The Texas book festival is almost here! The annual festival returns to the ATX area on October 26^th -27^th, 2019 and will feature a full slate of events including panel discussions, book signings, readings, cooking demonstrations and so much more!

Held on the grounds of the Texas State Capitol, the Texas Book Festival is the place to be for intellectual stimulation and fun since there will also be plenty of exhibitor booths, food vendors and things of interest for people of all ages.

Panel Discussions to Look Forward To

• In the Hands of Our Hubris: Human Behavior in the Face of Climate Change

Building mansions up to the edges of coastlines, disrupting the deserts for oil—short-term human goals consistently come up against the obvious and ongoing effects of climate change. In their new books, bestselling author and conservationist Terry Tempest Williams (Erosion), Pulitzer Prize-winner Gilbert Gaul (The Geography of Risk), and journalist Nathaniel Rich (Lost Earth) examine human hubris in the face of our environment’s increasingly drastic cries for help—and its threats if our behavior doesn’t change. Cirrus Logic STEM track.
Author(s): Gilbert Gaul, Terry Tempest Williams, Nathaniel Rich
Moderator: Juli Berwald, author of Spineless

Location: C-Span2/BookTV Tent

Time: 11 a.m. to 11:45 a.m.

• Modern Royalty in Romance

Bad boy princes, the Queen’s private secretary, and a love affair between the Prince of Wales and the First Son warm up the pages of new romance novels by Alyssa Cole (the Reluctant Royals series), Jasmine Guillory (Royal Holiday), and Cassy McQuiston (Red, White, and Royal Blue). What is it about royal love stories that make for such compelling romance? Join these authors as they discuss the allure of the crown and the regal desires spinning in the centers of their new books.

Author(s): Alyssa Cole, Jasmine Guillory, Cassy McQuiston

Location: Capitol Extension Room 2.030

Time: 11:15 a.m. to 12 p.m.

• What Can We Do? Actions to Help the Crisis at the Border

Children in detention centers, ICE raids in cities across the country—what can we do in the face of these enormous issues? Immigration lawyer J. J. Mulligan Sepúlveda (No Human Is Illegal) and professor William Lopez (Separated) share specific actions we can take.
Author(s): J. J. Mulligan Sepúlveda, William Lopez
Moderator: Joy Diaz, Texas Stander Producer, KUT

Location: NA

Time: 1:30 p.m. to 2:15 p.m.

• The Education of an Idealist: Samantha Power in Conversation

Heralded by President Obama as one of America’s “foremost thinkers on foreign policy,” Pulitzer Prize-winner Samantha Power, who served as Obama’s human rights adviser and was named US Ambassador to the United Nations, traces her journey from immigrant to war correspondent to presidential Cabinet official. Join her as she shares her unique experience navigating the halls of power while trying to put her ideas into practice.

Author(s): Samantha Power

Location: C-Span2/BookTV Tent

Time: 2 p.m. to 2:45 p.m.

• Truth and Toxicity: Fictional Accounts from the Underbelly of Unreliable Narrators and the Aftermath of Awful Men

The movement to root out toxic patriarchy in our culture has opened up a vital dialogue about the gray areas of truth, trust, and how we know what to believe. New novels by Jami Attenberg (All This Could Be Yours) and Susan Choi (Trust Exercise) take on the murky territory of manipulation, memory, community, and toxic men, exercising the form of the novel to demonstrate how complicated the conversation becomes—and how important it is to have it.
Author(s): Jami Attenberg, Susan Choi

Moderator: Stephanie Noll, Senior Lecturer at Texas State University

Location: Capitol Auditorium

Time: 2 p.m. to 2:45 p.m.

• Penguin Classics Presents: What Makes a Classic? Writing a New Canon

What makes a classic book a “classic”? Join Elda Rotor, Vice President and Publisher of Penguin Classics, as she talks with novelist Andrea Lawlor, YA author LL McKinney, and TBD about what qualifies certain books for the classics shelf, those books that may have been overlooked as “classics,” and the kind of literature coming out today that has the lasting power of a classic.

Author(s): Andrea Lawlor, LL McKinney, T Kira Madden

Moderator: Elda Rotor, Vice President and Publisher of Penguin Classics

Location: Capitol Extension Room 2.010

Time: 230 p.m. to 3:15 p.m.

• Finding Their Power: Novels of Female Community and Autonomy

Women forging communities in the face of oppression, patriarchy, and violent history are at the center of new novels by Lara Prescott (The Secrets We Kept) and Carolina De Robertis (Cantoras). From CIA typists-turned-spies during the Cold War to lesbians defining themselves against a militaristic government in 1977 Uruguay, Prescott and Robertis have created characters who find power during tumultuous and oppressive periods of history.

Author(s): Lara Prescott, Carolina de Robertis

Moderator: Dalia Azim, Manager of Special Projects, Blanton Museum of Art

Location: Capitol Extension Room 2.028

Time: 3:30 p.m. to 4:15 p.m.

• Toni Morrison: A Celebration

The legacy of Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Toni Morrison, author of such fundamental works to the literary canon as Beloved and The Bluest Eye, is deeply felt this year as we mourn her passing. Join writers Sarah M. Broom (The Yellow House), Saeed Jones (How We Fight For Our Lives), and Namwali Serpell (The Old Drift) as they remember and celebrate Morrison’s life and singular work.
Author(s): Sarah M. Broom, Saeed Jones, Namwali Serpell
Moderator: Jennifer Wilkes, Associate Professor in English and in African and African Diaspora Studies at the University of Texas at Austin

Location: Capitol Auditorium

Time: 3:45 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Schedule highlights on Sunday, Oct. 27 include:

• Fiction of La Frontera — And What Comes After

The lives of immigrants finding themselves in America and those with their eyes set on a new future over the border are at the center of new fiction by Sergio Troncoso (A Peculiar Kind of Immigrant’s Son) and Gabino Iglesias (Coyote Songs). Taking different approaches to the experiences of people living at la Frontera and beyond, Troncoso and Iglesias employ intimacy and grit in portraying the journeys, hopes, and desires of their characters before and after they cross the border.
Author: Sergio Troncoso, Gabino Iglesias
Moderator: Jorge Gomez
Location: Texas Tent

Time: 12 p.m. to 12:45 p.m.

• Sunrise/Sunset: Remembering the Life and Work of Bill Wittliff

Bill Wittliff is one of our greatest Texas writers and filmmakers. We were deeply saddened by his passing earlier this year and are grateful for the tremendous body of work he created in his lifetime. Today, his friends and colleagues come together to celebrate his work, including his new book of solar photography, Sunrise/Sunset.

Author(s): William Broyles Jr., Elizabeth Crook, Stephen Harrigan, John Spong

Moderator: Steven L. Davis, Literary Curator of the Wittliff Collections

Location: Capitol Auditorium

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