Steinbeck Festival returns to immerse people in the author’s world.

Steinbeck is vast. Like great American writers Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner and Mark Twain, he created an expansive bibliography – of novels, nonfiction books, short stories, articles, letters, scripts and essays – that built out his vision of the world as he saw it. Scholars and fans have visited Steinbeck’s literary terrain, many for years, and not exhausted it.

Steinbeck is deep. This year marks 35th iteration of the annual festival named after him, headquartered at the Steinbeck Center, the only American museum dedicated to one author. Two of the festival’s visiting speakers are writing new books about Steinbeck, while the Steinbeck Center’s interim executive director, Susan Shillinglaw, is scheduled to talk about him in the Eastern European city of Tbilisi.

Steinbeck is not infallible. Critics have challenged the literary merit (though not the real-world influence) of his work, and questioned whether he deserved the Nobel Prize. But the earnest intent of his work and his beloved reputation with popular readers seems to lift him above that rarified debate.

“He is an undeniable presence, and for many people the first and most memorable ‘serious’ author they became acquainted with,” according to William Souder, an author working on a Steinbeck biography and a guest speaker to the festival.

Last year, the Steinbeck Festival didn’t happen because while the organization was awaiting the building’s purchase by CSU Monterey Bay and key staff including the executive director and the director of education went elsewhere, leaving a skeleton crew to keep the doors open.

But with that purchase completed (CSUMB has started teaching classes there) and longtime Steinbeck scholar Susan Shillinglaw in place as interim director, it’s back.

It’s constructed in three broad phases, a different theme for each of its three days: Friday belongs to “Steinbeck on Land,” Saturday is dubbed “Steinbeck and the Sea,” and on Sunday, a teaching curriculum of “Crossing Boundaries.”

But more helpful markers might revolve around geography, people and parties, all woven throughout.

In terms of geography, the festival pays homage to the 75th anniversary of the publication of The Sea of Cortez, a book about its terrestrial setting, about science, and about friendship.

“All of his California fiction is grounded in place,” Shillinglaw writes in an email. “Consider the titles: The Long Valley, The Pastures of Heaven, Cannery Row, Tortilla Flat.”

Stanford humanities professor Gavin Jones addresses drought and climate (as well as race) in the American West through Steinbeck’s novelTo a God Unknown (10am Fri).

(Shillinglaw asked presenters to hone their talks in TED-like fashion – shorter and livelier, followed by more audience participation.)

Walking and bus tours throughout – to Salinas’ Main Street, to the Red Pony ranch, to ag fields – take festival goers out of the confines of the Steinbeck Center and puts them into the real-world places that populate Steinbeck’s books.

The festival’s programmed with a focus on key people and communities, including a block of talks on Friday of Japanese flower growers (1:15pm), U.S. Filipino newspapers and the Juan Steinbeck Poetry Society (1:45pm), and Asian communities in Salinas (2:15pm).

Ed Ricketts receives all due attention in a Saturday morning block starting at 9am.

“The Sea of Cortez is a compendium of everything that Steinbeck and Ricketts thought about throughout their 18-year friendship,” Shillinglaw says.

Harold Augenbraum, who recently completed a 12-year tenure as the executive director of the National Book Foundation which presents the National Book Awards, comes to talk (2pm Sat) about “Mexican America and Steinbeck’s Pearl.”

“Many sessions address cultural issues (the Braceros, for example) that are not directly tied to Steinbeck’s work, but address the issues that were important to [him] – the intersection of people and place,” Shillinglaw writes.

Place. There’s that word again. But the festival is not a pedantic exercise.

“[Fun] is an important consideration in Steinbeck’s work as well as in understanding his friendship with Ricketts,” Shillinglaw says. “They had fun.”

While some components of the festival have contracted, the food and drink has grown. The biggest evidence of this is Steinbeck’s Home Brew Fest, a street faire on Main Street furnished with live music, food and craft beer, happening noon-4pm Saturday ($35/advance; $50/day of). It’s followed at 6pm by a craft beer-tasting fundraiser dinner at the Steinbeck House ($50).

But the most fun might be found by those who expand their definition of the word. Like Souder, who ponders: “What could be better than a gathering of Steinbeck fans in Salinas on a weekend in spring?”

THE 35TH ANNUAL STEINBECK FESTIVAL happens 8am-8pm Fri; 8am-8pm Sat; 8:30am-4pm Sun at the National Steinbeck Center and other locations. $30/day; $75/3-day pass; free/high school and college students with ID; various prices for tours, and food and drink festivities. 775-4721, www.steinbeck.org