The Texas Book Festival had a lot of entertainment and an exciting line up on their schedule including a special Antone’s Music Stage, author panels, lit crawl, kid’s activities and more. The 2017 schedule featured 300 renowned authors, panels, book signings, live music, cooking demonstrations, children’s activities, and more. The 2017 Texas Book Festival Weekend took place on November 4 and 5 on the grounds of the Texas Capitol. The Texas Book Festival connects authors and readers through experiences that celebrate the culture of literacy, ideas, and imagination.
The 2017 Texas Book Festival was co-presented by H-E-B and AT&T. Other major sponsors include Brigid Cockrum and family, Kirkus Reviews, Texas Monthly, the Tocker Foundation, C-SPAN2/Book TV, Buena Vista Foundation, St. David’s HealthCare, Texas Capital Bank, Pentagram, Central Market, and the Austin American-Statesman.
Schedule highlights on Saturday, Nov. 4, included:
10 to 10:45 a.m., I’m Judging You: A Conversation with Luvvie Ajayi
Award-winning writer and 13-year blogging veteran Luvvie Ajayi is known for her razor-sharp wit and she takes on all things pop culture, race, media, and technology. Her debut book, I’m Judging You: The Do Better Manual shot to the bestseller list. This series of humorous essays dissects our cultural obsessions and calls out bad behavior in our increasingly digitally-connected lives. Join her as she passes on lessons and side-eyes on life, addressing everything from those terrible friends we all have to serious discussions of race and media representation to what to do about your fool cousin sharing casket pictures from Grandma’s wake on Facebook.
Author: Luvvie Ajayi
Moderator: Maya Perez
Location: Omni Ballroom
12 to 12:45 p.m., Falsehoods, Forgeries, and Fake News: Sorting Bunk from Brilliance
How did “fake news” come to dominate headlines before, during, and after the 2016 presidential election? How do we, as constant consumers of news, sort bunk from brilliance? Culture critic Kevin Young (Bunk: The Rise of Hoaxes, Humbug, Plagiarists, Phonies, Post-Facts, and Fake News) and campaign journalist Jared Yates Sexton (The People Are Going to Rise Like the Waters Upon Your Shore) discuss the roots and rise of “fake news” and the forces shaping our perspectives of politics and reporting.
Authors: Kevin Young, Jared Yates Sexton
Moderator: Brian Sweany
Location: C-Span2/BookTV Tent
1 to 1:45 p.m. Da Vinci’s Life and Work: A Conversation with Walter Isaacson
Leonardo da Vinci was history’s most creative genius. Based on thousands of pages from Leonardo’s astonishing notebooks and new discoveries about his life and work, Walter Isaacson, historian and author of the acclaimed bestsellers Steve Jobs, Einstein, and Benjamin Franklin weaves a narrative that connects his art to his science. Join him as he sits down with Kirkus Reviews Editor in Chief Clay Smith to discuss da Vinci’s work and how, like talented misfits and rebels in any era, we can learn to think differently.
Author: Walter Isaacson
Moderator: Clay Smith
Location: House Chamber
1:45 to 2:30 p.m., Cuba Rising: New Books About Cuba for Kids
Join Cuban-American authors Emma Otheguy (Martí’s Song of Freedom) and Margarita Engle (Forest World), the national Young People’s Poet Laureate, for a celebration of Cuban stories in verse! From the courageous work of beloved Cuban poet José Martí to the island’s vibrant ecology and modern life, Otheguy and Engle share Cuban history, life, and culture through a beautiful, poetic lens.
Authors: Margarita Engle, Emma Otheguy
Moderator: Elda Acevedo Estefania
Location: Next Chapter Tent
2 to 2:45 p.m., Be Fierce: Stand Up, Speak Up, Be Empowered
When Gretchen Carlson, news anchor, journalist, and former co-host of Fox and Friends, spoke up about sexual harassment in the workplace, she moved to empower women to become warriors in the path for a better future. She’ll sit down with new Texas Monthly Executive Editor Kathy Blackwell to share her own experiences as well as powerful and moving stories from women in many different careers and fields who decided they, too, weren’t ready to shut up and sit down.
Author: Gretchen Carlson
Moderator: Kathy Blackwell
Location: First United Methodist Church
2 to 2:45 p.m. American Wolf: Survival and Obsession in the West
A modern story of survival and conservation is playing out in Yellowstone National Park. Join Texas Monthly writer-at-large Nate Blakeslee as he shares the riveting, real-life story of O-Six, an intelligent, ferocious, charismatic alpha female leading a pack of wolves in an environment that challenges her on all fronts. The multigenerational wolf saga chronicled in Blakeslee’s new book, American Wolf, calls into stark relief the larger clash of values in the West and the nation as a whole.
Author: Nate Blakeslee
Moderator: Stephen Harrigan
Location: Texas Tent
2:15 to 3 p.m. Queso Power
Oh, queso, how do we love thee? The answer is simple: a lot, in every possible way. And we love that Homesick Texan Lisa Fain has written a whole book of recipes in queso’s honor, Queso! Join Lisa as she demonstrates the versatility of our favorite good time (or anytime) food. It isn’t a party in Texas without queso!
