YALLWEST 2022!
~ A photo essay and review by J.W. Lynne (California, USA)
YALLWEST is a book festival held in Santa Monica, California for kids, teens, and adults who love to read young adult literature. It is one of the largest young adult book festivals in the world. The very first YALLWEST was held in 2015. YALLWEST became an annual event after that, and I became one of many enthusiastic annual attendees. When I attended YALLWEST 2019, I never imagined that a worldwide pandemic would make it impossible to attend another YALLWEST for three long years. (Due to the COVID pandemic, YALLWEST 2020 and 2021 were rebranded as YALLSTAYHOME (Yall Stay Home), a virtual book gathering that took place largely online.) I was beyond excited when I learned that YALLWEST 2022 would be held in person! In preparation for the festival, I reviewed the festival program online and wrote up a schedule for myself to help me plan my day. The festival offered a choice of multiple panels every hour from 10AM until 4PM, author book signings throughout the day, booths where free soon-to-be-published books and swag were given away, a Barnes & Noble tent where books could be purchased, a Geoffrey's Comics tent where various items could be purchased, and food trucks offering a variety of food and beverages for purchase. As soon as I arrived at the festival gates, on Saturday, April 30th, 2022, at about 8AM, I could tell that the festival would be a bit different than years past. I knew from the information on yallwest.com and the festival program that attendees who wanted to participate in indoor activities at the festival or join the book-signing lines would be required to wear a mask. We would also be required to show proof of full COVID vaccination or proof of a negative COVID-19 PCR test within the past 72 hours. Wearing a mask and providing proof of vaccination or negative COVID test was not required for most outdoor activities, like outdoor panels and visiting the booths. As I stepped up to the end of the queue, volunteers were making their way down the line, providing wristbands to those who showed their proof of COVID vaccination or negative COVID test result. I showed a photo of my vaccine card on my phone, and one of the women gifted me a little blue wristband that would offer me full access to everything the festival had to offer. Just after 9AM, YALLWEST 2022 officially opened its gates to the public. My first mission was to pick up a special wristband at the Riveted by Simon Teen booth that would grant me admission to their 2PM ice cream giveaway. I quickly acquired my wristband, and then I moved on to one of my main goals of the festival, getting some free ARCs. ARCs (Advanced Reader's Copies) are complimentary copies of soon-to-be-published novels that are given away before the book is published in order to create buzz. ARCs are also referred to as "galleys." I had done my research, by reviewing the festival program and making a list of the books I wanted, but many ARC giveaways are limited to just 50-100 copies of each book, so there were no guarantees that I would get the ones I was excited about. Epic Reads had a 9AM giveaway that offered a choice of one of three ARCs, so I headed for that "booth," which took the form of a truck reminiscent of the ice cream trucks that regularly patrolled my childhood neighborhood. |
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| The Epic Reads truck that doubled as its festival booth. |
| As I waited in
the queue, I chatted with the two girls in front of me.
Their very-cool
parents had driven the sisters all the way from
Mexicali to attend YALLWEST for the first time. The girls
were beyond excited to be at the festival. Like me, they had
done their research in advance and created their own schedule of activities for
the day. While we waited, we compared notes. It turned out
our schedules were very similar. After about 20 minutes in the queue, the friendly people aboard the Epic Reads truck asked me which of the three ARCs on offer I would like to take home. I chose A Year to the Day by Robin Benway. The ARC was presented to me in a cute reusable totebag, filled with other book-themed goodies. |
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| The swag inside the Epic Reads giveaway bag included pens, pins, shoelaces, a necklace, and two art cards. |
| My next stop was Fierce Reads' booth. The festival program indicated that ARC tickets for ALL of the giveaways that day would be distributed at 9AM. After about 15 minutes in line, I selected a ticket that promised me a copy of The Sunbearer Trials if I returned to the Fierce Reads booth at 10:30AM and presented that ticket. |
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| Fierce Reads' booth, where tickets for all of the ARCs on offer that day were distributed at 9AM. Attendees had to choose which ticket they wanted and then return at their designated giveaway time with their ticket to collect their ARC. |
| Along with my ARC ticket, I was given a small cloth bag with swag inside. |
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| The Fierce Reads bag and the swag that was inside it: : post-it notes, a pen, and a reading light. |
| Wattpad's booth offered swag to those who lined up to spin a prize wheel. By the time I arrived, the line to spin the wheel was very long. |
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| Wattpad booth's prize wheel and prizes to be won. |
| Instead of
queuing for the prize wheel, I decided to move on to my
next goal: scoring an ARC of Nothing More to Tell by Karen
M. McManus. According to the festival program, this ARC
would be offered (until supplies ran out) to the first
people in the queue for the 11AM panel, Sequels +
