This year marks the tenth annual Rancho Mirage Writers Festival. The event takes place inside the Rancho Mirage Library and hosts some literature’s most influential voices.
“From the point of view of an author, having an audience that is this engaged, asking such intelligent questions, really caring about the range of issues, both literary as well as social and political as they do. I don’t think you’ll find anything quite like it, really anywhere,” said New York Times Op-ed Columnist, Bret Stephens.
Inside the library’s four walls, world renowned authors are discussing topics that reach all walks of life. Including the latest findings in public health from Dr. Michael Greger.
“It is the most comprehensive science-based study on longevity, ever published, and so I’m excited that it premiered at number two on the New York Times Bestseller List,” said Dr. Greger.
Political insights were even offered from the Commander-in-Chief’s former Campaign Strategist and very own sister, Valerie Biden Owens.
“He believed in me. And I thought then that I owed it to him and to myself to try to be that young woman that he said I was capable of being,” said Biden Owens. “He was a good big brother, and if you’re a good brother, you’re going to be a good husband. And a good father and a spectacular president.”
The festival even featured a taste of travel and entertainment.
“I’m here talking about a book I wrote called, ‘Walking with Sam’ about a trip I took with my son across the Camino De Santiago, this ancient pilgrimage in Spain where we walk for 500 miles,” said Actor and Author, Andrew McCarthy. “So it’s a travel book, but it’s really a father son kind of exploration.”
Many authors we spoke to like McCarthy said meeting and interacting with the readers was the highlight of their time at the writers festival.
“I have two daughters who very much wanted me to see Andrew McCarthy because of their love of him in the movie ‘Pretty in Pink,” said Rancho Mirage Writers Festival attendee, Rosalee Tithof.
It was a thought provoking program, created with lovers of written word in mind.
“It’s a magnificent use of a public library to bring together a gathering like this, to make use of it not just as a place to house books, but to to express ideas to be a place which convenes minds. That’s the nature of what a library ought to be,” said Stephens.
Although tickets to this year’s festival are sold out. Tickets for next year’s Rancho Mirage Writers Festival will go on sale March 1, 2024. You can sign up for their email list to receive notifications HERE.