Author: Lisa Fain
Moderator: Melanie Haupt
Location: Central Market Cooking Tent
2:30 to 3:15 p.m., Black Poets Speak Out
Black Poets Speak Out was launched to rally poets and allies to respond to police violence and injustice. In a brief time, hundreds of poetry videos were posted and shared internationally across social media outlets. Cofounders Amanda Johnston and Mahogany L. Browne and 2017 Pulitzer Prize winner for Poetry Tyehimba Jess will read their work and discuss poetry as a vehicle for communication, education, and change during the time of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Authors: Amanda Johnston, Mahogany Browne, Tyehimba Jess
Location: House Chamber
Schedule highlights Sunday, Nov. 5, included:
11 to 11:45 a.m., Bad Moods, Be Gone!
Feeling grumpy? Want to turn that frown upside down? What?! Don’t you think you can smile? Well, march yourself down to the Capitol Auditorium, where the one and only Lemony Snicket will prove through the deft use of his delightful and beautifully illustrated new book that it is, indeed, possible to move our grumps out of the way and get right on with our beautiful day.
Author: Lemony Snicket
Location: House Chamber
12:30 to 1:30 p.m., Diversity, and Desire in Romance
Looking for stories to make your breath quicken and your heart pound? Well, leave those tried-and-true bodice-rippers on the shelf, and join us for a steamy, swoon-worthy session with authors Sherry Thomas, Alisha Rai, Cat Sebastian, and Mia Sosa, moderated by Cathy Maxwell. These all-star writers of modern and historical love will discuss how their new novels reflect real life, showcase diversity along with desire, and make you believe in happily ever after again.
Authors: Sherry Thomas, Alisha Rai, Cat Sebastian, Mia Sosa
Moderator: Cathy Maxwell
Location: Omni Hotel Ballroom
1 to 1:45 p.m., A Conversation with Jennifer Egan
Jennifer Egan, the Pulitzer-Prize winning author of A Visit from the Goon Squad, talks with Story Prize-winning writer Elizabeth McCracken about Manhattan Beach, Egan’s new (and first) historical novel. Longlisted for the National Book Award for Fiction, the novel follows a woman who becomes the first female driver at the Brooklyn Navy Yard during World War II as she falls into a world of gangsters, sailors, divers, bankers, and union men.
Moderator: Elizabeth McCracken
Location: House Chamber
2 to 2:45 p.m., Devour This: Night Vale Comes to TBF
The authors and creators of the #1 international podcast Welcome to Night Vale are at TBF to talk with Jonny Sun about their new page-turning mystery about science, faith, love, and belonging, set in a friendly desert community where ghosts, angels, aliens, and government conspiracies are commonplace parts of everyday life. Welcome to Night Vale, y’all…
Authors: Jeffrey Cranor, Joseph Fink
Moderator: Jonny Sun
Location: First Baptist Church
2 to 2:45 p.m., The Roots of Racism: America’s Divide
America’s racial divide is woven into our country’s history. The issues we’re confronting today—racial profiling, the criminal justice system, the long lineage of white rage—are nothing new. Carol Anderson, the author of the National Book Critics Circle Award-winning book White Rage, and Angela J. Davis, editor of the essay collection Policing the Black Man, frame the forces opposed to black progress in America in a discussion on the issues that drive our racial divide.
Authors: Carol Anderson, Angela J. Davis
Location: C-Span2/Book TV Tent
3 to 3:45 p.m. Forces at Work: Contemporary Stories of the Border
In gripping new books, journalists Lauren Markham (The Far Away Brothers), Melissa del Bosque (Bloodlines), and Roger Hodge (Texas Blood) share riveting and nuanced new stories from the border. They examine the lives of young men who fled violence for a new life in America, a family that has ranched on the Texas borderlands for generations, and the depths of the type of organized crime forcing people to flee. Join them as they discuss the kaleidoscopic forces at work on both sides of the border.
Authors: Lauren Markham, Melissa del Bosque, Roger Hodge
Moderator: James Barragán
Location: C-Span2/Book TV Tent
New this year is Antone’s Stage sponsored by the Clifford Antone Foundation, which will feature more than ten local music acts and will be located on 11th Street at Colorado Street. The full schedule for the stage is below:
Saturday, November 4
11 a.m., Brad Stivers
12 p.m., Lindsay Beaver & The 24th Street Wailers
1 p.m., Jabo & The Old Dogs
2 p.m., Bill Carter
3 p.m., Matthew Robinson & The Jelly Kings
4 p.m., Red Young & His Hot Horns
Sunday, November 5
12 p.m. WhoDo
1 p.m., Ted Roddy and his One Man Trio
2 p.m., Don Leady’s Tail Gators
3 p.m., Tommy Shannon Blues Band
4 p.m., Miss Lavelle White & The L Men
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