Literary Programs Year-Round / November 16-17 Festival

Author: Matthew Patin

2022 Book Sales & Signings

By Matthew Patin on

BOOK SALES

All Festival books will be available across two BookPeople Sales Tents: 

Main (Adult) Sales Tent (Adult and YA)
Children’s Sales Tent (Picture Book and Middle Grade)

Books will also be available for sale on-site for the specific sessions held at: 

First United Methodist Church
First Baptist Church
Central Presbyterian Church

Books for these sessions will also be available in the corresponding BookPeople Sales Tents.

BOOK SIGNING SCHEDULE

Book signings begin 15 minutes after the author’s session concludes. Full signing schedule available at the Festival. 

Book signings for Capitol and outdoor tent sessions will take place in one of two Book Signing Tents: 

Main (Adult) Signing Tent (Adult and YA) – Signing schedule available here!
Children’s Signing Tent (Picture Book and Middle Grade) – Signing schedule available here!

Books signings will be held on-site for specific sessions happening at: 

First United Methodist Church
First Baptist Church
Central Presbyterian Church

Book Signings Policy

To be signed, books must be purchased from one of the Festival’s Book Sales Tents, the First United Methodist Church, the Central Presbyterian Church, or the First Baptist Church. One pre-owned book may be brought for signing. We cannot guarantee that every author’s guidelines will allow pre-owned books to be signed. Book Dealers are not allowed to bring books into the Book Signing Tent. Stealers with rolling carts and/or wagons are not allowed on the Festival grounds.

Book sales at the Festival fund the Festival weekend, our Reading Rock Stars program, and our Library Grants initiative. They also support authors! Support the Festival – buy books!

2022 Texas Writer Award Recipient: Elizabeth McCracken

By Matthew Patin on

The Texas Book Festival awards the Texas Writer Award each year to a Texas author who has made a significant contribution to the literary arts. Previous recipients include Tim O’Brien, Sarah Bird, Sandra Cisneros, Steven Weinberg, Attica Locke, and Pat Mora.

This year, we are honored to name Elizabeth McCracken—award-winning novelist and short story writer, a National Book Award finalist, and Fiction Chair at the Michener Center for Writers—as the recipient of the 2022 Texas Writer Award.

We asked Elizabeth—whose new book The Hero of This Story is her eighth published full-length work—about moving to Texas, her favorite Texas Book Festival memories (she’s been coming for more than twenty years), and her love for Barton Springs Pool.

Where did you grow up?

I’m a New Englander, born and mostly bred right around Boston, though I spent some of my childhood in Portland, Oregon, and my sixth year in London.

What brought you to Austin and Texas?

I came to Austin nearly thirteen years ago to take a job teaching at the University of Texas, the first full-time, permanent teaching job I’ve ever had. Before that, I and my family were fairly itinerant—we came from Iowa City, were in Cambridge, Massachusetts before that. Edward Carey, my ball & chain, and I also spent stints in France, Denmark, Berlin, and Ireland.

Do you remember your first time at the Texas Book Festival?

I first came to the Festival in 2001. I landed during some historic thunderstorms and flooding, though I didn’t know they were historic then, only that they were terrifying and large. I remember hearing Joseph Ellis speak at the [First Edition Literary Gala]—I don’t know how I scored a ticket to the Gala and a plus one (I took my best friend from high school, Marguerite) but it was fantastic.

What are some of your most salient memories from attending the Festival in years past?

Hearing Max Porter and Paul Lisicky . . . two tall, tender men talking about grief. [Or] Colonizing a fancy bathroom at the authors’ party with Eimear McBride.  My favorite memory [was interviewing] Tim O’Brien, who I love, in one of the big historical legislative rooms [at the Capitol], and I only asked him questions about our mutual obsession, magic, and how it intersected with writing. I had a wonderful time. I think some of the people in the audience who were expecting to hear him talk about war were confused.

How, if at all, has living in Texas/Austin influenced your writing, your characters, your stories?

