News

Dec 09, 2023

Tombstone hosts first Festival of Western Books

Local Western author Doug Hocking will be one of 10 presenters at Wednesday's

Local Western author Doug Hocking will be one of 10 presenters at Wednesday's Festival of Western Books in Tombstone. The event, held at Schieffelin Hall, features award-winning authors and is free of charge.

The first Tombstone Festival of Western Books kicks off at 10 a.m. Wednesday at historic Schieffelin Hall in Tombstone.

This daylong event features a lineup of 10 award-winning authors, including Arizona's very own Bob Boze Bell, editor and publisher of True West Magazine.

Co-sponsored by The Cochise County Corral of the Westerners Inc. and the Cochise County Historical Society, the Western book festival is free of charge.

The Cochise County Corral, a nonprofit, is a chapter (corral) of Westerners International. Founded in 1944, there are more than 60 corrals throughout the United States and 20 corrals abroad, with more than 4,000 members around the globe, said local author Doug Hocking.

"We’re dedicated to preserving Western frontier history while having fun doing it," he added. "Westerners International offers scholarships and prizes for best cowboy poetry, Western history articles and books, best corral, and best presentation. Our corral has been recognized as the best corral three times and we have members who have won the prize at least once in every category."

Hocking serves as president of the Cochise County Corral, an organization with 87 members that hail from California, New York and Texas, as well as England, France and Germany.

"We meet on the first Thursday of the month at 7 p.m. at Schieffelin Hall for a bit of fun, cowboy poetry, short history, and a full history presentation," Hocking said.

The Cochise County Corral has two publications, the Fremont Street Mail (a newsletter) and Border Vidette. For information, go to https://cochisecountycorral.org/.

Some of the authors presenting in Tombstone will be at the Tucson Festival of Books on Saturday and Sunday.

"Since they were going to be in Arizona, we took the opportunity to invite them to Tombstone for our festival on Wednesday, March 1," said Hocking.

Jon Donahue, public relations representative for the city of Tombstone, said the festival presents an opportunity to meet favorite Western authors while getting signed copies of books.

"This is your chance to meet award-winning authors personally, learn interesting historical facts and ask questions," Donahue said. "We hope to see you at Schieffelin this Wednesday."

AUTHORS’ LINEUP:

We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on!