Texas Book Festival Announces 2019 Festival Dates
AUSTIN, TEXAS — Texas Book Festival officials on Tuesday said their 2018 Festival Weekend was the most successful on record, with 50,000 attendees coming together this past October to celebrate books and literacy.
The event is set to return for its 24th year on Oct. 26-27, once again staged in and around the Texas State Capitol in downtown Austin. The event will feature 300 authors, including Pete Souza, Cecile Richards, Phoebe Robinson, Julián Castro, Scott Kelly, Sandra Cisneros, Tayari Jones, Michael Beschloss, Jacqueline Woodson, and Celeste Ng.
The annual First Edition Literary Gala took place Oct. 26 at the Four Seasons Hotel and raised more than $675,000 in critical funds for the nonprofit organization and its literary programs, officials noted.
In 2018, the TBF gave more than $100,000 in grants to Texas public libraries. Through its Reading Rock Stars literacy program, TBF provided 10,635 books to students in Title I schools across Texas. The Texas Teen Book Festival on Oct. 6 featured an all-star lineup of Young Adult authors, including Nic Stone, Neal and Jarrod Shusterman, andKatharine McGee, as well as an interactive iTent space, writing workshops, panels, and more.
2018 Festival Weekend highlights included the Latinx Lit Tent, which featured sessions presented by bilingual moderators and authors as well as Spanish-fluent panelists, as authors discussed immigration, activism, community, and their latest work. Festival highlights also include the Kirkus Reviews Tent, which featured authors such as Tayari Jones, who presented her bestselling novel and Oprah Book Club pick, An American Marriage; bestselling children’s book authors of the series Magic Treehouse, Mary Pope Osborne and Natalie Pope Boyce; and comedian, best-selling author, and star of 2 Dope Queens Phoebe Robinson, who presented her latest collection of essays, Everything’s Trash, but It’s Okay.
Officials noted 2018 also marked the second year of the organization’s partnership with BookPeople, Texas’s leading independent bookstore, which served as the official bookseller for the Festival Weekend as well as year-round event and media partner.
Yet such school and community engagement also played an important part of the 2018 Festival. Officials noted that more than 30 elementary and middle school classes introduced authors at the Festival, eight student groups gave performances, and hundreds of Breakthrough Central Texas students and Girl Scouts participated in special sessions with National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature Jacqueline Woodson and Girl Scouts founder and CEO Sylvia Acevedo.
“We are always actively exploring ways to deepen the community’s engagement with the Festival,” Executive Director Lois Kim said. “We know that meaningful experiences with authors impact students’ interest in and desire to read.”
In 2019, fans can look forward to the return of everything they love about the Festival—a great author lineup, creative programming, book signings, food trucks, cooking demonstrations, author sessions and panels, a Saturday night Lit Crawl, and more.
Submissions to participate in the Festival will open on Jan. 14. For book submission guidelines, please visitwww.texasbookfestival.org/submit-a-book/. Visit www.texasbookfestival.org for more information.
ABOUT TEXAS BOOK FESTIVAL
With a vision to inspire Texans of all ages to love reading, the Texas Book Festival connects authors and readers through experiences that celebrate the culture of literacy, ideas, and imagination. Founded in 1995 by former First Lady Laura Bush, Mary Margaret Farabee, and a group of volunteers, the nonprofit Texas Book Festival promotes the joys of reading and writing through its annual Festival Weekend, the Texas Teen Book Festival, the Reading Rock Stars Title I elementary school program, the Real Reads Title I middle and high school program, grants to Texas libraries, and year-round literary programming. The Festival is held on the grounds of the Texas Capitol each fall and features more than 275 renowned authors, panels, book signings, cooking demonstrations, and children’s activities. The 2019 Texas Book Festival Weekend will take place October 26 - 27. Thanks to generous donors, sponsors, and 1,000 volunteers, the Festival remains free and open to the public. Visit www.texasbookfestival.org for more information, and join the conversation using the hashtag #txbookfest on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @texasbookfest.
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>>> Top image: Each October, book lovers descend on the grounds around the state Capitol building for the Texas Book Festival. Photo by Tony Cantù/Patch staff.
