2024 Texas Book Festival
AT THE CONTEMPORARY AUSTIN – JONES CENTER
The Texas Book Festival, the largest book event in Texas and one of the premier literary Festivals in the nation, returns for its 29th year on November 16–17 in downtown Austin! Free and open to all, attendees can look forward to a star-studded lineup of more than 275 authors, engaging programming for all ages, book signings, food trucks, cooking demonstrations, and a Saturday night Lit Crawl in East Austin. Learn more at www.texasbookfestival.org.
No advance registration is needed to attend the panels, which are free and open to walk-ins. Please note that seating is limited, and attendees will be turned away once the community room reaches capacity so be sure to arrive early to secure your spot!
Programming Schedule:
Saturday, November 16
12:45pm – 1:30pm: Queen: The Art of Drag in Portraits
Book: Queen
Author: Aaron Jay Young
Moderator: Phillip Townsend
Book Signing: 1:45pm
About: Aaron Jay Young discusses the four years of work that culminated in his luminous new book Queen, a collection of more than 100 portraits that capture the beauty, talent, and remarkable personalities of drag.
1:45pm – 2:30pm: Writing Beyond Your Experience: Crafting Authentic Diverse Characters
Book: Writing an Identity Not Your Own: A Guide for Creative Writers
Author: Alex Temblador
Moderator: Becka Oliver
Book Signing: 2:45 pm
About: Writers won’t want to miss this one! Alex Temblador discusses Writing an Identity Not Your Own: A Guide for Creative Writers, her practical handbook for crafting authentic characters with historically marginalized identities and the importance of getting it right.
Sunday, November 17
1:30pm – 2:15pm: Earth, Memory & The Art of Connection
Books: A Natural History of Empty Lots: Field Notes from Urban Edgelands, Back Alleys, and Other Wild Places, DIG: Notes on Field and Family
Authors: Christopher Brown, Sarah Wilson
Moderator: Raymond Brimble
About: Join Sarah Wilson and Christopher Brown as they explore the connections between people, places, and nature. In DIG: Notes on Field and Family, Wilson reflects on her relationship with her grandfather through the lens of geology, merging personal history with the timelessness of the Texas landscape through photographs. In A Natural History of Empty Lots, Brown recounts his efforts to rewild an empty lot in Austin, exposing the resilience of nature amidst urban decay. Both authors’ books demonstrate how our surroundings can shape our identities and how we can find beauty and hope in forgotten places.
2:45pm – 3:30pm: The Narrative of Photography: Documenting War and Survival
Books: Borrowed Time: Survivors of Nazi Terezín Remember, Witness to War: Mexico in the Photographs of Walter Elias Hadsell
Authors: Dennis Carlyle Darling, Susan Toomey Frost
Moderator: Roj Rodriguez
Book Signing: 3:45 pm
About: Authors Dennis Carlyle Darling and Susan Toomey Frost will discuss the art of capturing memory and war through first-hand accounts from survivors in their latest photography books, Borrowed Time: Survivors of Nazi Terezín Remember and Witness to War: Mexico in the Photographs of Walter Elias Hadsell. In Borrowed Time, Darling captures intimate and striking portraits of the last Holocaust survivors from the German concentration camp and ghetto at Terezín, returning to sites filled with devastating memories and contradictions to immortalize important stories. Meanwhile, Witness to War recounts a young American photographer’s journey through Mexico to document deteriorating U.S.-Mexico relations at the border as Mexico veered into revolution in the early 1900s.
About Texas Book Festival
Texas Book Festival connects authors and readers through experiences that celebrate the culture of literacy, ideas, and imagination. Our annual Festival features more than 250 authors of the year’s best books and attracts 40,000 book lovers, and we also produce impactful programs across the state year-round.
