Join Us For The Foco Book Fest 2025!

Schedule of Events:

February 3, 2025

Get Lit Trivia at Mythmaker
Mythmaker Brewing 1035 S. Taft Hill, Fort Collins, CO, United States
Grab your friends and show off your book smarts at this special pre-Book-Fest event! Groups of up to 6 are invited to compete in book trivia for gift cards and other bookish prizes. From today's most popular reads to the classics, it's all on the table!

February 8, 2025

Immigrant Stories: Read and Lived, Free
The Lyric 1209 N College Ave, Fort Collins, Colorado
11:00 am – 12:30 pm
We know there is no one "Immigrant Experience." In fact, each family and individual has their own and, unless your family is indigenous to the United States, your family does too. However, there are many shared themes of opportunity, loneliness, hope, loss, etc. Our Poudre Libraries' ESL Mentoring community, representing immigrants from many countries and situations, will discuss books about or by immigrants to the United States. This group will participate in a panel discussion about these stories and their own immigrant experiences – their joys, challenges, and paths to belonging in Fort Collins. Come hear these incredible stories – they may even resonate with your own family's journey!

Turning Pages Into Posts with Bookstagram, Free
The Lyric 1209 N College Ave, Fort Collins, Colorado
2:30pm - 3:30pm
The Lyric 1209 N College Ave, Fort Collins, Colorado
Do you use social media to find your next read? Authors Kate Shelton and Vanessa Rasanen discuss how they engage with social media to connect with their readers, create community, and hype their books. Join this panel to hear about their new books and how they plan to share them with their followers!

Revealing Romantasy
2:30 pm - 3:30 pm
The Lyric 1209 N College Ave, Fort Collins, Colorado
Romantasy authors Amalie Howard (The Starlight Heir) and Vanessa Rasanen (Until the Stars Fall) spin epic romances featuring swoon-worthy princes from magical lands. Hear how the authors combine elements of fantasy and romance to create these titillating and spellbinding narratives.

Horror with a Twist
4:00pm - 5:00pm
The Lyric 1209 N College Ave, Fort Collins, Colorado
Let's turn the horror genre on its head! Stephen Graham Jones (I Was a Teenage Slasher) writes his story from the perspective of the killer, Devon A. Mihesuah (The Bone Picker) retells Native stories and histories with a spine tingling twist, and Lindsay King-Miller (The Z Word) attempts to overcome a breakup and save Pride

February 9, 2025

Writing Where We Are: An Exploration of Documentary Writing Practices, Free
Fort Collins Museum of Discovery 408 Mason Ct, Fort Collins, CO, United States
2:30 pm – 4:00 pm
How do we write our locality? How do we creatively document the past and present of the land that supports us? Join poet, essayist, and CSU Professor, Sasha Steensen, for an exploration of the intersection between creative practice and documentary writing. Together we will explore materials related to regional history and geography, and we will consider methods for transforming these materials into our own writing. As author and creator of Overland: An Incomplete History of Three Acres and All That Surrounds, Steensen has been seeking ways to ethically, and creatively, explore local history for over a decade. This course will meet in The Archive at the Fort Collins Museum of Discovery where we will employ documents and objects related to regional history for our own writing experiments. Weather permitting, we may also visit the Poudre River (just steps away from the museum) to consider how engagement with the land itself can influence our writing.

February 10, 2025

Book Bingo
Maxline Brewing 2724 McClelland Dr #109, Fort Collins, Colorado, United States
6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Maxline Brewing 2724 McClelland Dr #109, Fort Collins, Colorado, United States
Play Bingo and celebrate your love of books at this special Book Fest Bingo night, hosted at Maxline Brewing! Prizes include gift cards and other book swag from The Crowded Bookshelf. Beverages are available to purchase, but purchase is not required to participate.
Free

February 11, 2025

Accordion Fold Bookmaking Class
Old Town Library 201 Peterson St., Fort Collins, CO, United States
5:30 pm – 7:00 pm
Get ready to unleash your creativity in this exciting, hands-on class where we'll dive into the world of accordion-fold books! These fun, foldable wonders are perfect for showcasing your artwork, journaling adventures, or telling a story in a way that's both interactive and eye-catching.
No experience needed—just bring your imagination and a desire to get crafty! This class is all about fun, exploration, and making a book that's as unique as you are.

