Park City Library will welcome two keynote authors, a puppet show and family craft activities Sunday, Oct. 4, and Monday, Oct. 5, as part of the annual Utah Humanities Book Festival.

The two-day lineup at 1255 Park Ave. opens Sunday afternoon with programming for all ages, TownLift reported. Summit County Library and Wasatch County Library are also hosting festival events in partnership with Utah Humanities. The festival, Utah's oldest statewide book festival, reaches more than 12,000 people across the state each fall.

Sunday, Oct. 4

A craft extravaganza for kids and parents runs from 1 to 5 p.m., featuring bookmarks, mini books and puppet-making projects. Elephant & Piggie, the characters from Mo Willems' picture books, will appear for a meet-and-greet. A separate local author meet-and-greet runs during the same hours, where visitors can talk with Wasatch Back writers about their work.

At 1:30 p.m., the Puppet Players perform "There's a Monster in My Bathtub," a show about a boy named Billy who can't take a bath because a big furry monster has claimed the tub and all his soap.

Brian Laidlaw, a Moab-based climber, poet and songwriter, delivers the first keynote at 2 p.m. Maya Silver, editor in chief of Climbing magazine, will lead an audience Q&A afterward. Laidlaw's new book, "Erratica: On Climbing, Language, and Touching Stone," published by Milkweed Editions on Sept. 8, was named a Millions Most Anticipated 2026 selection. A reception with Laidlaw and the local authors follows, with book sales, signings and light refreshments.

Monday, Oct. 5

A reception opens at 6 p.m., followed by the second keynote from Buzzy Jackson at 7 p.m. Jackson is a historical fiction novelist and nonfiction author who holds a doctorate in history from the University of California, Berkeley, and is a member of the National Book Critics Circle. Her novel "To Die Beautiful," published in the U.K. as "The Girl with the Red Hair," won the 2024 Colorado Book Award for Historical Fiction. A book signing follows her talk.

Full event details are available at parkcity.gov/library.

Upcoming community calendar

  • Sunday, Oct. 4: Crafts, local author meet-and-greet and puppet show, 1 p.m.; Brian Laidlaw keynote, 2 p.m.
  • Monday, Oct. 5: Reception, 6 p.m.; Buzzy Jackson keynote, 7 p.m.