On Saturday, April 30th, from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, Preuss students will travel to the Yallwest book festival. Yallwest is located in Santa Monica, at Santa Monica high school. The purpose of this festival is to celebrate young writers and empower a community of readers. Many New York Times Bestselling authors will be in attendance, as well as notable tv, film, video game, and comic creators. Ms. Gonzalez, the librarian, explains it perfectly.

“I feel this is a great opportunity for all inspired readers here at Preuss.” Ms. Gonzalez states. “It brings teens as well as adults together in one location in which they can meet their favorite authors, get books signed, and listen to authors speak. We also have a chance to win prizes and arcs of new books coming out soon.”

Yallwest is considered one of the greatest experiences young writers can have, due to the amount of authors that will be in attendance, sharing their stories about how they came to be and the hardships they had to endure as a young author. Whether it be problems with publishing companies or writers block, they will describe how they became successful.

“Preuss students gain an awesome experience from attending Yallwest every year.” Ms. Majors states. “One of my favorite experiences was hearing one of my favorite authors talk about how it was difficult for her to maintain creative control over her own story because the publishing company wanted the story to go a certain way to sell more books. It was very eye-opening.”

Students have the chance to hear from authors about their writing process. Many students find themselves attending more than once. Depending on the author line-up, students may get to meet a favorite author or have their book signed by that author, thus getting to meet them or perhaps take a picture of them. Students also have opportunities to get books that haven’t been released to the public yet. It’s a really fun time for Preuss students to travel out of town and revel in the world of young adult literature for a day.

“If you are a writer, I feel like this is something you just can’t miss if you have the chance to be in attendance.” Ms. Nance states. “The amount of information you’ll get from there is well worth the trip.”