Texas Book Festival

[4] As an organization, Texas Book Festival aims to inspire Texans of all ages to love reading through its mission to connect authors and readers through experiences that celebrate the culture of literacy, ideas, and imagination.

The festival was initially created to benefit the state's public library system, promote the joy of reading, and honor Texas authors.

[citation needed] This black-tie event is the premier social gathering in Central Texas that brings together literary luminaries, dignitaries, and cultural arts supporters.

Past gala speakers include Sandra Cisneros, Dan Rather, Jacqueline Woodson, Abraham Verghese, Ann Patchett, Laura Bush, Margaret Atwood, Celeste Ng, James McBride, and other leading voices.

Previous headlining authors have included Margaret Atwood, Colson Whitehead, Tom Hanks, Sonia Sotomayor, Amor Towles, Malcolm Gladwell, Roxane Gay, Stacey Abrams, John Grisham, Susan Orlean, Ann Patchett, Nick Hornby, and Walter Isaacson.

[9] The 2023 festival hosted a record[citation needed] 330 authors including Pulitzer Prize winners Héctor Tobar, Andrew Sean Greer, Michael Cunningham and Lawrence Wright; National Book Award winners Jacquline Woodson, Tim O'Brien and Neal Shusterman; and many bestselling and critically-acclaimed authors like Stacey Abrams, Roxane Gay, Ann Patchett, Abraham Verghese, Curtis Sittenfeld, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, S. A. Cosby, Ali Hazelwood, Steve Inskeep, Rachel Renée Russell, Esmeralda Santiago, Luis Alberto Urrea, Jonathan Lethem, Nikkolas Smith, Ingrid Rojas Contreras and Steven Rowley.