The Tucson Festival of Books is one of the largest literary events in the United States, bringing more than 100,000 book lovers, authors and exhibitors to town each year.

But behind the scenes, it’s the hard work and dedication of volunteers that keep the festival running smoothly.

The festival has just three paid staffers but an army of volunteers, with around 2,000 people signing on to help each year. And while the festival welcomes first-time volunteers annually, many are repeat participants who sign up to help every year.

The festival has seen couples, organizations and friend groups volunteer together, with book lovers jumping at the opportunity to fill roles that might get them face to face with their favorite authors.

At the heart of this effort is the festival’s volunteer committee, a team of individuals who work year-round to ensure that every aspect of the festival has the support it needs.

“We have about 200 people that work on committees year-round, and the volunteer committee is one of those committees,” said co-chair Bimi Huebner. “There are about 66 people on the volunteer committee. It sounds like a lot, and it is a lot, but the reason it’s a lot is we are the entire volunteer workforce.”

To keep operations organized, the committee relies on a structured system. The 66 committee members are called liaisons, with two assigned to each area as the points of contact.

“They make sure they are supported and have what they need,” Huebner said.

Each year, the festival looks to fill approximately 2,000 volunteer slots, including pre-festival promotion and setup, festival weekend support, and post-festival cleanup.

“That will add up to somewhere in the neighborhood of 8,500 hours of volunteer time,” Huebner said. “I expect it will be somewhere between 1,600 and 1,800 warm bodies filling those 2,000 slots.”

Beyond the numbers, the value of the volunteers’ work is staggering, according to Huebner.

“I’ve been trying to help people understand, even just at the committee level, what that all means,” she said. “In Arizona, the value of one volunteer hour is $32. So that would translate to about $275,000 worth of volunteer time, which I think is quite impressive.”

While many roles are quickly claimed once registration opens, especially those that involve direct contact with authors, some positions are consistently challenging to fill.

“Every year we always have some jobs that are hard to fill, but every once in a while, we have a hard-to-fill job that fills fast,” Huebner said. “For cleanup this year, we have 65 signed up, when other years we were begging for 50.”

Despite the occasional surprise, certain roles, particularly those scheduled for late in the day on Sunday, remain a struggle.

“We need nine more line management volunteers for author events on Sunday afternoon,” Huebner said. “We always have a hard time in the afternoons, especially on Sunday.”

With a few days left to sign up, Huebner encouraged prospective volunteers to check the volunteer website for remaining opportunities.

“We’re going to keep line monitors, author events and ‘surprise me’ volunteer sections open until we’re comfortable,” she said. “I would also suggest that people drop by volunteer headquarters to see if there are any last-minute jobs that we need people to help with.”

As the festival continues to grow, so too does its reliance on this dedicated network of volunteers, whose passion for literature and community spirit make this beloved event possible year after year.

And while there are still a handful of spots left to fill, Huebner and the volunteer committee are already thinking about next year.

“We always need more volunteers, so there's a place on the website where people can express interest for 2026,” she said.

Samantha Callicutt is a Tucson Spotlight reporter and graduate student at the University of Arizona. Contact her at Scallicutt@arizona.edu.

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