Texas Book Festival

Results: The first Festival took place in November 1996 and is now one of the nation’s premier annual literary events, featuring more than 250 authors of the year’s best books and drawing 40,000 book lovers. Held each fall in and around the Texas State Capitol in downtown Austin, the annual Festival Weekend features a rich variety of author presentations and panels, book signings, cooking demonstrations, programs and activities for kids of all ages, food trucks, and exhibiting vendors from across the state and country. More than 50 volunteer committee chairs and 1000 volunteers help make the annual Festival possible. While remaining an important showcase for Texas authors, the annual Texas Book Festival hosts writers from all over the world and is honored to have a national reputation as one of the most prestigious and longest running book festivals in the country. Texas Book Festival also runs several impactful literary and literacy programs throughout the year and across the state. Since its founding, TBF has donated more than $3.6 million to Texas public libraries and donated more than 188,000 books to students in Title I schools through our Reading Rock Stars and Real Reads programs. Texas Book Festival also presents Lit Crawl Austin and year-round literary programming.

Direct beneficiaries per year: In 2024, we served 15,908 elementary school students at Title I schools across Texas through Reading Rock Stars and 941 adolescents through Real Reads. We helped 45 libraries expand their collections through a total of $112,500 in grants. We also helped 40,000+ Festival attendees meet 278 authors through 213 sessions during our annual Festival Weekend.

Programs: Texas Book Festival, Reading Rock Stars, Real Reads, Library Grants, Year-Round Literary Programming