Texas has just started creeping into my work—I’ve written a story set in Austin, one in Galveston, and the narrator of my latest book lives in Austin. Probably the biggest influence: before I got here I had no sense, really, of how being from a state could affect how you think about yourself as a writer. Texan writers talk about being Texan. Writers from Massachusetts (we don’t even have an adjective) don’t, so much. Or at least I didn’t. I like that sense of region that living in such a distinct place—a place whose inhabitants think about all the time—has given me and my work.

What’s a secret about Barton Springs Pool that most people don’t know about?

Barton Springs feels like nothing but secrets to me. It’s what keeps me getting up at 5:00 a.m. to go there: I will never know everything about it. I am partial to the fact that when people jump in wearing perfume, I can smell and taste it.

Nelson DeMille presents THE MAZE – Saturday, November 5, 10:30 a.m.

By Matthew Patin on

WHO: Nelson DeMille, #1 NYT bestselling author
WHAT: Speaking about new novel The Maze
WHERE: Texas Book Festival, Central Presbyterian Church, 200 E. 8TH ST., Austin, TX 78701
WHEN: Saturday, November 5 at 10:30 a.m. (doors at 10:00)

BOOK TICKET: $37  |  Each book ticket includes one copy of The Maze, priority seating at the session, and access to the book-signing/personalization line. Proceeds from book ticket sales support the annual Festival, as well as our year-round programs.

PRIORITY SEATING: Priority seating for book ticket holders will open at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, November 5.

GENERAL SEATING: A limited amount of general open seating will be available to the public on a first come, first serve basis, no purchase necessary. General seating will open at 10:20 a.m. and is available until the venue is full.

SIGNING/PERSONALIZATION. DeMille will also sign or personalize books for up to an hour in person after he speaks. Additional books will be available for sale at the venue.

ASL INTERPRETATION. ASL interpretation will be provided for this session. Please check the schedule for other sessions with ASL interpretation and contact bookfest@texasbookfestival.org with any questions.

Get your book tickets to see DeMille here.

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The Texas Book Festival is thrilled to announce we’re hosting #1 New York Times bestselling author Nelson DeMille with his newest book The Maze, a thriller featuring his most popular series character, former NYPD homicide detective John Corey, called out of retirement to investigate a string of grisly murders much too close to home. DeMille’s session will take place Saturday, November 5 at 10:30 a.m. at the Central Presbyterian Church in downtown Austin.

Book tickets to see this bestselling author are available now, and each book ticket includes one copy of The Maze and grants access to priority seating and the signing line. Proceeds from book ticket sales support the annual Festival, as well as our year-round programs.

Reserve your seat and copy of The Maze here.

ABOUT THE MAZE

In his dazzling #1 bestseller, Plum Island, Nelson DeMille introduced readers to NYPD Homicide Detective John Corey, who we first meet sitting on the back porch of his uncle’s waterfront estate on Long Island, convalescing from wounds incurred in the line of duty. A visit from the local Chief of Police results in the legendary Detective Corey becoming involved in the investigation of the murders of a married couple who were scientists at the top-secret biological research facility on Plum Island.

Fast forward through six more bestselling John Corey novels and The Maze opens with Corey on the same porch, but now in forced retirement from his last job as a Federal Agent with the Diplomatic Surveillance Group. Corey is restless and looking for action, so when his former lover, Detective Beth Penrose, appears with a job offer, Corey has to once again make some decisions about his career—and about reuniting with Beth Penrose.

Inspired by, and based on the actual and still unsolved Gilgo Beach murders, The Maze takes the reader on a dangerous hunt for an apparent serial killer who has murdered nine—and maybe more—prostitutes and hidden their bodies in the thick undergrowth on a lonely stretch of beach.

As Corey digs deeper into this case, which has made national news, he comes to suspect that the failure of the local police to solve this sensational case may not be a result of their inexperience and incompetence—it may be something else. Something more sinister.