February 13, 2025

Toda lengua mi verso: Write in the Language of Your Heart
5:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Join poet and Spanish Interpreter Ally Eden for a 90-minute Bilingual poetry workshop that invites you to write from your heart using inquiry, adoration, and distillation. We'll engage in writing exercises that help us move beyond tropes of love and/or self-love and extract only the essential. Before we close, each poet will have the opportunity to turn their piece into a short-form zine (just in time for Valentine's Day!). Join us early for a light dinner courtesy of the library.

February 14, 2025

Indie Lens Film Screening: "Free for All: The Public Library", Free
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
(Virtual) Join Front Range Community College virtually for a free online screening of the not-yet-released PBS Indie Lens documentary, "Free for All: The Public Library," which examines how public libraries shaped the country and continue to be a sanctuary for Americans everywhere.

Documentary description: Free for All: The Public Library tells the story of the quiet revolutionaries who made a simple idea happen. From the pioneering women behind the "Free Library Movement" to today's librarians who service the public despite working in a contentious age of closures and book bans, meet those who created a civic institution where everything is free and the doors are open to all.

Open Book Connections: Speed Dating & Friending
Old Town Library 201 Peterson St., Fort Collins, CO, United States
5:30 pm – 7:00 pm
Are you a book lover looking to build connections with fellow readers in a fun and relaxed setting? Join us for an evening where books, conversation, and new connections come together! Register via the Library's online calendar to participate.

How it Works

Bring Your Favorite Book: Choose a book that you absolutely love, whether it's a timeless classic, a recent bestseller, or an unexpected gem. You'll get the chance to share why this book resonates with you and hear about others' literary passions.

Speed Dating with a Twist: In our speed dating-style setup, you'll engage in brief, rotating conversations with fellow participants. During each round, you'll have several minutes to explain what makes your chosen book special and connect with others over shared reading interests.

Continue the Conversation: After the speed dating rounds, we'll unwind with mocktails and treats. This is your chance to further chat with the people you've met, discuss books in more depth, or simply enjoy some great conversation in a laid-back atmosphere.

Stay Connected: If you meet someone you'd like to stay in touch with after the event, simply write down their name during the speed dating rounds. If you both note each other's names, we'll email you with each other's contact information to help you keep the connection going.

This event is all about making connections—whether it's over the joy of a favorite book or the thrill of discovering someone with similar reading tastes. No pressure, just good conversation and great company.

Readers of all ages and backgrounds who are passionate about books and open to meeting new people are welcome to attend. Whether you're a mystery lover, fantasy fanatic, or fan of memoirs, there's a seat at the table for you.

February 15, 2025

Open Book Connections: Speed Dating & Friending
5:30 pm - 7:00 pm
Old Town Library 201 Peterson St., Fort Collins, CO, United States
Are you a book lover looking to build connections with fellow readers in a fun and relaxed setting? Join us for an evening where books, conversation, and new connections come together! Register via the Library's online calendar to participate. How it Works Bring Your Favorite Book: Choose a book that you absolutely love

The Possibilities of Nonfiction Writing
Old Town Library 201 Peterson St., Fort Collins, CO, United States
1:00 pm – 2:30 pm
The essay—the most flexible, shapeshifting genre—has much to offer writers. This workshop led by National Book Award finalist Deborah Jackson Taffa is designed to explore the dynamic possibilities of creative nonfiction. How do we weave public histories into individual stories? What is the impact of emotional truth versus factual truth? How do we distinguish memoir from autobiography? The lyric essay from the traditional essay? And how do we use the form to enrich any type of material? We'll look at a range of essays—from the historic to the modern—and seek to understand what defines these works in all their permutations. Explore how various writers have navigated its possibilities and discuss ways to experiment with the typologies to create new directions for our own work.

Ask Me Anything: Poetry and Essays with Western Colorado University
Center for Creativity 200 Mathews St., Fort Collins, Colorado
3:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Craft, revision, publication, education, and beyond — writers, bring all of your burning questions! This panel, made up of faculty, alumni, and leadership from Western Colorado University's MFA program in Creative Writing, seeks to open the floor to writers of all levels to ask whatever's on your mind, with a focus on poetry and essay-writing. No question is too small (or too big). Let us help you get past your roadblocks and get back to writing!

Featuring CMarie Fuhrman, Teow Lim Goh, Carol D. Guerrero-Murphy, and Erica Reid. Sponsored by Western Colorado University.

