Tucson Festival of Books

Crazy Iconic


From the iconic Grand Canyon to the people and places that bring out Arizona's wild side, these authors share how they approach their subjects past and present.


Panelists
Richard Grant

Richard Grant is an author, magazine journalist and documentary film writer who comes to the festival with the Arizona-centric "A Race to the Bottom of Crazy."  An earlier book, "God's Middle Finger," was selected as a Southwest Book of the Year by the Pima County Public Library....

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Kyle Paoletta

Kyle Paoletta’s reporting and criticism has appeared in The New York Times, Harper’s, New York Magazine, The Nation, The New Republic, n+1, The Believer, The Columbia Journalism Review, The Baffler, High Country News, and Boston....

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Yolonda Youngs

Dr. Yolonda Youngs is a broadly trained geographer with a passion for exploring and writing about the people, places and changing landscapes. Combining her training as an academic scholar with her background of as a professional whitewater river rafting and wilderness kayak guide, her publications reveal often overlooked places in iconic sites....

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Books:
A Race to the Bottom of Crazy
Dispatches from Arizona
Richard Grant
Memoir / Essays / Creative Nonfiction
Simon & Schuster
September 2024
ISBN 9781668011027
320 pages
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Framing Nature
The Creation of an American Icon at the Grand Canyon
Yolonda Youngs
Nature / Environment
U of Nebraska Press
June 2024
ISBN 9781496202185
408 pages
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American Oasis
Finding the Future in the Cities of the Southwest
Kyle Paoletta
History / Biography
Random House
January 2025
ISBN 9780553387377
368 pages
Buy now