ABOUT NELSON DEMILLE

Nelson DeMille is the New York Times bestselling author of twenty-one novels, six of which were #1 New York Times bestsellers. His novels include The Deserter (written with Alex DeMille), The Cuban Affair, Word of Honor, Plum Island, The Charm School, The Gold Coast, and The General’s Daughter, which was made into a major motion picture, starring John Travolta and Madeleine Stowe. He has written short stories, book reviews, and articles for magazines and newspapers. Nelson DeMille is a combat-decorated US Army veteran, a member of Mensa, Poets & Writers, and the Authors Guild, and past president of the Mystery Writers of America. He is also a member of the International Thriller Writers, who honored him as 2015 Thriller Master of the Year. He lives on Long Island with his family.

Jacques Pépin presents ART OF THE CHICKEN – Saturday, November 5, 1:00 p.m.

By Matthew Patin on

UPDATE: This session is currently sold out!

WHO: Jacques Pépin, culinary legend
WHAT: Speaking about new book Jacques Pépin Art of the Chicken: A Master Chef’s Paintings, Stories, and Recipes of the Humble Bird
WHERE: Texas Book Festival, Central Presbyterian Church, 200 E. 8TH ST., Austin, TX 78701
WHEN: Saturday, November 5 at 1:00 p.m. (doors at 12:30)

BOOK TICKET: $37  |  Each book ticket includes one copy of Art of the Chicken, priority seating at the session, and access to the book-signing/personalization line. Proceeds from book ticket sales support the annual Festival, as well as our year-round programs.

PRIORITY SEATING: Priority seating for book ticket holders will open at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, November 5.

GENERAL SEATING: A limited amount of general open seating will be available to the public on a first come, first serve basis, no purchase necessary. General seating will open at 12:50 p.m. and is available until the venue is full.

SIGNING/PERSONALIZATION. Pépin will also sign or personalize books for up to an hour in person after he speaks. Additional books will be available for sale at the venue.

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The Texas Book Festival is thrilled to announce we’re hosting sixteen-time James Beard Award winner Jacques Pépin with his newest book Jacques Pépin Art of the Chicken, a book celebrating his lifelong love of chickens, featuring dozens of his celebrated paintings and more than 50 recipes, along with a treasure trove of poignant and often humorous stories. Pépin’s session will take place Saturday, November 5 at 1:00 p.m. at the Central Presbyterian Church in downtown Austin.

Book tickets to see this legendary chef are available now, and each book ticket includes one copy of Art of the Chicken and grants access to priority seating and the signing line. Proceeds from book ticket sales support the annual Festival, as well as our year-round programs.

Thank you to Villa Albertine, our partner at the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs for their support.

Reserve your seat and copy of Art of the Chicken here.

ABOUT ART OF THE CHICKEN

Chicken may not be a fancy or extravagant ingredient, but for master chef Jacques Pépin, it is the one he turns to regularly. In this beautifully illustrated book, Jacques reminisces on his life through the lens of the humble bird, from his childhood in rural France, where he chased chickens and watched as his maman turned them into her poulet à la crème, to his demanding apprenticeship and long, illustrious career—cooking Chicken Chasseur for Charles de Gaulle and his family, turning down a chance to work as JFK’s White House Chef for a job at Howard Johnson’s, and appearing on television alongside food-world luminaries like Julia Child. Throughout are Jacques’ favorite chicken and egg recipes, conveyed as if he were sharing them over a dinner table. Most significantly, the book displays dozens of Jacques’ stunning paintings of chickens. “If it clucks or scratches, it’s likely that Jacques has painted it.” This unique little book is the next best thing to a visit to Jacques’ home, which would include a tour of his art studio, captivating conversation as he cooks, and a toast with a glass of wine over a simple meal of perfect roast chicken.

ABOUT Jacques Pépin

The winner of sixteen James Beard Awards and author of over 30 cookbooks, including The Apprentice, Essential Pépin, and Jacques Pépin Quick & Simple, Jacques Pépin is a chef, author, television personality, educator, and artist, and has starred in 12 acclaimed PBS cooking series. His dedication to culinary education led to the creation of the Jacques Pépin Foundation in 2016.

