The Texas Book Festival has revealed its 2013 lineup. Headliners include three writers who currently sit on the New York Times best seller list: Reza Aslan (Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth), Mark Leibovich (This Town), and Scott Anderson (Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East).
Other big names include:
- Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson – Unflinching Courage: Pioneering Women Who Shaped Texas
- Lawrence Wright – Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief
- R.L. Stine – A Midsummer Night's Scream
- Bill Minutaglio – Dallas 1963
- Lemony Snicket – When Did You See Her Last?
- George Pelecanos – The Double (Spero Lucas)
- Ken Jennings (Yes, that Jeopardy guy) – Because I Said So!: The Truth Behind the Myths, Tales, and Warnings Every Generation Passes Down to Its Kids
- Lynda Obst – Sleepless in Hollywood: Tales from the New Abnormal in the Movie Business
- Meg Wolitzer – The Interestings
A complete list of authors is at texasbookfestival.org.
The Texas Book Festival pulls in more than 40,000 attendees each year. It is free and open to the public. This year's festival will be the weekend of Oct. 26 and 27.
The festival is in its 18th year. It was founded by Laura Bush when she was the First Lady of Texas. In the years since its inception, the festival has rocketed on the literary scene to become one of the premiere book events in the country. The festival has historically welcomed many up-and-comers, including then-Senator Barack Obama in 2006, and many others. The festival features authors across a variety of genres, including art, cuisine, young adult and memoir.
In addition to hosting an annual weekend festival, the Texas Book Festival heads a Texas Public Library Grant program that has awarded more than $2.5 million to over 600 Texas libraries since 1996. The Festival also organizes a “Reading Rock Stars” program in which selected authors deliver readings to economically-disadvantaged schools, and each child receives a signed copy of that author’s book. A fiction writing contest is also available for middle- and high-school students.