Expectations. There were already about a half-dozen people queuing for the 11AM panel, even though it was only 10:15AM and people were still filling into the auditorium for the 10AM Morning Keynote. Time flew by as I chatted with the other early arrivals, including those sisters from Mexicali, who also wanted an ARC of Nothing More to Tell. At 10:25AM, the sisters held my place in the rapidly-growing queue while I hopped over to the Fierce Reads booth and picked up my copy of The Sunbearer Trials. Actually, this book was not an ARC, but rather an "advance bound manuscript." The spine and back cover of the book were blank, and the book interior had formatting notes on some of the pages. It was fun to see a behind-the-scenes bit of the publishing process. As a bonus, the book had been hand signed by the author, Aiden Thomas! Just after 11AM, we were invited to enter the auditorium building for the panel. As we made our way through the lobby, ARCs were handed out. As stated in the festival program, there were four different ARCs on offer but, having enjoyed Karen M. McManus' One of Us Is Lying, I really wanted to read Nothing More to Tell. Unfortunately, when it came my turn to receive a book, I was NOT handed Nothing More to Tell, but rather one of the other books. I asked the woman if I could have Nothing More to Tell instead, but she said that distribution of the books was random. As I walked away from the distribution area, I spotted Nothing More to Tell in the hands of another attendee. And then, that same attendee's gaze flicked to the book I held in my hands. Her eyes lit up. I guess mine probably did too, because she asked me, "Do you want to trade?" A fraction of a second later, the two of us had happily traded books, and we both entered the auditorium victorious! |
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| Sequels + Expectations panelists: V.E. Schwab, Tahereh Mafi, Ransom Riggs, E. Lockhart, Amy Foster, and Maggie Stiefvater. |
| At the Sequels
+ Expectations panel, authors spoke about whether they
preferred writing series or standalones (the consensus was
that writing standalones was easier, but writing sequels was
more satisfying). Some of the authors (like V.E. Schwab) plan the
entire story for their series before they start writing the
first book, while others write their first books as if they
were standalones, and then figure out the rest of the story
when it comes time to write the next books in the series. I would have liked to stay until the very end of the panel, but my next goal was to try to get an ARC of Lightlark by Alex Aster. In order to obtain this ARC, I would have to be one of the first people in line for the 12PM panel, World Building Blocks. And so I quietly stepped out of the 11AM panel just before the Q and A, and I headed to the 12PM queue. Once again, time flew by as I chatted with the friendly woman behind me in the queue, a former Hollywood agent (for actors) turned manager. She is currently writing her first novel, a YA fantasy. When 12PM arrived, I entered the auditorium lobby once again. This time, Lightlark was the only ARC on offer, and so I happily retrieved my copy of the book and entered the panel. |
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| The World Building Blocks panelists: Lizz Huerta, Namina Forna, Ransom Riggs, Margaret Stohl, Soman Chainani, Victoria Aveyard, and Susan Dennard. |
| After the 12PM panel, I joined the queue for the 1PM panel, Streaming Stories. There were no ARCs to be given away at this panel, but I was curious to hear the authors discuss their experiences of having their books adapted for the screen. |
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| Streaming Stories panelists: Beth Reekles, V.E. Schwab, Abigail Hing Wen, Adam Silvera, Tracy Dion, Kate Marchant, and Stephanie Garber. |
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At the panel, the authors talked about the thrill of
meeting the actors who were cast to play the characters they
had created
in their books and walking around movie sets that brought to
life the worlds they had imagined. They also mentioned how
little control authors have in the actual process of
bringing their stories to the screen. For example, they
generally have no say over
aspects of the production like casting actors. They also
discussed coming to terms with the fact that the show would
likely depart (at least somewhat) from their books. Next, I headed to Riveted's 2PM ice cream giveaway that also promised "exclusive swag." (Back at 9AM, I'd obtained the wristband at their booth that would grant me access to this giveaway.) After waiting in yet another queue, I arrived at an ice cream cart where I was given a small plastic saucer of my choice of one of three flavors of Dippin' Dots. The "exclusive swag" turned out to be a high-quality cloth tote bag emblazoned with the Riveted logo. As I savored my cookies-and-cream Dippin' Dots, I headed to the Novl booth to see if I could join the queue for their 2PM ARC giveaway. As I'd expected, since it was already well after 2PM, I was too late. All of the ARCs had already been given out. If I had it to do over again, I would have gone to the Novl booth first and then to the ice cream giveaway, since I already had a wristband for the ice cream. I headed to the I Read YA booth to queue for the 3PM giveaway of an ARC of The Honeys by Ryan La Sala and the opportunity to tie-dye a Honeys-themed t-shirt. At the queue, I bumped into some of the people I'd met early that morning, while waiting for the festival gate to open. Chatting with them helped pass the time until 3PM. A little after 3PM, the queue began to move ... very slowly (since it takes time to tie-dye a t-shirt). A volunteer made her way down the line to let us know that the ARCs for The Honeys would be mailed to us rather than given away today. We scanned the QR code she provided with our phones and submitted our mailing addresses to the publisher. Hopefully, I will find a surprise in my mailbox in the coming weeks. The volunteer also offered to give us non-tie-dyed t-shirts if we preferred not to wait for the tie-dying experience. My festival friends and I accepted her offer. |
