AUSTIN — The 2018 Texas Book Festival weekend is Saturday and Sunday, October 27–28. The festivities get underway at 10 a.m. Saturday; Lit Crawl Austin rules Saturday night; and Sunday’s activities begin at 11 a.m. The festival is held in and around the grounds of the State Capitol Building; Lit Crawl Austin takes place in venues in and around East Cesar Chavez.

The Texas Book Festival is free and open to the public. One of the largest and most prestigious literary festivals in the country, the annual festival features nationally and critically recognized adult and children’s authors, more than one hundred exhibitors, local food trucks, family activities, and countless opportunities to meet authors and fellow book lovers. The festival is a nonprofit organization; all book sales at the festival support the two-day event and statewide school and library programs.

This year’s festival schedule features more than 280 renowned authors participating in panels, book signings, cooking demonstrations, children’s activities, and more. There’s something for everyone — adults, small children, middle graders, and teens — in nineteen genres, from sci-fi and fantasy to politics and poetry.

Saturday highlights include “Family Secrets” with Celeste Ng (Little Fires Everywhere) and Fatima Farheen Mirza (A Place for Us); “Stories (Un)told: Reporting on Family Separation and Immigration Policy,” presented by PEN America; “New Poets of Native Nations” with editor Heid Erdrich and contributors Tacey M. Atsitty, Sy Hoahwah, and Tommy Pico; and “The View from Space” with astronaut Scott Kelly.

Sunday highlights include Glory Edim, founder of the popular book club Well-Read Black Girl; “Puro Amor” with Sandra Cisneros; National Book Foundation Presents: An Afternoon with the National Book Awards, including finalists David Grann (Killers of the Flower Moon), Margaret Wilkerson Sexton (A Kind of Freedom), and Ibi Zoboi (American Street); and “Beneath the Surface” with YA authors Dhonielle Clayton and Ransom Riggs.

Children’s attractions include a mobile science museum, bilingual story time at the Latinx Lit Tent, the Next Chapter Tent for middle-graders, and a special presentation by this year’s winners of the Tomás Rivera Mexican American Children’s Book Award: Erika L. Sánchez, Celia C. Pérez, Xelena González, and Adriana Garcia. National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature Jacqueline Woodson will present her two new books, Harbor Me, her first middle-grade novel since Brown Girl Dreaming, and The Day You Begin, her new picture book. Girl Scouts can even earn a Texas Book Festival patch.

Click here for the schedule: https://www.texasbookfestival.org/schedule/ and here for updates to the schedule (they have thought of everything): https://www.texasbookfestival.org/updates-to-the-print-schedule/

The Texas Book Festival is a gargantuan undertaking, expecting 50,000 attendees this year at more than twenty venues.

Getting around

For a downloadable map of the festival grounds, click here: https://www.texasbookfestival.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/TXBF18_Grounds-Map_web.pdf

For a downloadable map of state parking made available for free during the festival, click here: https://www.texasbookfestival.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/18-REVISED-TBF-PUBLIC-BUS-BIKE-PARKING-MAP.pdf

Walk-in points of entry to festival grounds are located at: 8th Street and Congress, 11th Street and Congress, 11th Street and San Jacinto, 11th Street and Brazos, 12th Street and Colorado, and 13th Street and Colorado.

Watch for street closures—there will be many and will be posted on the festival’s website: www.texasbookfestival.org

Festival venues

The Capitol and its rules

It is a privilege for the festival to be allowed use of the capitol building. Please follow the rules; do not set anything on the desk tops if you sit at a lawmaker’s desk in the Statehouse Chamber; take no food and no drink with you. Leave your water bottle in your backpack or bookbag.

There are north, east, west, and south entrances to the Capitol. The south entrance facing 11th Street is always the busiest, so try another entrance if you see long lines—you can almost always slip right in the east side. Be aware that Department of Public Safety officers will be on duty at every entrance and you will be required to submit any bags you are carrying to the X-ray machines, and yourself to the metal detectors.

• Capitol Extension – E1 Map: https://www.texasbookfestival.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/TXBF18-Capitol-Floor-1.pdf
• Capitol Extension – E2 Map: https://www.texasbookfestival.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/TXBF18-Capitol-Floor-2-1.pdf
• Additional festival venues
• First United Methodist Church Sanctuary (1201 Lavaca Street—enter from Lavaca)
• The Contemporary Austin (700 Congress Avenue)
• See the 2018 schedule for tent locations.

Attending sessions

Remember that the early bird gets the worm. Seating at all venues is first come, first serve. Attendance at the majority of the sessions is standing-room-only if you arrive on time — or fifteen minutes early. Festival Friends Pass-holders have priority seating and signing access for Festival Friends-pass designated sessions. Here are the Friends Pass sessions: https://www.texasbookfestival.org/2018-festival-friends-pass-sessions/

A $100 donation will secure a Friends Pass here: https://www.texasbookfestival.org/festival-friends/

Book sales and signings

Book sales at the festival fund the festival weekend, the Reading Rock Stars program, and the library grants initiative.

All books by festival authors are available to purchase in one of the BookPeople sales tents. In order to join any signing line at the Texas Book Festival, a purchase must be made at the festival. A receipt from a BookPeople sales tent must be presented in the book-signing tents and at signing venues.

The festival allows attendees to bring one book from home to be signed, so long as at least one book is purchased in a BookPeople sales tent. This guideline varies from author to author, however, and depends on a variety of factors, including the length of the signing line, the amount of time an author has to sign books, and the signing guidelines given to us by the author’s publisher. The festival cannot guarantee that books brought from home will be signed. Volunteers at the signing venues will let attendees know whether additional books are permitted and whether photos are allowed. Generally, no memorabilia will be signed.

Exhibitors and food vendors

The exhibitors and food vendors at the Texas Book Festival feature a variety of booths for the literary shopper and local cuisine. Located around the festival grounds, exhibitor and food vendors operating hours are Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

There are more than one hundred 2018 exhibitors including Cinco Puntos Press, Deep Vellum Publishing, Half Price Books, Kinokuniya Bookstore, LA libreria books for children en Espanol, MacMillan Publishers, PEN America, Scholastic Book Clubs, Texas A&M University Press and the Texas Book Consortium, Texas Highways Magazine, Texas Tech University Press, Useful Wild Plants, Inc., and Undies for Everyone (You read that correctly).

2018 food vendors include Amy’s Ice Creams (I recommend the vanilla with fresh strawberry slices), Chilaquil Mexican Eatery, Heros Gyros, Linda Chan’s Concessions, PitaLicious Mediterranean Kitchen, Roppolo’s Pizzeria, and Wholly Cow Burgers, among other offerings.

Lit Crawl Austin

On Saturday, October 27, Lit Crawl Austin is celebrating its eighth year with a night of performances, games, trivia matches, and storytelling sessions. Everyone is welcome, and all events are free, though donations are encouraged.

The fun kicks off at 7:30 p.m. and the carrying-on carries on until?. Venues include Prohibition Creamery, Gelateria Gemelli, The North Door, Brew & Brew, Lewis Carnegie, and Stay Gold. Events include Oracular Spectacular, a Letterpress Workshop, Texas Observer Short Story Contest Reading, Literary Death Match, Noir at the Bar, and Friends of Space Squid Readings Plus (that’s right), among many other parties.

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