Front row: Douglas Unger, E.L. Doctorow, Claudia Keelan, Michael Green

Back row: Vicki Pettersson, Vu Tran, Keith Brantley

In its eighth year the Vegas Valley Book Festival is plucking from local waters for most of the five-day festival that begins today in downtown Las Vegas.

Some speakers and panelists are flying in from out of town. The rest are residents, some of whom belong to UNLVÕs esteemed literary programs. That includes award-winning author E.L. Doctorow, the UNLV Elias Ghanem chair in creative writing, who is a keynote speaker and will read from and discuss his works.

Georgia Neu of Nevada Humanities, who serves on the festivalÕs literary committee, said it was time to focus on the volume of talent — writers and programs — in Southern Nevada.

ÒThe local writing scene is very good right now,Ó she says. ÒOur area deserves that focused attention.

Here is a sampling of whoÕs participating:

UNLV

Douglas Unger, who co-founded the MFA in Creative Writing International program and Schaeffer Ph.D. with Creative Dissertation, is one of three writers telling stories about Las Vegas in ÒCity of Second Chances.Ó His works include ÒLeaving the Land,Ó a finalist for the Pulitzer and Robert F. Kennedy awards, and ÒLooking for War and Other Stories.Ó

Visiting and award-winning writer Donald Revell, who teaches creative writing, reads poetry in the courtyard at the Fifth Street School, and young Canadian fiction writer and playwright, Leah Bailly, who is pursuing an MFA in fiction writing, is one of the writers participating in the festivalÕs collaborative serial novel, ÒRestless City.Ó

Vu Tran, a graduate of the Iowa WritersÕ Workshop and a Schaeffer fellow in fiction at UNLV, who also contributed to ÒRestless City,Ó will read the final chapter of that novel.

Tran teaches literature and creative writing and is the recipient of the 2009 Whiting WritersÕ Award for his short stories.

English professor John Irsfeld also wrote a chapter of ÒRestless City.Ó Claudia Keelan, who is poet and editor of Interim, will recite poetry at the Fifth Street School courtyard and at a downtown gallery.

Valley voices

The wide range of nonacademic writers includes Geoff Schumacher (ÒHoward Hughes: Power, Paranoia & Palace IntrigueÓ and ÒSun, Sin & Suburbia: An Essential History of Modern Las VegasÓ) and playwright Brian Kral, whose more than 20 works include a play about the bombing of Hiroshima, ÒPaper Lanterns, Paper Cranes.Ó

Former showgirl Vicki Pettersson turned herself into a New York Times and USA Today best-selling author with her Vegas-based fantasy books.

Spoken

Poetry and performance will meet First Friday in ÒThe Sin City Sonneteer Spectacle.Ó Local writers will climb aboard a trolley that stops for readings at downtown locations. Haiku with Mayor Oscar Goodman will kick it off. Writers, performers and poets will include Revell, Dayvid Figler, Jeff Grindley, Elizabeth Qui–ones-Zalda–a and Keith Brantley. Brantley is host of the West Las Vegas Arts CenterÕs long-running Poets Corner and member of the Westside Poets, Izulu Poets and Griot Nation. Jarret Keene (ÒMonster FashionÓ and ÒA BoyÕs Guide to ArsonÓ) and Keelan will host.

CSN

The College of Southern NevadaÕs literary crew will include Michael Green, history professor and author of ÒFreedom, Union, and Power: Lincoln and His Party During the Civil WarÓ and ÒNevada: A Journey of Discovery,Ó Green will sit on a panel for ÒGreat Characters from Las Vegas HistoryÓ with Schumacher, author Jack Sheehan and veteran journalist Myram Borders.

H. Lee Barnes, a novelist and short story writer, teaches English and creative writing at CSN. Barnes will be on a panel with English professor Richard Logsdon, senior editor of the literary magazine Red Rock Review, and professor Tina D. Eliopulos, staff editor of the Red Rock Review.

Comics

Las Vegas artists wrote and illustrated stories for the hardcover comic ÒDrunk: A Book About Bar Stories.Ó The impressive 128-page anthology of offensive, dark, endearing, vulgar and hilarious tales of alcohol is a project of Las Vegas residents Michael Ogilvie, Sean Russell and Michael Todoran.

A panel for ÒDrunkÓ will be part of the eventÕs Comics Festival and its exhibit will be on display at Alios, 1217 S. Main St.

Kristen Peterson can be reached

at 259-2317 or at kristen@lasvegas

sun.com.