The San Antonio Book Festival (SABF) is excited to announce its 2024 author lineup, which includes nearly 100 notable local, regional, and national authors who will be participating in the festival. This year’s lineup includes nationally renowned authors such as Hanif Abdurraqib, Lauren Groff, Steve Inskeep, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Becky Albertalli and more. The free festival will take place Saturday, April 13, 2024 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Central Library and UTSA Southwest Campus in downtown San Antonio.

The 12th annual San Antonio Book Festival is a free, family-friendly event that draws anywhere from 15,000 to 20,000 festival goers to downtown San Antonio for a full day of author presentations, panel discussions, book sales, signings, children and teen activities, and food trucks. SABF showcases debut authors and established writers, introducing attendees to new literary talents and connecting them with their favorite authors. All festival writers can be found at sabookfestival.org. 
 

“The Book Festival line-up is guaranteed to entertain and enlighten,” says SABF Literary Director Anna Dobben. “There are all kinds of books, from picture books to young adult novels, romance to horror. We can’t wait to hear the compelling, fun, and thought-provoking stories from our featured authors!”

The SABF team is thrilled to welcome award-winning and bestselling authors to the festival, including Hanif Abdurraqib, a MacArthur “Genius” recipient and a National Book Award Finalist. His latest book, There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension, is a poignant, personal reflection on basketball, life, and home. Three-time National Book Award Finalist and New York Times-bestselling author Lauren Groff will also participate in this year’s festival. Her latest novel, The Vaster Wilds, is a thrilling adventure story about one colonial servant girl’s escape and survival in the wilderness. Longtime NPR Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep will present Differ We Must: How Lincoln Succeeded in a Divided America, which examines the president’s success in uniting a divided country. 
 

Bestselling author Silvia Moreno-Garcia is also participating in this year’s festival. The author of Mexican Gothic and Gods of Jade and Shadow is known for her striking stories that range from fantasy to horror to historical fiction and beyond. Her latest book, Silver Nitrate, is a dark thriller about a curse that haunts a legendary lost film and how it comes to impact one woman’s life. The festival will also feature young adult author Becky Albertalli, best known for her novel Simon vs The Homosapiens Agenda and its film adaptation, Love, Simon. Her latest novel, Imogen, Obviously, is an engaging love story with a focus on personal identity.
 

The festival caters to readers of all ages with plenty of picture books, early reader, middle grade and young adult titles. Joining the festival this year is children’s author Chris Barton, who will be promoting his latest book on a controversial subject: glitter. The book, Glitter Everywhere! Where It Came From, Where It’s Found & Where It’s Going, dives deep into the good and the bad when it comes to the sparkly substance. Xelena González and Adriana M. Garcia will read from Remembering, in which a family remembers their beloved pet dog through the traditions of Día de Muertos. 

For older kids, the festival will also feature the works of middle grade authors like Rachel Renée Russell and Pedro Martín. Rachel Renée Russell and her daughter, Nikki Russell, are the author and illustrator duo behind the popular Dork Diaries series, and will present Dork Diaries 15: Tales from a Not-So-Posh Paris Adventure. Pedro Martín’s book, Mexikid, is a graphic memoir about a Mexican American boy’s family and their adventure-filled road trip to bring their abuelito back from Mexico. 
 

Families with small children can plan to spend the entire day at the Book Festival. In addition to all of the author presentations intended for kids (like an illustrator sketch off!), there will be a free performance by Magik Theatre, interactive activities by a handful of local nonprofits such as the DoSeum, and H-E-B, the children’s area sponsor, will provide complimentary snacks. 
 

Some of the young adult authors participating in this year’s festival include award-winning authors David Bowles and Guadalupe García McCall who collaborated on the book Secret of the Moon Conch—a sweeping fantasy romance about falling in love despite all odds. Darcie Little Badger joins the festival to promote Sheine Lende, a mystery novel about search-and-rescue missions. 

A wide range of authors from throughout Texas will be joining the festival this year, including Pulitzer Prize winner Tim O’Brien with his novel, America Fantastica, a satire that follows a disgraced journalist on a criminal road trip through a myth-addled nation; Lawrence Wright, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, with his hilarious send-up of the state’s politics, Mr. Texas; recent Texas Writer Award recipient Elizabeth Crook with her new novel, The Madstone, a literary epic of Texas; Pulitzer Prize finalist S. C. Gwynne with his latest book His Majesty’s Airship: The Life and Tragic Death of the World’s Largest Flying Machine, a history of the rise and fall of the world’s largest zeppelin; and West Texas native LaToya Watkins with her National Book Award-honored short story collection, Holler, Child. 

Numerous authors will represent the festival’s host city and county, including Jenny Browne with Texas, Being: A State of Poems, which collects over 40 poems about the beautiful and brutal state, and Kazu Kibuishi with his latest book, Waverider - Amulet #9, the thrilling conclusion to the #1 New York Times bestselling fantasy series about a young girl that discovers a sentient amulet and is tasked with saving the world. 
 

“On April 13, we are throwing a party for pages! We have a stellar lineup, filled with literary talent, and there will be compelling discussions relating to both national and local conversations,” said SABF Executive Director Lilly Gonzalez. “In a city with many festivals, this one is different—a free, family-friendly event designed to motivate all ages to get excited about books and reading.”

The full author lineup can be viewed HERE. Locally owned and operated bookstore Nowhere Bookshop will be the Festival’s official bookseller. Book sales and signings will all happen at the Nowhere Bookshop tent in the Festival Marketplace (UTSA Southwest Campus parking lot). To learn more about the Festival, visit sabookfestival.org/.