This weekend marks the 14th annual Texas Book Festival, an event that hosts more than 200 authors and more than 45,000 visitors to Austin.
The festival promises two days chock-full of author readings, panel discussions, book signings and musical entertainment at the Capitol.
The festival’s impressive roster of writers this year will have bibliophiles drooling.
Starting alphabetically from Austinite Jeff Abbott, author of the novel “Trust Me,” and ending with UT alumna Gwendolyn Zepeda, author of the novel “Houston, We Have a Problema,” the book festival coordinators have invited nationally recognized, Texas-savvy and otherwise compelling authors for the weekend.
To help you sort through the overwhelming array of possibilities, please find below a few writers and events we recommend.
Jonathan Safran Foer and Jonathan Lethem have more in common than their first names. Both writers live in New York City, pen fiction often set in New York and are scheduled to appear at the book festival.
Foer, author of “Everything is Illuminated” and “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close,” will be at the festival to promote his new book, “Eating Animals,” in which he addresses the complications of eating meat while still loving and owning animals.
Foer will appear in a panel with authors Jason Sheehan, James E. McWilliams and Novella Carpenter discussing the “tasty, and nasty, politics of food” Sunday at 2 p.m. in the House Chamber at the state Capitol.
Lethem, author of “Motherless Brooklyn” and “The Fortress of Solitude,” is promoting his new novel, “Chronic City.” He is also known for The Promiscuous Materials Project, which offers the rights to 17 of his short stories to be made into short films or one-act plays for $1 each. Lethem will appear with Robert Olen Butler, Jim Crace and David Eagleman on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. in the state Capitol’s Senate Chamber.
A couple of perennial Austin attendees are Kinky Friedman, promoting his book “Kinky’s Celebrity Pet Files” in the music tent Saturday, and photographer Dan Winters, who will give a talk about his photographs of celebrities, scientists, architects and everyday Americans at the Austin Museum of Art on Sunday at 2 p.m.
Barbecue enthusiasts should know that Wyatt McSpadden will discuss about his new photography book, “Texas BBQ,” Saturday at 12:30 p.m. at the Austin Museum of Art.
The festival is free and open to the public. For those interested in getting their books signed, many authors will oblige.
Fifteen minutes after the end of their scheduled talks, the writers be available at the book signing tent located at 13th and Colorado streets. Participants are allowed to bring a maximum of two books that have not been purchased at the festival, but at least one book must have been purchased at the Barnes & Noble sales tent.
More information and the complete schedule of the Texas Book Festival are available at texasbookfestival.org.
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