ABOUT Villa Albertine

Created by the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, and supported by the French Ministry of Culture, Villa Albertine offers a novel artists’ residency model in which residents choose the location best suited to their work within the host country. With a permanent presence in 10 major US cities, it aims to foster in-depth exploratory residencies for artists, thinkers, and culture professionals hailing from all creative disciplines. In its inaugural year, Villa Albertine will host 80 residents for one- to three-month customized residencies.

Janet Evanovich presents GOING ROGUE – Sunday, November 6, 2:30 PM

By Matthew Patin on

We’re proud to announce we’re hosting author Janet Evanovich, “the most popular mystery writer alive” (NYT) and author of 42 New York Times bestsellers, as she presents her new novel, Going Rogue, on Sunday, November 6 at 2:30 p.m., at the 2022 Texas Book Festival. With Going Rogue, the mega-bestselling author returns with the latest book in her massively popular Stephanie Plum series.

Book tickets to see this beloved author present are now available! Each book ticket includes one copy of Going Rogue, admits one person with priority signing line access. Proceeds from book ticket sales support the annual Festival, as well as our year-round literacy programs.

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WHO: Janet Evanovich
WHAT: Speaking about Going Rogue
WHERE: Texas Book Festival, First Baptist Church, 901 Trinity St., Austin, TX 78701
WHEN: Sunday, November 6 at 2:30 PM (doors at 1:45 p.m.). A book signing session will follow the event, on site at the First Baptist Church. Please plan to arrive by 1:45 p.m.

BOOK TICKET: $37 Includes one copy of Going Rogue and admission to the session. Ticket holders’ copies of Going Rogue will be distributed at the event. A book signing session will immediately follow the event.

SEATING: Seating for book ticket holders will open at 1:45 PM on Sunday, November 6. Book tickets are required to attend this session. Please plan to arrive by 1:45 p.m.

REFUND POLICY: Refunds can be requested through Eventbrite until Friday, October 21, 2022.

Buy tickets today!

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A Q&A with Janet Evanovich

Why did you write your new book, Going Rogue? What was your inspiration? Where did the idea start? 

This is a continuing series, so the start-up process is slightly different from writing a single title. Characters, setting, and author voice are already determined. Inspiration comes from the desire to entertain and communicate with a lot of people in a positive way. I begin by asking myself ‘what would grab the reader’s attention on the first page and keep them reading to the end of the book’? In this case it was to put someone in jeopardy. I also wanted to have some of the sexiness of earlier books show up in this book. Especially with Ranger who is a fan-favorite character 

What’s the last book you read, loved, and can’t stop recommending? Why is it so good?

I don’t read a lot of fiction because it interferes with my own writing. I read cookbooks. I’m a cookbook junkie. And I can’t cook. I’m very good at eating, but I’m truly lousy at cooking. Somebody Feed Phil the Book just came out and it’s terrific. It’s taken from one of my very favorite television shows, Somebody Feed Phil.  Phil Rosenthal makes me happy. I don’t know him personally, but he makes me happy all the same. And I love him for that.  The cookbook and the television show are all about family, friends, food, travel and laughs. Yes, Phil is funny! He restores my faith in humanity and the food chain.  

What’s the first book you remember reading? Who gave it to you?

I always read comic books, but the first real book I remember was Heidi. My mom read a couple chapters to me every night. It was a dreary, depressing story about a little girl who was forced to walk up a mountain while she was wearing her entire wardrobe. I guess because she didn’t have a backpack or a suitcase or an ATV. Then she was left with a grouchy old man who was a total stranger. And she had to live with him and some goats or sheep on this mountain. At least that was my five-year-old take on it. It’s a wonder I ever read another book. The next book that I remember was The Black Stallion by Walter Farley. I loved it!   My Aunt Jean gave it to me for my birthday. After that she gave me a horse book for every holiday and birthday and they’re among my fondest childhood memories. For years I galloped and whinnied everywhere pretending I was a horse.

