It’s like a literary all-star game. Award-winning authors such as Dom DeLillo, Jennifer Egan, Amor Towles, Celeste Ng, and Tim O’Brien have been featured. Suspense superstars such as Meg Gardiner, John Grisham, Jeff Abbott, Attica Locke, James Ellroy, and Walter Mosley have attended. Cooks with books, such as Paula Deen, Alton Brown, and Aaron Franklin have performed demos for the large crowds. Even romance authors are invited. The Texas Book Festival, held every fall in Austin, is a book-lover’s dream, and it is a dream that can come true.
“The past is not dead. In fact, it’s not even past.” William Faulkner, Requiem for a Nun.
It was the 1990s, and Austin’s population was less than half-a-million people. Although the city’s reputation for weirdness was well established and often on display, its days as a foodie haven, corporate tech center, or as a literary force were incipient or a decade in the future.
The state’s literary profile began to change, however, when a former librarian moved into the Governor’s Mansion in Austin. Laura Bush, as she once said, “made her love of books into a career,” and she wanted books to play a central role during her time as Texas’ First Lady. With help from the similarly well-connected Mary Margaret Farabee (wife of Senator Ray Farabee), the Texas Book Festival was born, with the goals of raising funds for Texas libraries, honoring Texas authors, and promoting reading.
The event was announced in March of 1996 and was a reality fewer than eight months later. Larry McMurtry was the keynote at a charity dinner, and Texas writers such as Liz Carpenter, John Graves, Sandra Cisneros, and Kinky Friedman were the highlight of the festival—which, as its name suggests, featured Texas authors.
At its genesis, it was designed for “authors who live in Texas now,” as Laura Bush noted at the time, “lived in Texas before, or write about Texas.” Bush, along with volunteers and a single paid employee, brought in 89 authors, all fitting the “Texas author” label.
Within a few years, the Festival was changing what it meant to be a “Texas author” and also changing perceptions of Texas’ literary culture. Anne Morris, writing in the “Austin American-Statesman,” noted “To the rest of the world, Texas means cowboys, armadillos, oil wells, braggarts, and big hair.” But with the success of the Texas Book Festival, the Lone Star State “can make a strong claim as a center for literature.”
Some may think that is just a Texan bragging, but the success of the Festival over the years suggests otherwise. The National Book Foundation is participating this year, raising both the visibility of the Book Festival and the Book Foundation, which will be announcing its National Book Award winners less than two weeks after the Austin event.
As the Festival has grown, the nature has changed somewhat. More authors are featured today; more readers attend; and the scope of the event has expanded. Laura Bush remains an honorary chair, and Texas authors continue to loom large on the panels, but national (e.g., George Plimpton, Sonia Sotomayor) and international (e.g. Carlos Fuentes, Salman Rushdie) authors are also featured.
In addition, the topics have expanded and diversified. Cooking demonstrations are offered by well-known chefs in the booths outside the Capitol; more children’s events are included; celebrities with books (e.g., Matthew McConaughey, Lance Armstrong) are brought in; panels on identity politics are common; and the Festival has added music and other forms of entertainment to the two-day event. Last year, the Festival included more than 250 authors, while attracting an estimated 40,000-50,000 book lovers.
“Oh, the places you’ll go!” Dr. Seuss, Oh, the Places You’ll Go.
Austin is host to numerous festivals, and the Texas Book Festival has stiff competition for people’s attention in this fast-growing capital city. But the Festival’s organizers continue to overcome daunting logistics: bringing in hundreds of authors, scheduling the event for October or November each year; locating it in or near the Capitol building, which requires the partial shutdown of Congress Ave; and, perhaps most important, keeping it free to the public.
Visitors face some logistical challenges as well. With 250-plus authors presenting over a two-day period, the sessions are concurrent, overlapping, and moving from one session to the next can involve walking a couple of blocks or more. This makes for some tough choices for book lovers.
