lines through midtown, the Arizona Daily Star’s David Wichner reports. Voters rejected a measure last May that would have paid for TEP to put the lines underground. Since then, they’ve been trying to find a solution. They’ve found 10 possible routes for the transmission lines and they’re seeking the public’s input on which one works best. 

More questions than answers: The owners of the Circle Z Ranch near Patagonia are worried about the Hermosa 32 mine planned nearby, Patagonia Regional Times’ Kat Crockett reports. Diana Nash, co-owner of the dude ranch, read the plan of operations for the mine and came away concerned about the lack of detail in the plan and the questions the plan raised for her ranch, which depends on the picturesque beauty of the surrounding area.  On top of that, she wondered about the effect on the water supply, road construction and traffic noise, and the dust from the manganese mine.

“My overall reaction to the plan is surprise at the enormous scope of this mine,” Diana said. “I knew it was big, but after reading the plan, it’s going to change life as we know it here, much more than I really had anticipated.”

Bucking expectations: An area on Tucson's south side has been making big strides in attracting businesses, and now a home developer is breaking ground, the Star's Gabriela Rico reports. Soon, 550 residential units will be built in the area, which used to be the downtown airport and now is home to a long list of businesses, including Costco, Geico, and Bass Pro Shop. All this after an economic development study 20 years ago said the area would have a hard time attracting national chains. 

Chris Elsner is the winner of our book giveaway and has scored a free copy of John Vaillant’s “Fire Weather.” Chris, check your email later today for details about how to pick up your book.

Stay tuned for future book club news and giveaways and we hope to see you at our March 14 meeting. RSVP here.