Praise for Janet Evanovich

“Janet Evanovich is the crown princess of detective fiction” —BookPage

“Among the great joys of contemporary crime fiction.” —GQ

“A blast of fresh air.” —the Washington Post

“The most popular mystery writer alive.” —Sam Tanenhaus, the New York Times

About Janet Evanovich

Over the last twenty-six years, Janet Evanovich has written a staggering forty-two New York Times bestsellers. In addition to her #1 bestselling Stephanie Plum novels and many other popular books, Janet is the author of The Recovery Agent, the start of a blockbuster new series.

Sneak Peek: 15 authors coming to TBF 2022

By Matthew Patin on

The Texas Book Festival is excited to unveil fifteen authors joining the 27th anniversary Festival Weekend this fall on November 5–6.

The Festival will feature Screen Actors Guild Award recipient and nine-time NAACP Image Award winner Omar Epps, GMA Book Club Pick author and Women’s Prize finalist Angie Cruz, Texas literary legend and author of seventy-three New York Times bestsellers Sandra Brown, Pulitzer Prize finalist and Guggenheim Fellow biologist David George Haskell, NYT bestselling children’s author-illustrator and Caldecott medalist Michaela Goade, and many more.

The Festival, returning in person November 5–6 after two years of virtual and hybrid programming, will include a sizable list of impressive literary talent for readers of all ages. The full lineup, still in development, will be completed and revealed in September. See the full press release.

Order your copies of these authors’ books today! Final all of the sneak peek authors’ books at BookPeople.

The list of the fifteen sneak peek authors includes:

Vishwesh Bhatt, I Am From Here: Stories and Recipes from a Southern Chef
Sandra Brown, Overkill
Sandra Cisneros, Woman Without Shame: Poems
Angie Cruz, How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water
Erin Entrada Kelly, Those Kids from Fawn Creek
James Kirchick, Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington
Omar Epps, Nubia: The Awakening
Sidik Fofana, Stories from the Tenants Downstairs
Michaela Goade, Berry Song
Xochitl Gonzalez, Olga Dies Dreaming
David George Haskell, Sounds Wild and Broken: Sonic Marvels, Evolution’s Creativity, and the Crisis of Sensory Extinction
Elizabeth McCracken, The Hero of This Book
Matt de la Peña, Patchwork
Mary Laura Philpott, Bomb Shelter: Love, Time, and Other Explosives
Roger Reeves, Best Barbarian: Poems

Book Tips and Sips at Ani’s Day & Night

By Matthew Patin on

Join Texas Book Festival and spring 2022–published Austin authors Dalia Azim and Juli Berwald for our first free, public, in-person event of the year!

We’re bringing together Central Texas readers and members of the literary community for a casual conversation about books—classics, new releases, fiction, and nonfiction—we’re eager to add to our to-be-read shelves this spring. Come gather with us at the Ani’s Day & Night patio on Wednesday, April 13 at 6 p.m. for book recommendations, community, and delicious cocktails available for sale from the Ani’s bar.

No reservations required, but if you RSVP via the form below, you’ll be entered into a drawing to receive complimentary signed copies of Dalia’s and Juli’s new books plus two drink tickets.

Book swap: Bring a book you loved and want to share, add it to the swap, and take home a new read of your own!

Copies of Dalia’s and Juli’s new books for sale on-site courtesy of BookPeople!

Speakers: 

Dalia Azim, Country of Origin (Deep Vellum / A Strange Object, 3/15/22)

Dalia’s work has appeared in American Short Fiction, Aperture, Columbia: A Journal of Literature and Art, Glimmer Train (where she received their Short Story Award for New Writers), Other Voices, Alcalde, and Sightlines, among other publications. She serves on the board of Austin Bat Cave—a literary community and writing workshop center—and is the manager of special projects at the Blanton Museum of Art. She graduated with a dual degree in art and literature from Stanford University and grew up in Canada and Colorado.

Juli Berwald, Life on the Rocks (Riverhead, 4/5/22)

Juli, a Texas Book Festival alum, received her Ph.D. in Ocean Science from the University of Southern California. The author of Spineless and a science textbook writer and editor, she has written for a number of publications including the New York Times, Nature, National Geographic, and Slate.

Moderator: TBF Literary Director Matt Patin

Tips & Sips RSVP

  • RSVP

 

Ani’s Day & Night is located at 7107 E Riverside Drive in Austin.

