Texas Book Festival announces 2021 lineup featuring nearly 200 authors for hybrid event

AUSTIN, TX – The Texas Book Festival is excited to announce the lineup for its annual festival featuring nationally renowned authors, including Chandler Baker, Oscar Cásares, Ann Cleeves, Tamron Hall, Nathan Harris, Louis Menand, Sam Quinones, and more.

As one of the largest literary festivals in the country, the 26th annual Texas Book Festival is expanding its hybrid festival dates with additional virtual programming on October 23 and 24. The nine-day event will kick off on October 23 and run through October 31 and will feature both virtual and limited in-person author appearances. Attendees of the festival are now able to see which authors will have virtual or in-person sessions on Texas Book Festival’s website, and the full schedule will be released online in early October.

New York Times bestselling author of the feminist thriller Whisper Network, Chandler Baker, will present her second novel, The Husbands, the story of a successful attorney and hardworking mother who goes the extra mile to take care of her family. The Husbands is being adapted into a feature film starring Kristen Wiig.

Austin-based Oscar Cásares, author of the story collection Brownsville, named a Notable Book of 2004 by the American Library Association, will participate in a panel centered on Nepantla Familias: An Anthology of Mexican American Literature on Families in Between Worlds, an anthology to which he contributed. Nepantla Familias brings together Mexican American essays, poems, and short stories that will immerse readers in the complexities between cultures with traditional and shifting identities.

Ann Cleeves, the award-winning author of the Vera and Shetland series, both of which have been adapted into hit TV shows, will present The Heron’s Cry. The bestselling author’s newest book is an extraordinary follow-up to The Long Call in the Two Rivers series, also in the works to be a major TV series. Cleeves’ books have been translated into twenty languages.

Emmy Award-winning TV host, journalist, and Texan Tamron Hall will present her debut novel and the first book in her thrilling Jordan Manning fiction series, As the Wicked Watch, a story in which a reporter unravels the disturbing mystery around the deaths of two Black girls, the work of a serial killer terrorizing Chicago.

Michener Center for Writers graduate Nathan Harris will present his debut novel and Oprah Book Club pick, The Sweetness of Water, a historical page-turner about social friction so powerful it ignites a whole town. The unforgettable novel captures the life-changing alliance of two freedmen brothers and a Georgia farmer. Harris is the recipient of the Kidd Prize and was a finalist for the Tennessee Williams Fiction Prize.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Louis Menand will present his Metaphysical Club follow-up, The Free World: Art and Thought in the Cold War, which tells the story of American culture in the pivotal years from World War II to Vietnam and shows how changing economic, technological, and social forces put their mark on creations of the mind. Menand is the Lee Simpkins Family Professor of Arts and Sciences and the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of English at Harvard University, where he also holds the title Harvard College Professor in recognition of his teaching. Additional books written by Menand include Pragmatism, Discovering Modernism, and American Studies.

Sam Quinones, journalist and international award-winning author of four books of narrative nonfiction, will present The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth, an inspiring response to his New York Times bestseller Dreamland. His latest book chronicles the terrifying stages of the opioid epidemic through Quinones’ travels across the U.S., where he discovers how addiction is exacerbated by consumer-product corporations. Quinones is a 2008 recipient of the Maria Moors Cabot Prize for a career of excellence in covering Latin America and a 1998 recipient of an Alicia Patterson Fellowship, one of the most prestigious fellowships given to print journalists.

“All through this challenging year, the festival has been ready to adapt and do what it takes to make sure we deliver on our mission to connect authors and readers,” says Texas Book Festival Executive Director Lois Kim. “I’m so proud of our staff and the whole ecosystem of authors, publishers, booksellers, and readers who are so committed to keeping books a vibrant and necessary part of our lives.”

The 2021 hybrid festival lineup features nearly 200 authors, illustrators, poets, journalists, artists, chefs, and thought leaders across a diverse array of genres and topics. The festival will also showcase previously announced authors Rumaan Alam, Sandra Cisneros, Mary Gaitskill, R. J. Palacio, Raj Patel, Amor Towles, Colson Whitehead, and more.

Angeline Boulley, Benjamin Alire Sáenz, and Neal Shusterman will headline the 2021 Texas Teen Book Festival, taking place online on October 23 and 24. The TTBF lineup also includes David Bowles, Jennifer Lynn Barnes, Candace Buford, Hafsah Faizal, Jennifer Mathieu, Lilliam Rivera, Tracy Wolff, and more.

Children’s authors and illustrators in the full lineup include Gloria Amescua, Kathi Appelt, Adrianna Cuevas, K.A. Holt, Oliver Jeffers, Varian Johnson, Jon Scieszka, and Steven Weinberg, Nicholas Solis, and Don Tate.

Virtual children’s programming will run the weekend of October 23 and October 24, and select in-person appearances by picture book authors will take place at Symphony Square in downtown Austin on Saturday, October 30.

Virtual adult author programming will run from October 25 to 31, 2021, with select in-person sessions at Austin Public Library Main Branch on Sunday, October 31.

“This year has kept us on our toes,” says Texas Book Festival Literary Director Matthew Patin. “Some ideas were scrapped, some dusted off and revisited, some reimagined entirely—pandemic-era hybrid planning in a nutshell. The ultimate result is something Texans can be proud of: a rich lineup, a stellar virtual program available to anyone anywhere, and select in-person author appearances at convenient venues, including literary institution Austin Public Library.”

Texas authors featured at this year’s festival include Jeff Abbott, Kate Biberdorf, H. W. Brands, Ellen Riojas Clark, May Cobb, Carrie Fountain, Cassy Joy Garcia, Dolores Huerta, Priya Huq, Elizabeth McCracken, Bill Minutaglio, Juan Miró, Tomás Q. Morín, Jarrett and Jerome Pumphrey, Divya Srinivasan, S. Kirk Walsh, Lawrence Wright, and many more.

The festival continues to be free and open to the public thanks to generous sponsors and dedicated volunteers. The 2021 hybrid Texas Book Festival is co-presented by H-E-B and AT&T. Other major sponsors include Brigid Cockrum and Family, Kirkus Reviews, Tocker Foundation, Tapestry Foundation, Texas Monthly, Buena Vista Foundation, Still Water Foundation, BookPeople, Central Market, Austin American-Statesman, Pentagram, Jordan Foster Construction, St. David’s HealthCare, and Loewy Law Firm.

With a vision to inspire Texans of all ages to love reading, the Texas Book Festival connects authors and readers through experiences that celebrate the culture of literacy, ideas, and imagination.

Founded in 1995 by former First Lady Laura Bush, Mary Margaret Farabee, and a group of volunteers, the nonprofit Texas Book Festival promotes the joys of reading and writing through its annual Festival Weekend, the Texas Teen Book Festival, the Reading Rock Stars Title I elementary school program, the Real Reads Title I middle and high school program, grants to Texas libraries, and year-round literary programming.

This year’s hybrid Texas Book Festival will take place from October 23 through October 31, with virtual events October 23–31 and the Festival Weekend taking place at the Austin Public Library and Symphony Square’s outdoor amphitheater on October 30–31, featuring renowned authors, panels, book signings, and activities. Thanks to generous donors, sponsors, and volunteers, the Festival remains free and open to the public.

Visit www.texasbookfestival.org for more information, and join the conversation using the hashtag #txbookfest on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @texasbookfest.