Local authors stood in the spotlight as they presented their books to the community at the first-ever Author’s Fest hosted by Beans Books at the Village at Pickles Gap on April 12.

Various booths for each author were set up all around the outside of the small shopping center, giving them the opportunity to interact with anyone who chose to drop by.

In addition to the authors, many other activities such as creating your own book and a competition for designing a bookmark were also included.

Marshall Cunningham is the owner of Beans Books as well as the event’s organizer.

He said, “We had a bunch of authors who approached us about holding readings or signings at our store, and we had a couple back last year when we first kind of opened, but we found out we couldn’t fit them all at once.”

“We were running out of time and running out of space. And so I decided, instead of having every weekend be booked, let’s have them all here at once, with a massive festival,” he said.

Cunningham said his primary goal in holding the festival was so “all the authors are celebrated, and they get a spotlight here.”

He hopes “that a lot of these authors kind of get together and bond in a lot of ways.”

“As a writer myself, and who is someone who is active in the literary community here, sometimes it’s hard for these smaller authors who are just putting out their first book or aren’t with the press or self-published to get in the spotlight, and oftentimes vendor events don’t really have authors that are just selling books there that’s their primary focus,” he said.

He said that he “wanted to make this a time where there’s just whole rows of people who are getting out there.”

“I was expecting maybe 15 to 20, because usually that’s about the max we’ve had at events like this, and we ended up having 45 authors and vendors here,” Cunningham said.

He said what makes this festival unique is that “along with all the different authors and vendors, here we have all the different village shops, like the knife shop, the boutique, the rusted jewel spaw, our bookstore and Doc’s and so it’s basically like basically a two for one type deal, where you have the regular shopping experience you have on a Saturday, but now you have all these authors and all these people here.”

He said he hopes people discover through the event “that there are amazing creatives in their own community.”

“I know it’s easy to think of when you go to a Barnes and Noble, all these people who are writing with the big five publishers. But really, there’s incredible writers right across the street in front of you. I think that to celebrate those is super important in the water literary world. and getting out as new voices as possible, as many ideas and stories as there’s so many all across the world,” he said.

Cunningham also said, “Something we’re doing is each author is going to give us a copy of their book, and we’re going to look through it and see if it’s something we can carry at our store, and then we’re gonna work with them to carry their books in the store. And so every person here has an opportunity to not only sell their books here today, but also in the future.”

One of the local authors at the event was Tasia C. Taylor who writes children’s stories as well as nonfiction based on her Christian life and journey.

She said, “When I was in high school, I took a journalism class and I won a writing competition, and that just blew me away. I just kept writing.”

Taylor said that through this event she “made so many connections with local authors that I would not have had because there’s no one in my personal life that also writes and publishes the same way I do. And so we’re able to bounce ideas off of each other and support each other online.” 

Brandi Easterling Collings was another author featured at the event.

“I write young adult and new adult fiction, typically realistic fiction about young women and girls who overcome some sort of heartache without needing someone else to rescue them,” Collings said.

She said, “I’m honored that they accepted me to be here today to represent independent authors here in Arkansas.”

“I think it’s good for well, for readers, of course, but I also think it’s good for aspiring authors to see other people who are achieving our dreams, to give them inspiration to achieve their dreams,” she said.