Politician and novelist Stacey Abrams, one of the first authors confirmed for this year’s Texas Book Festival, taking place Nov. 11-12 in downtown Austin. Credit: Photo by Kevin Lowry

Former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams has just been announced as one of the first authors to attend this fall’s Texas Book Festival, taking place Nov. 11-12 in the Texas Capitol Complex. However, it’s in her role as a thriller novelist, not a political activist and defender of civil rights.

Mr. Texas, the new novel by Lawrence Wright.

While Abrams was becoming famous as an elected official and gubernatorial candidate in Georgia, and writing political tomes including the best-sellingMinority Leader: How to Lead from the Outside and Make Real Change, she had a side hustle: writing romance novels under the nom de plume Selena Montgomery. Now she’s publishing fiction under her own name, having shifted into political thrillers with 2021’s While Justice Sleeps (currently being developed as a TV series by Working Title Films for Universal Pictures), and its recently published follow-up, Rogue Justice.

Of course, this being the Texas Book Festival, Texas authors will be present in abundance, including local luminary Lawrence Wright, who most recently turned his long gaze to the pandemic with The Plague Year: America in the Time of Covid. However, like Abrams, he’s steering away from real-world drama for his debut novel, Lone Star State political satire Mr. Texas.

Also present will be Austin author Elizabeth Crook, who had previously been announced as this year’s recipient of the Texas Writers Award. Meanwhile, best-selling author and physician Abraham Verghese (Cutting for Stone) will be on hand to discuss his newest novel, the Oprah’s Book Club-selected The Covenant of Water.

Here’s a glimpse of the 2023 lineup, which the organizers say will ultimately include over 250 authors.

• Stacey Abrams (Rogue Justice)

• Novelist Ann Patchett (The Dutch House, Bel Canto)

• Abraham Verghese (Cutting for Stone)

• Biographer Walter Isaacson (Steve Jobs, Elon Musk)

• Southern Noir novelist S.A. Cosby (Razorblade Tears)

• Curtis Sittenfeld (Romantic Comedy, Rodham, American Wife)

• Jacqueline Woodson (Brown Girl Dreaming)

• Andrew Sean Greer (How It Was for Me: Stories, The Confessions of Max Tivoli)

• Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give)

• Lawrence Wright (Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, & the Prison of Belief, The Looming Tower : Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11)

• Luis Alberto Urrea (In Search of Snow)

• Poet Roger Reeves (Dark Days: Fugitive Essays)

• Elizabeth Crook (The Which Way Tree)

• Horror and speculative fiction author Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (Chain-Gang All-Stars)

• Reporter Rachel Louise Snyder (No Visible Bruises: What We Don’t Know About Domestic Violence Can Kill Us)

• Children’s author and illustrator Vashti Harrison (Hair Love)

The Texas Book Festival runs Nov. 11-12 in downtown Austin. More info at texasbookfestival.org.

This article appears in July 28 • 2023.

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The Chronicle's first Culture Desk editor, Richard has reported on Austin's growing film production and appreciation scene for over a decade. A graduate of the universities of York, Stirling, and UT-Austin, a Rotten Tomatoes certified critic, and eight-time Best of Austin winner, he's currently at work on two books and a play.