The Free Festival Presents Award-Winning and Bestselling Authors: Hanif Abdurraqib, Lauren Groff, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Becky Albertalli and more
Festival Features Local, Regional and National Authors
The San Antonio Book Festival is excited to announce its 2024 author lineup, which includes nearly 100 notable local, regional, and national authors who will be participating in the Festival and several related events. This year’s Festival lineup includes nationally renowned authors such as Hanif Abdurrraqib, Lauren Groff, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Becky Albertalli, and more. The free Festival will take place Saturday, April 13, 2024 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Central Library and UTSA Southwest Campus in downtown San Antonio.
The annual San Antonio Book Festival is a free family-friendly event with a full day of author presentations, panel discussions, book sales, signings, children and teen activities, and food trucks.
A full schedule of Festival sessions will be released in late March.
The festival caters to readers of all ages with plenty of picture books, early reader, middle grade and young adult titles. Joining the festival this year is children’s author Chris Barton, who will be promoting his latest book on a controversial subject: glitter. The book, Glitter Everywhere! Where It Came From, Where It’s Found & Where It’s Going, dives deep into the good and the bad when it comes to the sparkly substance. Xelena González and Adriana M. Garcia will read from Remembering, in which a family remembers their beloved pet dog through the traditions of Día de Muertos.
For older kids, the festival will also feature the works of middle grade authors like Rachel Renée Russell and Pedro Martín. Rachel Renée Russell and her daughter, Nikki Russell, are the author and illustrator duo behind the popular Dork Diaries series, and will present Dork Diaries 15: Tales from a Not-So-Posh Paris Adventure. Pedro Martín’s book, Mexikid, is a graphic memoir about a Mexican American boy’s family and their adventure-filled road trip to bring their abuelito back from Mexico.
“The Book Festival line-up is guaranteed to entertain and enlighten,” says SABF Literary Director Anna Dobben. “There are all kinds of books, from picture books to young adult novels, romance to horror. We can’t wait to hear the compelling, fun, and thought-provoking stories from our featured authors!”
Families with small children can plan to spend the entire day at the Book Festival. In addition to all of the author presentations intended for kids (like an illustrator sketch off!), there will be a free performance by Magik Theatre, interactive activities by a handful of local nonprofits such as the DoSeum, and H-E-B, the children’s area sponsor, will provide complimentary snacks.
Some of the young adult authors participating in this year’s festival include award-winning authors David Bowles and Guadalupe García McCall who collaborated on the book Secret of the Moon Conch—a sweeping fantasy romance about falling in love despite all odds. Darcie Little Badger joins the festival to promote Sheine Lende, a mystery novel about search-and-rescue missions.
A wide range of authors from throughout Texas will be joining the festival this year, including Pulitzer Prize winner Tim O’Brien with his novel, America Fantastica, a satire that follows a disgraced journalist on a criminal road trip through a myth-addled nation; Lawrence Wright, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, with his hilarious send-up of the state’s politics, Mr. Texas; recent Texas Writer Award recipient Elizabeth Crook with her new novel, The Madstone, a literary epic of Texas; Pulitzer Prize finalist S. C. Gwynne with his latest book His Majesty’s Airship: The Life and Tragic Death of the World’s Largest Flying Machine, a history of the rise and fall of the world’s largest zeppelin; and West Texas native LaToya Watkins with her National Book Award-honored short story collection, Holler, Child.
Numerous authors will represent the festival’s host city and county, including Jenny Browne with Texas, Being: A State of Poems, which collects over 40 poems about the beautiful and brutal state, Carmen Tafolla author of Warrior Girl, and Kazu Kibuishi with his latest book, Waverider – Amulet #9, the thrilling conclusion to the #1 New York Times bestselling fantasy series about a young girl that discovers a sentient amulet and is tasked with saving the world.
“On April 13, we are throwing a party for pages! We have a stellar lineup, filled with literary talent, and there will be compelling discussions relating to both national and local conversations,” said SABF Executive Director Lilly Gonzalez. “In a city with many festivals, this one is different—a free, family-friendly event designed to motivate all ages to get excited about books and reading.”
