Celebrity authors, poets laureate, critically acclaimed essayists, local authors, and more are set to fill the Capitol building and Congress Avenue for the 30th annual Texas Book Festival. Four bestselling writers from different genres and walks of life will headline the two-day event.
Fiction writers Mitch Albom and Viet Thanh Nguyen represent two generations of relevant required reading. Albom’s Tuesdays With Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven have long adorned bookshelves and high school syllabi, renowned for their approachable philosophy. The sports journalist-turned-novelist will be in town to discuss his latest work, Twice, a love story about second chances out this October. Nguyen, the Vietnam-born American professor and novelist whose 2015 book The Sympathizer was recently adapted by HBO, will present his 2025 collection of essays about “writing as an other,” titled To Save and to Destroy.
Stars-turned-authors Chelsea Handler and Matthew McConaughey will charm audiences with their latest charismatic pennings. Handler, the Grammy-nominated comedian and host of the podcast Dear Chelsea, will present her recently published book of essays, I’ll Have What She’s Having. It wouldn’t be a Texas event without McConaughey, beloved Austin mascot and now twice-published author. Poems & Prayers, a collection of, well, poems, prayers, and journal entries, is a personal look into the star’s personal philosophy, hitting bookshelves Sept. 16.
The Atlantic writer David A. Graham heads the political non-fiction portion of the festival by sharing his latest work, The Project: How Project 2025 Is Reshaping America, alongside Washington Post White House reporter Isaac Arnsdorf and documentary filmmaker James Barrat.
Ariel Sullivan, writer of the yet-to-be-released dystopian romance Conform, will join NBC morning host Jenna Bush Hager to present her upcoming trilogy made for fans of The Hunger Games and Divergent series.
Mexican-American recipe developer and James Beard-winning cookbook author Ricky Martínez will bring his family traditions to Texan taste buds with colorful cookbook Salsa Daddy: A Cookbook: Dip Your Way Into Mexican Cooking. Mouthwatering reads continue with Fonda San Miguel co-founder and owner Tom Gilliland’s third book featuring recipes and art from the restaurant.
R.L. Stine sends a shiver down the spine of kids and those nostalgic for childhood fears with The Last Sleepover, the latest installment in his bestselling Goosebumps series. Peter Brown, author and illustrator of the Wild Robot series that’s captured the hearts and minds of kids and their parents, will share the picture book adaptation of his misfit tale The Wild Robot on the Island. Kiese Laymon, author of the award-winning memoir Heavy, presents his first foray into children’s writing with a lyrical picture book: City Summer, Country Summer.
Patricia Lockwood, a poet, essayist, and novelist whose recent, pertinent novels about illness and the internet have received critical acclaim, will also attend, as will renowned Native American horror fiction writer Stephen Graham Jones and romance novelists Katherine Center and Ali Hazelwood.
Amanda Johnston, the 61st Texas Poet Laureate and founder of Torch Literary Arts, will read from Praisesong for the People: Poems from the Heart and Soul of Texas, and Ada Limón, the first Latina Poet Laureate of the United States, will share her most recent collection, Startlement.
Texas Monthly fixture Skip Hollandsworth will share his latest collection of true crime stories with his homegrown audience, while Texas-raised, Tokyo-based queer novelist Bryan Washington returns to the state to promote his latest release, Palaver.
Michener graduates Rickey Fayne and Carrie R. Moore present their debut stories of Black Southern life. Their professor, skateboarding novelist Bret Anthony Johnston, will also represent Austin’s literary scene, accompanied by surrealist storyteller Fernando Flores, budding magical realism novelist Emily Hunt Kivel, and queer writer and editor Callie Collins.
Non-fiction Texan stories also find a home on TBF stages and panels, including Billy Perkins and Geoff Peveto’s Screen to Screen: The Poster Art of Austin City Limits, UT professor Peniel E. Joseph’s Freedom Season: How 1963 Transformed America’s Civil Rights Revolution, and Jim Harrington’s autobiographical The Texas Civil Rights Project: How We Built a Social Justice Movement.
Readings, panels, and special events – live illustrations and cookbook demonstrations, for example – fill the pages of this festival’s busy schedule. Between local author, press, and bookshop booths, readers of all kinds can find something to take home. In the heart of the heart of Texas, a plurality of voices from the state, the country, and beyond create a temporary anthology of this moment in literature.
“As we mark three decades of the Texas Book Festival, our work remains rooted in the belief that books build stronger communities,” TBF Literary Director Hannah Gabel says in a press release. “This year’s lineup showcases writers and stories that reflect the complexity of our world. As an organization that firmly supports the freedom to read without restriction or censorship, we’re proud to present a Festival program that emphasizes the power of literature to inspire, educate, and connect us.”
Texas Book Festival 2025 takes place Nov. 8-9 at the Capitol building and along Congress. Find the full author lineup at the TBF website.
