We are thrilled to reveal the 2019 Texas Book Festival author lineup! Our 2019 Festival lineup features a diverse array of topics, genres, and writers, including acclaimed poets, illustrators, and bestselling authors of both fiction and nonfiction.
As one of the largest literary festivals in the country, we are proud to showcase both national and Texas authors, including debut and bestselling writers, renowned chefs, beloved children’s illustrators and authors, and more.
Join us for the 24th annual Texas Book Festival on October 26-27, and help us inspire all Texans to love reading!
See all 300+ authors here!
Among the acclaimed authors scheduled to appear at TBF this October is New Orleans native Sarah M. Broom, who will present her critically acclaimed debut memoir, The Yellow House. Having grown up in New Orleans East, Broom takes us through the history of New Orleans as seen through her family’s past and her iconic childhood home.
TV personality, James Beard Award-winning chef, and cookbook author Aarón Sánchez will present his memoir, Where I Come From: Life Lessons From a Latino Chef, which offers an intimate look into the chaotic and unorthodox life of a professional chef and television personality. Sánchez is known for judge appearances on FOX’s hit culinary competition series MasterChef and has co-starred on Food Network’s Chopped and Chopped Junior.
New York Times bestselling author, historian, and leading antiracist voice Ibram X. Kendi, whose nonfiction book Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America won the National Book Award for Nonfiction, will present his most recent work, How to Be an Antiracist. Kendi leads readers through a widening circle of ideas, weaving a combination of ethics, history, law, and science with his own personal story, asking readers to think about what an antiracist society might look like, and how we can play an active role in building it.. His work has appeared in the New York Times, The Guardian, Washington Post, London Review, and Time.
Jami Attenberg will present her new novel, All This Could Be Yours, a timely, piercing exploration of family secrets and the web of a toxic patriarch. Attenberg is the author of seven books of fiction, including The Middlesteins, which appeared on the New York Times bestseller list and was published in ten countries.
Award-winning author of The Things They Carried and former reporter for the Washington Post, Tim O’Brien will present his most recent work, Dad’s Maybe Book, in which he shares wisdom from a life of letters, lessons learned in wartime, and the challenges, humor, and rewards of raising two sons. O’Brien was awarded the 1979 National Book Award for his bestseller Going After Cacciato and won the Pritzker Literature Award for lifetime achievement in military writing.
Former US Ambassador to the United Nations and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Samantha Power will present her most recent work, The Education of an Idealist: A Memoir, which traces Power’s distinct American journey from her childhood in Dublin to the streets of war-torn Bosnia to the White House Situation Room. Powers is a leading global voice on human rights and international affairs, as she served four years as President Barack Obama’s human rights advisor and eventually served in his Cabinet.
Chris Ware, award-winning cartoonist, novelist, and contributor to The New Yorker, will present Rusty Brown, a graphic novel that features a young Nebraska boy and his obsession with superheroes. The story depicts the melancholic, yearning thoughts of Midwestern characters moving through realities shared and cloistered. Ware also created Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth and Building Stories, which won the Guardian First Book Award and was listed as one of the 100 Best Books of the Decade by the Times (London) in 2009.
James Beard Award-winning chef of Houston’s Underbelly Hospitality and cookbook author Chris Shepherd will present Cook Like a Local: Flavors That Can Change How You Cook and See the World, where he shares the names of the cooks who have inspired him and teaches readers how to respectively and creatively work with flavors and cultures of Vietnamese, Korean, Indian, and others. Shepherd will present in the Central Market Cooking Tent.
National Book Award finalist and New York Times bestselling author Laurie Halse Anderson will present Shout, a searing and soul-searching poetic memoir inspired by her groundbreaking novel Speak that advocated for survivors of sexual assault. Shout shares Anderson’s personal reflections and calls to action denouncing our society’s failures, and it is also a love letter to all the people with the courage to say #metoo and #timesup.
Hailed by Publisher’s Weekly as “one of the most anticipated books of fall 2019,” Jaquira Díaz will present her debut, Ordinary Girls: A Memoir, which will be published this October. Ordinary Girls recounts Díaz’s childhood in Puerto Rico and Miami, along with her bumpy transition from girlhood to womanhood. Diaz is the recipient of two Pushcart Prizes and two MacDowell Colony Fellowships, among other honors. Her work appears in The Best American Essays 2016, Rolling Stone, Tin House, New York Times Style Magazine, and elsewhere.
See all 300+ authors presenting at the 2019 Texas Book Festival
