Mark Twain Days

Join us in meeting local authors and perusing rare, antique books.

Wagon Rides around Carson City's historic westside. Experience traveling around Carson City like Mark Twain would have! Tickets are $3/per person when you show up to the event.

Experience over 30 vendors, live music, food trucks, and wagon rides while enjoying all the best that Mark Twain Days has to offer!

Join Carson City native, Jed Block, in exploring Carson City then and now through a photographic history of the region that turned Samuel Clemens into Mark Twain.

A few years ago, radiomaker Fil Corbitt found a handsaw in the mountains and built a small desk out in the woods. High in the Sierra Nevada, flanked by an aspen grove and a lodgepole pine stand, this is where Fil makes "The Wind", a critically acclaimed podcast that investigates our relationship to place through […]

This workshop will encourage participants to write about and consider the “ancient and deeply American quest, the search for home,” to quote poet George Bilgere. For example, how does our culture encourage, or discourage, physical relocation and personal reinvention? We’ll use the metaphor of rivers during our discussion, how water moves us from place to […]

Local authors and historians David & Gayle Woodruff assume the characters of    “Snowshoe” Thompson and his wife Agnes in this 55-minute Chautauqua performance. Thompson carried the mail across the deep Sierra Nevada snow for 20 winters. Packing 80–pounds of mail over the 180-mile round trip in just 5 days on his hand-crafted snow skates (skis), […]

Spoken Views Collective was founded in 2006 by Iain Watson. With the help of many local businesses around Reno, we were able to host events and open mic nights to share the spoken word experience. Our mission is to provide a platform and safe spaces for spoken word expression as well as build a community […]

Brewery Arts Center, in partnership with Visit Carson City, is excited to be hosting the 3rd Annual Mark Twain Days! We have a ton of activities planned! Check out the schedule below to plan your weekend! Thursday, October 16th - At the Brewery Arts Center (BAC) Mark Twain Reading Area Ribbon Cutting - 4 to […]

A special reception  to celebrate the stunning gallery exhibition highlighting Virginia City's iconic counter-culture communique:  The Gold Hill News. Join us for light snacks and libations. Free to the public.

�� A Twain-Inspired Fundraiser to Support the Future To help retire its remaining $458,000 mortgage by July 4, 2026, I-School will host a special fundraiser during Carson City’s 3rd Annual Mark Twain Days, October 16–18. On opening night—Thursday, October 16—beloved Nevada impressionist McAvoy Layne will come out of retirement to perform as Mark Twain in […]

Samuel Langhorne Clemens, known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, and essayist. Clemens was praised as the greatest humorist the United States has produced, with William Faulkner calling him "the father of American literature". Twain's novels include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, as well as Roughing It. After […]

Join the Carson City Ghost Walk for the third annual Mark Twain Days with one tour Saturday, October 18, 2025. This 90-minute tour, led by Madame Curry and her Spirit Wranglers, leaves from Bob McFadden Plaza at 10:00 a.m. The party lets off at The Brewery Arts Center where you can enjoy more Mark Twain […]

Another free workshop for you! Celebrate Mark Twain Days by joining us at the Brewery Arts Center in Carson City to turn a lump of clay into a frog! You'll find us in the BAC Clay Studio from 11am to 4pm.

Michael J. Smith, Retired Educator and Entrepreneur, Carson City Cultural Commission Mark Twain, his association and relationship with Black Americans-the untold truths. “Mark Twain was not afraid to reject values he had once accepted, and he thought long and hard about how these transformations happened-or failed to happen. He shared his insights with us in […]

The Wind is a podcast about listening, made at a handmade desk in the Sierra Nevada by Fil Corbitt. 

Visit Carson City and Brewery Arts Center present Mark Twain Days! Mark Twain’s time in Nevada was fast, furious, and left a lasting impact. The region and Twain were changed forever and the dust he kicked up has never quite settled. To carry on with what Mark Twain loved most about Nevada—the characters, the excitement, and […]

Kick off the festival with Spoken Views Collective and Poet Laureate Emeritus Jesse James Ziegler for BAC’s regularly scheduled monthly poetry night. Poets may sign up at the event and have 3-5 minutes to share their work. There will be space for many voices. Poets are welcome to perform original work or share a cover […]

Think you and your establishment make the best Picon Punch around? Prove it! Join us on Wednesday, October 14th in a People's Choice battle for the best! No fee to enter but you could win a $500 prize for being the best in the west! Do you make the best in the west picon punch? […]

Buy Tickets! The Picon Punch is officially Nevada's state cocktail and we want you to come out and help us choose the best in the west! Join us for an evening of tasting the best picon punches around along with a delicious Basque buffet, music, and an all around family style good time. Each ticket […]

Join the staff of Bub's for an hour walk enjoying the Carson City westside and listening to your favorite audiobook with your fellow audiobook listeners. About Bub's Bookstore - Hello! We’re Demi and Rob. We have a simple goal: Provide a community space that is centered around books and other media. We feel that we […]

Ride alone with Mr. D and his mules, Valkrie, Svana, and Freydis, and experience traveling around Carson City like Mark Twain would have!  

Join Kim Harris as she plays the role of Julia Bulette, the famous folk figure from Virginia City. Julia C. Bulette was perhaps Virginia City’s most infamous “working girl”, as well as a cherished member of Virginia Company #1’s volunteer fire department.  In her own words, Julia will share with her audience, a world so […]

Another free workshop for you! Celebrate Mark Twain Days by joining us on Curry Street in Carson City to turn a lump of clay into a frog! Thanks to Ogres-Holm Pottery for this free family fun!  

Join the Andrew Charles Dewey discussing his book, In a Cloud of Dust. What would you do if you uncovered millions of dollars in rare coins buried beneath the roots of a fallen tree? Jack Andrews never expected a routine hike through Nevada’s Sierra Nevada Mountains to change his life forever. When a lightning strike […]