Join the Texas Book Festival for it’s 13th year hosting unconventional literary programming and games in a crawl through your favorite Austin bars! Lit Crawl will take place Saturday, November 11 from 7-10 pm in four East Austin bars: Daydreamer, Ginbar, Saddle Up and Vintage Bookstore & Wine Bar.
Vintage Bookstore & Wine Bar
(1101 E 11th Street, Austin, TX)
5:30 p.m. Lit Crawl Happy Hour. Start your Crawl right with a bookish happy hour to kick off festivities! Recharge from a day at the Fest while you catch up with friends and fellow readers.
7:00 p.m. TORCH Showcase presented by TORCH Literary Arts. TORCH featured authors and friends will read new works across poetry and memoir. Hosted by TORCH founder Amanda Johnston, this session will feature celebrated authors Cynthia Manick, Airea D. Matthews, Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton, Anastacia-Renee, and Safiya Sinclair. Torch Literary Arts is a 501(c)3 nonprofit dedicated to supporting Black women writers across the diaspora.
8:00 p.m. Noir at the Bar. A round of hip, hard-boiled, nitty-gritty noir readings by crime fiction authors. Participants will include Chandler Baker, David McCloskey, Mike McCrary, Amanda Moore, James Wade, and Ashley Winstead.
Gin Bar
(1813 E 6th St Austin, TX)
7:00 p.m. Literary Death Match. Four authors. Three judges. Two finalists. One champion. All kinds of hilarity in between. Hosted by Adrian Todd Zuniga, Literary Death Match participants will include Elise Hu, Ling Ling Huang, Kari Lavelle, Simon Sebag Montefiore, and Tori Pool.
8:30 p.m. Story Studio Chicago Presents Battle of the Genres. Hosted by Rebecca Makkai and featuring Andrew Sean Greer, Angie Kim, Andrew Porter, Héctor Tobar, and Laura Villareal.
Daydreamer
(1708 East 6th Street, Austin, TX)
7:00 p.m. American Short Fiction Presents Dear Buffalo. Receive answers to your greatest questions about life and love, straight from the pages of bold and fresh literary works. In this program, authors will offer advice to questions from ASF editorial staff and the audience by selecting (at random) quotations from their new or forthcoming books. Participating authors include Oksana Lutsyshyna, Greg Marshall, Chaitali Sen, Tyriek White, and Ada Zhang.
8:00 p.m. WLT Presents: Build a Story. For this one-of-a-kind event, join the Writers’ League of Texas and some of your favorite authors to build a story – sentence by sentence. Authors will respond to audience prompts (however serious, silly, or ridiculous) and craft a three act story in real time. What could go wrong? You won’t want to miss it! Hosted by Becka Oliver, special author guests include Jennifer duBois, Tonia Ransom, Dan Solomon, Stacey Swann, Jonny Garza Villa, and more!
Saddle Up
(1309 Rosewood Avenue, Austin, TX)
7:30 p.m. Austin Bat Cave Presents: Story Department. At this event inspired by The Moth, talented storytellers riff on a theme. Join us to hear Texas Book Festival authors tell true stories (no more than 10 minutes long) on the theme “Freedom to Read.” Hosted by Richard Z. Santos, featured authors include KB Brookins, Nick Flynn, Roger Reeves, Rachel Louise Snyder, and Luis Alberto Urrea.
8:30 p.m. Librotraficantes Presents: Banned Book Bash. Librotraficantes and allies flagrantly flout contraband prose from formerly banned books, currently banned books, or books so freakin’ good they are bound for banning in the future. This session will also feature words liberated from imaginations inspired by banned books. Hosted by Tony Diaz of El Librotraficante, participating Texas Book Festival authors include Jennifer de Leon, Alma García, Esmeralda Santiago, Diamond Braxton, Leticia Urieta and more!
As always, Lit Crawl Austin is free and open to the public! We keep on keepin’ on through the generosity of our community. Want to support the Texas Book Festival, Lit Crawl Austin, and our incredible authors?
Donate Today!
Other ways to help:
Buy Festival books through the official online TBF storefront at BookPeople! All titles featured at this year’s Texas Book Festival are available for sale on the TBF storefront. BookPeople donates a portion of all sales through this page and from our in-store display back to TBF. Hurray for independent bookstores!
Share the Festival with your community via social media and connect with us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter!
Lit Crawl Austin is a project of the Texas Book Festival and the Litquake Foundation.