Untold Histories: Exploring Marginalized Voices Through Memoir, Poetry, and Essay, Free
4:30 pm – 5:30 pm
Hear how three authors investigate and share the untold stories of marginalized voices through unique forms of storytelling. Through his memoir, Tim Z. Hernandez (They Call You Back) investigates the plane crash that killed 28 Mexicans in Los Gatos Canyon. In an epic poem, Teow Lim Goh (Bitter Creek) explores the buried history of Chinese coal miners during the labor strike. In a series of essays, Brandon Shimoda (The Afterlife is Letting Go) reflects on the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II.

An Evening with Deborah Jackson Taffa, Free
Fort Collins Marriott 350 East Horsetooth Road, Fort Collins, CO
7:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Award-winning author Deborah Jackson Taffa headlines this year's Fort Collins Book Fest: Open Pages Open Minds. Taffa's memoir, Whiskey Tender, was a finalist for the National Book Award and was named to best lists at Oprah Daily, The Washington Post, Elle, and Esquire Magazines. Whiskey Tender traces how a mixed tribe native girl—born on the California Yuma reservation and raised in Navajo territory in New Mexico—comes to her own interpretation of identity, despite her parent's desires for her to transcend the class and "Indian" status of her birth through education, and despite the Quechan tribe's particular traditions and beliefs regarding oral and recorded histories.

Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Free tickets to the author talk are available through the library's event calendar. A book signing will follow the presentation. The Crowded Bookshelf, the official bookseller of the Fort Collins Book Fest, will be on-hand before and after Taffa's session for book sales.

February 16, 2025

Neurodivergence in Writing
Fort Collins Museum of Discovery 408 Mason Ct, Fort Collins, CO, United States
1:00 pm – 2:00 pm
In this panel, authors Riley Odell (Divergent Realms: Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories About Neurodivergence) and Kendra Merritt (Unmasked) share their unique experiences of writing from a neurodivergent perspective. While discussing their novels, they will explore how they incorporate their own neurodivergent experiences into their work, as well as how these identities shape their storytelling, character development, and narrative style. This session includes a brief audience Q&A.

This event is brought to you in collaboration with Fort Collins Museum of Discovery. Get a free ticket via the Fort Collins Museum of Discovery website. Getting a ticket in advance is highly encouraged.

Kids' Talk & Activities with Christine Day
Council Tree Library 2733 Council Tree Avenue, Fort Collins, Colorado, United States
2:30 pm – 3:30 pm
Meet author Christine Day and participate in crafts and activities that go along with her latest book, We Still Belong! Hear from the author, ask questions, and get creative. Book sales and signing to follow. Don't miss out on an afternoon full of storytelling and fun!

Designed for kids in grades 3-5 and their families.

Getting Out of Your Own Way as a Neurodivergent Writer
2:30 pm – 4:00 pm
Fort Collins Museum of Discovery 408 Mason Ct, Fort Collins, CO, United States
Many people want to write a book, but it can seem like a daunting task. Add in being Neurodivergent, and suddenly the idea of writing anything can feel nearly impossible. How can you write a book when you have executive functioning issues, perfectionism, anxiety, and other challenges? In this workshop, Autistic ADHD author and advocate, Daisy Montgomery, will discuss the obstacles she faced when writing her first book and how writing a book you're proud of is possible when you embrace your brain and its quirks.

February 17, 2025

Restorative Reading for Kids with Author Lindsay Pointer
Old Town Library 201 Peterson St., Fort Collins, CO, United States
9:30 am – 11:00 am
Fort Collins children's author Lindsey Pointer leads participants through an interactive read-aloud of her book Wally and Freya followed by coloring and puppet play. This engaging workshop explores themes from the story: empathy and inclusion. The book provides an age-appropriate way to talk about empathy, offers strategies to help repair harm and highlights the impact of kindness and inclusion. For kids ages 4-8 and accompanying adults. Space is limited and registration is required. Please register child and adult separately. This session is presented in partnership with City of Fort Collins: Conflict Transformation Works.

Closing Party Featuring Adult Storytime
Odell Brewing 800 E. Lincoln Ave, Fort Collins, Colorado
6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Celebrate the conclusion of Fort Collins Book Fest 2025 with craft beers, fun activities, and an adult storytime that's sure to make you laugh, cringe, and maybe even blush. Expect wild tales and a little too much honesty—just the right vibe to wrap up an unforgettable festival. It's the perfect blend of books, booze, and bold humor! Beer is available to purchase, though purchase is not required.

Date: February 3 - 17, 2025

Location: Various Venues in Fort Collins, CO

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