Mission Creek Festival is still happening this weekend, with many events in store. The Literary Magazine and Small Press Book Fair is April 9, starting at 11 A.M at The Mill. This event is offering unusual books and magazines from across the country.

Director of Literary Programming for Mission Creek Festival and Executive Director at Film Scene Joe Tiefenthaler believes that this event it not one to miss.

“[It’s important because] it’s a focus on literary independent publishing and magazines, so a lot of these books are not found in bookstores, [and] they are hard for some of these presses to distribute nationally,” Tiefenthaler said. “You get a group like this and it spans contemporary literature, translation and reprints.”

Adam Jaschen, Editorial Intern for Ice Cube Press and Editor-in-Chief of Earthwords, agrees that this event is an important aspect of the festival.

“I think it’s really important because it brings in the sort of small press feel that is often very local and stays in the boundaries, but Mission Creek brings a lot of different communities together,” Jaschen said. “It is really helpful, especially for undergraduates like myself to see that people are actually doing this out there.”

Tiefenthaler concludes that this event is a great oppertunity for high school students.

“I know if I were to have had this opportunity when I was in high school I would have freaked out. I’m from Iowa and nothing like this was ever on my radar,” Tiefenthaler said. “There is some really exciting writing, and the writing that these people are publishing is totally inspirational because they aren’t traditional, they aren’t the authors you have to read in high school classes. They are doing exciting things and doing it differently, and it really expands what you think writing really is.”

The event runs today until 6 P.M. and is free. Following the book festival, The Mill will host poet and performer Saul Williams at 8:30 P.M., costing $20 at the door.

For more information on this and other events throughout festival, go to http://www.missionfreak.com/.

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