MAJOR BOOK EVENTS BY MONTH

Use this calendar of recurring events and cultural emphases in Texas and those other states to plan ahead in your bookish life. We’ll add dates for each year as we learn of them.

January

• National Book Month
• National Book Week (third full week of January)
• Book Publishers Day (Jan. 16 annually)
• Pulpwood Queen’s Girlfriend Weekend (Nacogdoches, Jan. 12-15, 2017)
• Austin Book, Paper, & Photo Show

February

• Black History Month
• Lone Star Literary Life Birthday (Feb. 2 annually)
• ConDFW (Dallas)
• Texas Cowboy Poetry Gathering, Alpine (February)

March

• Women’s History Month
• Freedom of Information Day (March 16 annually)
• Children’s Picture Book Day (March 28 annually)
• Lone Star Literary Life’s Top Ten Texas Bookish Destinations (March 5 and March 12, 2017)

April

• National Poetry Month
• D.E.A.R., “Drop Everything and Read” Month
• National Library Week (April 9–15, 2017)
• International Children’s Book Day (April 2 annually)
• Children’s Book Day, El día de los niños/El día de los libros (Día) (April 30 annually)
• World Book Day (Shakespeare’s birthday, April 23 annually)
• Austin International Poetry Festival (April 6-9, 2017)
• Books in the Basin (Odessa, April)
• Poetry at Round Top (April)
• NETWO Spring Conference
• Houston Writers’ Guild Conference
• San Antonio Book Festival (Sat, April 8, 2017)
• Texas Institute of Letters Annual Meeting (April  8, 2017, El Paso)

• Texas Writers Month
• Children’s Book Week (May)
• National Independent Bookstore Day (April)
• O. Henry Pun-off (Austin)
• BookExpo America (New York, May 31–June 2, 2017)

• GLBT Books Month
• Bloomsday (James Joyce’s Ulysses, June 16 annually)
• CALF (Children’s Art & Literacy Festival), Abilene (June)
• Western Writers of America Convention (Kansas City, MO, June 21-24, 2017)
• Writers’ League of Texas Agents & Editors Conference (Austin, June)
• Annual Austin African-American Book Festival (June)
• International Christian Retail Show (June)
• Lone Star Literary Life’s Top Texas Summer and Beach Reads (June 4 and June 11, 2017)

• Writers’ League of Texas Summer Writing Retreat, Alpine (Alpine)
• Macondo Writers’ Workshop, San Antonio (July)

August

• East Texas Book Fest (Tyler, August)
• Flor de Nopal Literary Festival, Austin
• Texas Christian Writers’ Conference

September

• Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept. 15–Oct. 15 annually)
• Banned Books Week (last week of September annually; Sept. 25-Oct. 1, 2016)
• National Cowboy Symposium and Celebration, Lubbock 9second weekend in September annually)
• Permian Basin Writers’ Workshop, Midland (Sept. 16–17, 2016)
• West Texas Book Festival,  Abilene (Sept. 19-24, 2016)
• NF 4 NF: Nonfiction for New Folks Writing Conference for Nonfiction Children’s Writers (Rosenberg, Sept. 22-25)

October

• LGBT History Month
• National Friends of Libraries Week (late October annually)
• Teen Read Week (third week of October annually)
• Texas Teen Book Festival, Austin
• Houston LibroFEST, October
• North Texas Book & Paper Show (Grapevine)

November

• Native American Heritage Month
• National Novel Writing Month
• University Press Week (November 14–19, 2016)
• Texas Book Festival, Austin Austin (Nov. 5–6, 2016)
• Shop Small: Small Business Saturday (Nov. 26,  2016)

December

• World AIDS Day (Dec. 1 annually)