Love of reading, writing celebrated at San Diego Festival of Books

Thousands of people gathered across a wide swath of Liberty Station Saturday celebrating a shared passion of reading and writing at the second annual San Diego Festival of Books.

While reading and writing can be largely solitary affairs, the festival — sponsored by The San Diego Union-Tribune and KPBS — also acknowledged how reading can bring communities together, with the announcement of the “One Book, One San Diego” selection. The program, now in its 12th year, seeks to create a common reading experience across the region by selecting one book that can be read, shared and discussed.. Residents nominate titles and a winner is selected by a committee.

This year’s selection is “March,” a graphic novel about the civil rights movement by Congressman John Lewis, icon of the struggle for equal rights, and co-authors Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell. The book was selected from 10 finalists by a panel of librarians and educators.

The selection for the children’s book was “Blue Sky, White Stars” by Sarvinder Naberhaus and illustrated by Kadir Nelson. The book is described as an “inspiring and patriotic tribute to the beauty of the American flag.”

The day-long event drew authors and editors as well as everyday readers — comic book fans, sci-fi readers, romance and historical fiction aficionados. Scores of authors led some 30-different panels on those topics and more.

In addition dozens of writers were also available at “Authors Alley” selling books and meeting fans. Among them was Lisa Kirazian, a San Diego native and author of her new novel “Bravura,” about the lives of young classical musicians in London.

The festival was kind of a family affair for her, too. Seated just a few feet down from her at the same table was her mother, Dikranouhi Kirazian, with her own book — “Armenian Vegan.” It’s a compendium of 200 vegan recipes.

Lisa Kirazian said as an author she was proud that the city now has a book festival to call its own, and said for authors like her it’s a great opportunity not just to sell books but meet readers and fellow authors. “It’s just a great community feeling here,” she said.

As festival goers walked around the grounds, about 300 filled a large hall for the lead-off panel, “Fake News. Real Problems.” Matthew T. Hall, editorial and opinion editor of the Union-Tribune, the paper’s Managing Editor Lora Cicalo, and journalist Brooke Binkowski, former managing editor of the fact-checking website Snopes.com, discussed the rise of bogus news sites and stories and the threat they pose to a society awash in media.

Binkowski said the term “fake news” isn’t accurate, and actually dilutes the nature of the problem. “This is disinformation and propaganda,” she said. The program included questions submitted by audience members, which ranged across a spectrum of media issues.

Does the Union-Tribune have a liberal bias opposed to President Donald Trump? (“We strive very hard to be fair in both the selection and the tone of stories,” Cicalo said.) What should technology and social media companies such as Twitter and Facebook do to combat fake news? (“Unfortunately what they are doing is not very much,” Binkowksi said.)

Ultimately panelists said that combating bogus news dissemination will take an engaged reading public that can spot and distinguish credible news from fabulation, as well as more vigorous funding of fact-based journalism.

Twitter: @gregmoran

greg.moran@sduniontribune.com

Copyright © 2018, The San Diego Union-Tribune
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