We love putting together free programming in support of authors and readers here in Texas. If you believe in strengthening a love of literature and keeping arts programming free and open to the public in Texas, please consider supporting the Texas Book Festival. 

New Year Check-in with Lit Director

By Matthew Patin on

Dear reader,

With the new year having arrived, we at the Texas Book Festival are in a mood both reflective and forward-looking.

I, for instance, am thinking of the waist-high iron fence that hugs the ledge between Waller Creek and downtown Austin’s Symphony Square, where in October we held children’s storytime sessions at our first hybrid Festival. Each time a presenter entered the amphitheater, I would alert them to the ledge, the fence, the watery depths below. Be careful, I’d implore, my mind riddled with premonitions of ugly slips and falls.

I was exercising far too much caution. After all, the well-tread space has existed calamity-free for decades. But afterward two thoughts preoccupied me. The first was some navel-gazing about where this excessive prudence of mine had sprung. Perhaps it was an inheritance from my late grandmother—the mere notion of us driving in the rain filled her with terror.

My second thought was in fact more a feeling, a dormant but familiar one: the thrill of experiencing the details in‑person again. Transporting items from one spot to another, conducting sound checks, ensuring a just-so placement of chairs and tables and signage, escorting authors from here to there, guiding crowds, watching a book browsed and bought and signed, and yes, minding the gap, so to speak—things alien to us since 2019 but retrieved with like-riding-a-bike muscle memory.

Caution and the excitement of experiencing, safely, familiar activities once more: it’s an emotional admixture many of us are feeling. And whereas the precise shape of Fest 2022 this fall will ultimately depend on one new variant or another, we choose, for now, to begin the year with hope and optimism: we’ll be in downtown Austin again, on our traditional footprint, November 5–6. Save the dates. We hope to see you there.

Happy new year,

Matthew Patin

Literary Director

ICYMI: TBF 2021 Session Recordings Available for Replay!

By Matthew Patin on

We’re currently remastering all of 2021’s virtual session recordings, but meantime did you know you can watch the original recordings of more than 100 sessions—across all genres and age groups—right now?

It’s as easy as:

  1. Going to the Festival Schedule
  2. Clicking the Rewatch Stream button on any session you’d like
  3. Clicking the Watch Replay button in CrowdCast and using your email to get access

Then, if the session doesn’t start right away, just scroll forward in the video a bit to get past the opening slides.

For the Children’s Program, simply click the Rewatch Stream button to be taken directly to the YouTube video!

 

 

 

Don’t Miss: Fearless and Provocative

By Matthew Patin on

The Fontaine Archive in Austin, Texas, houses the works and letters of painter Paul Fontaine and of Wisconsin-born Virginia Fontaine, a World War II–era denizen of the German art scene and a collaborator with the Jewish underground. Information scientist, former board chair of Austin literary nonprofit Austin Bat Cave, and Paul and Virginia’s daughter Claudia Fontaine Chidester collects in Trusted Eye: Post-World War II Adventures of a Fearless Art Advocate a treasure of photography and personal letters that together paint a richly detailed portrait of her mother Virginia’s life, both during the war and afterward. With Dave Hickey and His Art, journalist Daniel Oppenheimer pens the first definitive biography of Fort Worth–born art critic Dave Hickey, once dubbed by the Guardian as “the enfant terrible of art criticism” for his candid, uncompromising takes on modern art and in particular the art establishment. Join Chidester and Oppenheimer as they talk about two figures who decided to live their lives, and loudly, in artworld.

  • Moderator: Michael Hall, Texas Monthly executive editor
  • Format: This is a live, virtual event on CrowdCast (RSVP link below).
  • Chat: Feel free to use the chat box in CrowdCast to share your thoughts and virtually cheer for and share kudos with the session’s participants! Disorderly comments will be removed immediately. Please refer to the code of conduct.
  • Book(s): Books are available through BookPeople. Your purchase helps support the author(s), independent bookselling, and the Texas Book Festival. Thank you.

RSVP