Navigating these choices can be made more difficult by inclement weather or the unexpected. In 2023, for example, there was a major protest, with some 40,000 people marching on the capitol grounds.
For book lovers, however, the festival is worth the minor inconveniences. The venues are a treat, with attendees provided access to places often used by legislators, government administrators, or VIPs. In 2023, for example, author Tim O’Brien spoke in the House of Representatives, with attendees sitting in desks typically reserved only for legislators (bring Lysol). Moreover, almost all the sessions are followed by book signings, allowing fans to get autographed copies of their books (sometimes they sell out of books, so buy early!).
The event can also be a delight for the speakers. Dr. Mitchell Roth, SHSU Professor of Criminal Justice and a resident of The Woodlands, spoke at the Festival in 2017. He appeared alongside best-selling author Paulette Jiles in the Lorenza de Zavala State Archives and Library—where, it happens, he has done much research—to discuss his book “Convict Cowboys.” “It was very nice,” Roth noted. “I was on a panel with Paulette Jiles, and she impressed me. It allowed me to get exposure to a large audience, and I think it’s a good way to put authors in touch with readers at a time when fewer people are reading books.” Former Huntsville Mayor Jane Monday—a UT Graduate—has also been a featured speaker at the Book Festival, the first year no less!
“My advice is, never do tomorrow what you can do today. Procrastination is the thief of time.” Charles Dickens, David Copperfield.
This year’s festival, which marks the 30th anniversary of the event, begins with its annual “First Edition Literary Gala” on Friday, November 7, featuring author Mitch Albom, US Poet Laureate Ada Limon, Ford Foundation President Darren Walker, and featuring podcaster Traci Thomas as the emcee. This gala event, with tickets starting at $650 and sponsorships going up to $25,000, raises funds for libraries across Texas and book donations to Title I elementary schools.
The public sessions take place on November 8-9. Visit www.texasbookfestival.org for a full schedule of featured authors, which showcases a truly diverse lineup that includes: comedian Chelsea Handler, children’s author R.L. Stine, journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin, author Skip Hollandsworth, and O. Henry Prize winner Bryan Washington.
The Festival will offer its usual retinue of cooking demonstrations, interactive children’s reading-related activities, themed panels, book signings, and thousands of books on sale.
“From that time on, the world was hers for the reading. She would never be lonely again, never miss the lack of intimate friends. Books became her friends and there was one for every mood.” Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.
No one who loves books will regret attending the Texas Book Festival, although they may regret not having gone earlier. Enjoy the fall weather in Austin; taste the many culinary delights in our capital city; tour some museums during down-times; but go for the authors, the books, and the stories, and get lost in the dream-like world of literature.
Everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt. Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse Five.
If you cannot make it to Austin during the Book Festival, there are still many literary-themed destinations worthy of a stop. Always worthy is the Harry Ransom Center (300 West 21 Street), which holds approximately 1 million books, 42 million manuscripts, 5 million photographs, and more than 100,000 works of art in its collection. While most of these are reserved for occasional exhibits or for researchers, they do have impressive artifacts on regular display, including an original copy of the Gutenberg Bible, one of only 20 complete copies in the world.
For more contemporary items, Book People (603 N Lamar Blvd) is the largest bookstore in Texas, hosts dozens of book talks and signings each year, and features a wide assortment of books across diverse genres. The much more intimate First Light Books (4300 Speedway) is also worthy of a stop. In addition to a healthy selection of books, they also offer pastries in the morning, wine and charcuterie in the afternoons/evenings, and book events year-round. For those who enjoy perusing used books, few stops are better than Half-Price Books, which offers four locations in Austin and another in Round Rock. They offer thousands of books, music (with many vinyl selections!), DVDs, and other interesting items—making this the perfect place to browse for hours. For those with more niche tastes, look no further than the Book Woman, specializing in, as you might suspect, womxn (sic) authors.
