Celebrating Bookmarked Literary Arts Festival in Our Seventh Year
By Nona Schrader, Secretary, Board of Directors, Bookmarked Literary Arts Festival
Bookmarked Literary Arts Festival reflects the vision of the founders, Ami Vincent and Alma Law. Their goal was to create an event that inspires readers and writers by giving voice to our shared Wyoming experience.
Since its inception in 2020, Bookmarked has grown into a three-day festival with over thirty Wyoming authors in attendance. Our vision, mission, and values allow the Bookmarked Board of Directors to continue the founders’ goal of celebrating the art of writing by connecting writers and readers in a supportive setting.
Now in its seventh year, Bookmarked Literary Arts Festival is a three-day event in Lander. The festival is scheduled for October 9–11, 2026.
The festival will open at 5:00 p.m. on Friday, October 9, with the Youth Fiction Awards at the Lander Art Center, celebrating the creativity and accomplishments of young writers. Fremont County youth in grades 5–12 are invited and encouraged to submit their stories, and every entry is published in a commemorative booklet, meaning that simply by entering, each young writer becomes a published author. The Lander Art Center also awards cash prizes for the top three writers in two age divisions: grades 5-8 and 9-12. The Bookmarked Literary Arts Festival has partnered with the Lander Art Center on this contest since 2020.
This year, the festival highlight is the keynote presentation “Scaling Adaptation: Taking Chomolungma from Stage to Screen” (Chomolungma is the Tibetan name for Mount Everest), which will be held in the Carnegie Room at the Lander Library at 6:30 p.m. This event is supported in part by a grant from the Wyoming Cultural Trust Fund, a program of the Department of State Parks and Cultural Resources.
The presentation will explore the collaborative process of adapting Chomolungma from a stage play into a short narrative film. It will feature a read-through of the screenplay, and a panel comprised of playwright Molly Jones, theater director Anne Mason, filmmaker Sophie Barksdale, and artists Oakley Boycott and Sarah Ortegon HighWalking. Together, they will discuss how a story evolves as it moves between artistic forms and how writing, performance, visual art and filmmaking each contribute to building its world.
During the day on Saturday, featured writers will read aloud their work at the Lander Senior Center.
An exciting event for all is the yearly Bookmarked Book Fair from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. Saturday, October 10, at the Lander Senior Center, 205 S.10th Street. The fair gives readers an opportunity to meet featured writers, discover new work, and celebrate the region’s literary community. The festival will culminate on Sunday, October 11, with poetry, nonfiction, and memoir readings.
Our participation in the Lander Community Foundation’s Challenge for Charities fundraiser continues to make Bookmarked Literary Arts Festival a free event for writers and readers.
Thanks to our Wyoming Humanities 2026 Culture Grows Grant, we presented our new Meet a Wyoming Author speaker panel in Lander. In May and August, Bookmarked invited three authors to participate in our evening speaker panel. During the day, the authors worked with students in area schools and book groups. Bookmarked distributed free books to the public through our partnership with Fremont County Libraries. Participating area schools and book groups received free books as well.
In May, authors Shelli Johnson, Chad Hanson, and Mandie Hines joined our speaker panel, led by moderator Maria Kelson. In August, authors Nicholas Trandahl, K.J. Gillenwater, and Maria Kelson joined the panel, led by moderator sid sebo. These events provided an excellent opportunity for area residents to meet Wyoming authors and read their books. The Bookmarked Board of Directors enjoyed the chance to deepen our connections with Wyoming writers.
Come to Lander in October for the Bookmarked Literary Arts Festival and enjoy the chance to hear Wyoming writers interpret their own work. Information can be found at https://bookmarkedliteraryarts.com/.