WHO: YALLWEST is the West Coast non-profit behind the April 10-11 book festival of the same name, benefitting Santa Monica libraries and Santa Monica school libraries. Our sister festival YALLFEST (Charleston, S.C.), is now the largest teen and middle grade book festival in the US. In its fifth year, YALLFEST is comprised of more than sixty bestselling or award-winning YA novels, and over 8,000 loyal fans (bloggers, students, families).

YALLWEST is the brainchild of a group of BESTSELLING YA AUTHORS and YALLFEST organizers/alumni, including our festival directors Melissa de la Cruz (Disney’s Descendants) and Margaret Stohl (Beautiful Creatures). Additional authors on our board include Kami Garcia (Beautiful Creatures), Pseudonymous Bosch (Secret Series), Marie Lu (Legend), Ransom Riggs (Miss Peregrine’s), Tahereh Mafi (Shatter Me), Gayle Forman (If I Stay), Richelle Mead (Vampire Academy), Leigh Bardugo (Shadow and Bone), Brendan Reichs (Virals), Ally Condie (Matched), Holly Goldberg Sloan (Counting By 7’s) and ().

Our YALLWEST TEEN AMBASSADORS, including students aged 10-18 from more than a dozen area schools, meet monthly on Sundays at the Santa Monica Main Library to design social media and swag, write book reviews for our sites, and to plan the festival. If your students are interested in joining for the two remaining meetings, please email us!

Our YALLWEST MARKETING TEAM, in consultation with Santa Monica school librarians and the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books (our media partner) is preparing short videos, recorded author interviews, still images and other assets for school and library television channels and websites. Our team is also coordinating and sponsoring weekly giveaways at Santa Monica schools and libraries, as well as Los Angeles area independent schools and parochial schools, throughout March prior to the festival. If you would like a giveaway contest at your school, please email us!

WHEN: YALLWEST will span the entire weekend of April 10th-12th, 2015.

WHAT: Signings, panels, food trucks, bookselling and constant activities, the event is very much a festival.

SATURDAY: OUR FIRST FESTIVAL DAY (9 am – 7 pm) ● Opening Keynote by Ransom Riggs (Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children) ● Closing Keynote by Marie Lu (Legend, The Young Elites) & Veronica Roth (Divergent) - Veronica will be appearing just three weeks after hits the theatres ● 18 incredible author-moderated Panels ● More than 40 New York Times bestselling author signings ● Giveways, Book Sales & Food Trucks including In & Out Burger, the Grilled Cheese Truck, Umami, Border Grill, Coolhouse. A percentage of all profits from our BN on-site book sales will go to the Santa Monica school libraries. ● Middle Grade Storyball (kids & authors collaborate on a book together) ● Middle Grade Truth or Dare (you don’t want to know) ● YA Smackdown (Shannon Hale & Aaron Hartzler’s variety show featuring more than 50 authors doing incredibly stupid things) ● YA cover band Tiger Beat, fronted by bestselling author ● Panels are free and open to the public, with few exceptions (Smackdown and Keynotes are free ticketed events with the purchase of 5$ in Food Truck scrip or festival swag)

SUNDAY: OUR SECOND FESTIVAL DAY (10 am – 5 pm) at the Santa Monica Public Library will offer panels and signings that feature SoCal’s local author scene, with notable appearances from Leigh Bardugo, Marissa Meyer, Lisa Yee, Robin Schneider, Maile Meloy, Alyson Noel, Neal Shusterman & – along with food trucks, giveaways and more!

GUESTS: Over 3,000 readers of all ages, from 12 to 50, both male and female (70% will be between 20-30) are anticipated. Collective author social media reach: 5M+ and exponential growth including all guests.

SPONSORS: The Los Angeles Times, Disney/Hyperion, Harper Epic Reads, Penguin Teen, Random House, Quirk Books, Macmillan Fierce Reads, Friends of the Santa Monica Library, the Santa Monica Library & the City of Santa Monica

THE 2015 YALLWEST TALENT

#1 NYT / WORLDWIDE BESTSELLERS

ANN BRASHARES NYT / FILM ALLY CONDIE NYT KAMI GARCIA NYT / FILM LISI HARRISON NYT / TV RICHELLE MEAD NYT / FILM ALYSON NOEL NYT RANSOM RIGGS NYT / FILM VERONICA ROTH NYT / FILM MARGARET STOHL NYT / FILM

NYT / WORLDWIDE BESTSELLERS

LEIGH BARDUGO NYT LIBBA BRAY NYT / PRINTZ PSEUDONYMOUS BOSCH NYT RACHEL COHN NYT / FILM ANDREA CREMER NYT MELISSA DE LA CRUZ NYT / TV SUSAN EE (AMAZON) SHANNON HALE NYT / FILM ELLEN HOPKINS NYT ROBIN LAFEVERS NYT E. LOCKHART NYT / PRINTZ MARIE LU NYT TAHEREH MAFI NYT MAILE MELOY NYT KASS MORGAN NYT NYT / PRINTZ

LAUREN OLIVER NYT DANIELLE PAIGE NYT STEPHANIE PERKINS NYT BRENDAN REICHS NYT / TV MORGAN RHODES NYT VERONICA ROSSI NYT MADELEINE ROUX NYT CARRIE RYAN NYT NEIL SHUSTERMAN NYT HOLLY GOLDBERG SLOAN NYT MAYA VAN WAGENEN NYT NYT

EMERGING & LOCAL AUTHORS & ILLUSTRATORS

COLET ABEDI ROBIN BENWAY JULIE BERRY GREG BOOSE JESSICA BRODY ANNA CAREY KATIE COTUGNO AVA DELLAIRA DAN EHRENHAFT (TIGER BEAT) MICHELLE GAGNON AARON HARTZLER MARIA DAHVANA HEADLEY LEILA HOWLAND JESSI KIRBY ALEXANDER LONDON MORGAN MATSON ABBY MCDONALD GRETCHEN MCNEIL BARNABAS MILLER (TIGER BEAT) JENNIFER NIVEN CINDY PON SARAH RAASCH ROBYN SCHNEIDER SONYA SONES NATALIE STANDIFORD (TIGER BEAT) ELISSA SUSSMAN JOHN COREY WHALEY / PRINTZ LISA YEE ALLEN ZADOFF & ILLUSTRATORS GARY ROSEN & JOHN ROCCO

HOLLYWOOD BOOK-TO-FILM CREATIVES

MICHAEL DI MARTINO & BRYAN KONIETZKO (AVATAR TV SHOW) WYCK GODFREY (TFIOS, MAZE RUNNER, TWILIGHT) CATHERINE HARDWICKE (TWILIGHT) RICHARD LEWIS (AUGUST RUSH, ROBIN HOOD: PRINCE) ROB MINKOFF (LION KING, STUART LITTLE) CALEEB PINKETT (ANNIE)