The Texas Book Festival (TBF) returns to downtown Austin this November 16-17, expecting to draw 40,000 attendees and featuring more than 280 authors across some 220 sessions. Austin independent bookstore stalwart BookPeople serves as the official festival bookseller, joining approximately 90 exhibitors across five tents.
Headline events include sold-out sessions with Matthew McConaughey, who will appear in conversation with filmmaker Richard Linklater and author Malcolm Gladwell. Due to overwhelming demand, McConaughey added a second back-to-back session on Sunday. Approximately one third of participating authors have Texas connections.
Other featured authors include Hanif Abdurraqib, Rumaan Alam, Christina Rivera Garza, Attica Locke, Rachel Kong, Claire Messud, and Michelle Norris. The festival will also welcome returning authors Stephen Graham Jones and Rita Bullwinkel, who will appear in conversation with Mary Ellen Bertino. The complete schedule is now online
"This year, we are excited to build on our bilingual programs for Spanish-speaking audiences and host a new tent fully dedicated to poetry,” TBF COO Dalia Azim said. "We see every festival as an opportunity to innovate and try new things while continuing to deliver on the wonderful programming for which we are recognized.”
The dedicated poetry tent features twelve sessions, including a reading by 2024 Texas Writer Award winner Naomi Shihab Nye and panels exploring environmental crisis, war, and Texas identity through verse. The intimate venue will accommodate 50-60 attendees per session.
The Leamos tent will host programs featuring Hispanic and Latina authors, with five sessions conducted in Spanish or bilingually. Notable bilingual sessions include "Voces Luminosas: Poetas Latinos en Conversación," with José Olivarez, Reyes Ramirez, and Joaquín Zihuatanejo, and "La Identidad en Evolución de una Nación," with Ray Suarez.
The festival has also expanded its physical presence, returning to its full scope along Congress Avenue from 7th to 11th Streets. A notable addition is increased programming at the State Theater, which will feature sessions with BIPOC authors throughout the weekend. “The diversity is even stronger than it was last year," Azim said, noting that 65 or more participants are writers of color.
A total of 40 programs are geared toward family audiences, including events in the Read Me a Story tent for picture books, Next Chapter tent for middle-grade books, and YA HQ for young adult literature. Each area includes adjacent activity spaces for age-appropriate engagement.
Texas has been coping with efforts to ban books for several years running. Asked if the festival faced pressure from local officials to ban books they may have found objectionable, Azim said it was not an issue. "We stand for access to books without restriction or censorship, Obviously, it's core to our work."
TBF has also expanded its year-round programming beyond Austin, including Reading Rock Stars programs for children in El Paso and a new initiative in San Marcos. The organization is also launching new partnerships, including a program with the Gardner Juvenile Justice Center in Austin for incarcerated youth.