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| Attendees tie-dye t-shirts at I Read YA's The Honey's themed tie-dye event. |
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Once I had my non-tie-dyed t-shirt safely ensconced in my
backpack, I decided to call it a day. There were still some
4PM panels, book signings (my
review of the 2018 Yallwest includes some of that year's
author book signings), and the 5PM Smackdown finale (my
review of the 2019 Yallwest includes that year's Smackdown),
but my backpack was growing heavy, and I still had
a long trip home ahead of me. And so, satisfied, I headed
home. Compared to previous YALLWESTs, the 2022 YALLWEST had fewer booths, fewer giveaways that involved food, and fewer attendees than prior years, all of which I would attribute to the fact that this is the first in-person YALLWEST since the COVID pandemic. All in all, though, it was a great festival. I left YALLWEST 2022 with six ARCs (and hopefully one more coming in the mail (UPDATE: I did end up receiving an ARC of The Honeys by mail as promised a few days later!)), some cool swag, and a reminder of how much fun it is to gather in-person with fellow readers! |
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| The free books I took home from the festival: Places We've Never Been by Kasie West (ARC), A Year to the Day by Robin Benway (ARC), The Edge of Summer by Erica George (ARC), The Sunbearer Trials by Aiden Thomas (Advance Bound Manuscript hand-signed by the author), Lightlark by Alex Aster (Limited Edition Collector's ARC), and Nothing More to Tell by Karen M. McManus (ARC). |
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| My un-tie-dyed The Honey's Yallwest t-shirt, cloth tote bags from Riveted and Novl, a keychain, and a multilayered cloth face mask from Novl. |
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YALLWEST 2022 was held on April 30th at Santa Monica High School in Santa Monica, California, USA. |
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jen is also known as J.W. Lynne, a best selling author of eleven novels. Click on any of the titles below to see the book on Amazon! THE UNKNOWN: Eight kids learn the shocking reason why they were kidnapped. ABOVE THE SKY: A girl lives in a world where touching her soulmate is forbidden. THE DARKNESS OUTSIDE: A teen is locked in a bunker to take a simulated trip to the moon. KID DOCS: An experimental program turns kids into doctors. WILD ANIMAL SCHOOL: A girl falls in love with a boy at an exotic animal ranch. WHAT HE DIDN'T TELL ME: A traumatized girl meets a boy with a horrible secret. IF I TELL: A teen wonders if her father is a serial killer. Besides reading books and dreaming up stories to write, Jen's favorite activities are singing along to musical theater soundtracks and hiking in California's beautiful parks. **Jen's books are available on Kindle Unlimited.** |
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Heading to Los Angeles for
YALLWEST? Check out Jen's L.A. Bucket List for great ideas of things to do while you're in town! Jen's reviews and photos of other YALLWEST book festivals: YALLWEST 2016 Day 1 YALLWEST 2016 Day 2 YALLWEST 2017 YALLWEST 2018 YALLWEST 2019 Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, YallWest 2020 and 2021 were not held in-person and were rebranded by the organizers as YALLSTAYHOME (Yall Stay Home), a virtual book gathering that took place largely online. The next YALLWEST will likely be in 2024! Other popular posts you might enjoy: Descriptions of great YA books in ten words or less YA Dystopian Book Bucket List YA Contemporary Book Bucket List Go on a blind date with a YA book |
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YALLWEST 2024 tips: Follow YALLWEST on Facebook and Twitter to be the first to know the details about the 2024 festival, including the complete author lineup and schedule. Before you go, look over the schedule and program and plan out your day. If you want to be among the first people to walk through the gates when the festival opens, arrive early. For YALLWEST 2023, about 30 people were in line at 7:30 AM (the festival was scheduled to open at 9 AM) and the line grew quickly after 8AM. If there's an ARC of a soon-to-be-published book that is on your must-read list, stop by the booth where it will be given away as soon as you arrive at the festival to make sure you know the rules to get that specific ARC. If there's an author who you'd like to have sign your book, review the signing schedule carefully. Lining up to meet certain authors (generally those marked on the schedule with an *) may require a wristband. Check the rules to see when those wristbands will be distributed. If there's a panel that you MUST attend, arrive at the panel early. At YALLWEST 2023, I saw lines for some popular panels beginning more than 20 minutes before the panel was scheduled to start. A few events (generally the "Keynotes" and "Smackdown") require tickets that you purchase online in advance. Be prepared to wait in long lines for almost everything. Pack a refillable water bottle. There are drinking fountains at the school where you can fill your bottle throughout the day. Dress in layers. In Santa Monica, California, the weather tends to be cool early in the day and in the evening, but temperatures can get hot during the day. Wear comfortable closed-toed shoes. The Santa Monica High School campus is not very large, but you will be surprised how much walking you will do, often on crowded walkways. |