The 14th Annual Border Book Festival Each year, we select an overall theme that reflects the state of our global evolution and its current challenges and invite artists to the festival whose work reflects this theme.  The 2008 festival theme is Return. We believe our 2008 theme is challenging, open-ended and exciting and that our artists will address the theme in their readings, workshops and interactions with our audiences. What does Return mean? In Spanish the word is Volver.  It is also Retorno. Or Regresar. It could also be Devolver, to give back. What does the word Return mean to you? Maybe there is an object that you need to return to someone or is there something that needs to be returned to you? Have you lost something that can never be returned? How does that make you feel? Maybe it's something you’ve borrowed or something you've been meaning to give someone for a long time. Or maybe something or someone so meaningful and indispensable has been lost and you wonder how it can ever be returned? Should some things never return or be returned? What is it that needs to be "returned" in a very physical and actual sense? What can never be returned? We will explore this theme through myriad festival activities including Libros y Más, the festival Trade show which will take place on the historic Mesilla Plaza on Saturday, April 19 and Sunday April 20 from 10-5:00 p.m. Libros y Más features local, regional, national and international authors, presses and artists. Other festival highlights include panels, workshops, readings, music, a children’s storytelling tent, and the 3rd annual Children’s Book and Pet Parade. Various festival artists arrive early in the week to visit local and area schools.  The School Outreach Program is an important and vital component of the festival.  If you would like a writer or artist to visit your school or community center, please contact us as soon as possible.  Schools are asked to fiscally co-sponsor artist visits in collaboration with the festival. Your donation offsets our expenses and allows us to bring more festival artists to share their creativity with students and community members.  For more information about the school outreach program, please contact us. The Border Book Foundation (BBF), founder of the Cultural Center of Mesilla and the Border Book Festival is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit literary, literacy and storytelling organization based in Mesilla, New Mexico. Founded in 1995 by a group of writers, artists, and community people committed to celebrating literature and the art of storytelling in the southern United States-Northern México border region, the BBF believes that literature and the arts can transcend the many perceived orders—racial, ethnic, generational, cultural, socio-economic, and gender-based—that divide our communities. We are a grass roots organization that impacts our local, regional and global community by offering programs that are blueprints of positive communication, interaction, connection and healing between people.

Home / Festival / Community / Upcoming Events / Writers & Artists / Director's Notes / History / Contact / Sponsors The Border Book Festival does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sex, age, or disability. If you need accommodation due to disability to attend and participate in any of these events, please call us at (575) 523-3988. For TTY communication, call us using the New Mexico Relay Network at 1-800-659-8331 and ask them to place a call to us.