The Texas Book Festival, the largest book event in Texas and one of the premier literary Festivals in the nation, returns for its 29th year on November 16–17 in downtown Austin! Free and open to all, attendees can look forward to a star-studded lineup of more than 275 authors, engaging programming for all ages, book signings, food trucks, cooking demonstrations, and a Saturday night Lit Crawl in East Austin.
Our authors Lily Meyer (Short War), Julie Poole (Gorgeous Freak), Wei Tchou (Little Seed), J . M. Tyree (The Haunted Screen), and Joaquín Zihuatanejo (Occupy Whiteness) will be presenting their latest books, along with past & future Deep Vellum authors and contributors KB Brookins (Freedom House), Rita Bullwinkel (Belly Up), Porochista Khakpour (The Potato Eaters, introduction), and Cristina Rivera Garza (Best Literary Translations 2025, guest editor)! Deep Vellum / Dalkey Archive Press will also have a booth at the fair.
Lily Meyer is a translator, critic, and author of the novel Short War. A contributing writer at The Atlantic, her translations include Claudia Ulloa Donoso’s story collections Little Bird and Ice for Martians. Her novel The End of Romance is forthcoming from Viking.
From Words to Worlds: Translators Writing Global Fiction
With Jennifer Croft
Nov. 17, 2:15 PM - 3:00 PM, Capitol Auditorium
Julie Poole is a poet, journalist, and filmmaker based in Austin. She received a B.A. from Columbia University and an M.F.A. from the New Writers Project at the University of Texas. She has received fellowship and grant support from the James A. Michener Center, the Economic Hardship Reporting Project, and the PEN Writers Fund. She has been a resident at the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, the Corsicana Artist and Writer Residency, and Yaddo. Her first book of poems, Bright Specimen, was inspired by the Billie L. Turner Plant Resources Center at UT. Gorgeous Freak, her second collection, was published by Deep Vellum in 2024.
Austin Writers Exploring Environmental Crisis & Political Instability in Poetry
With Sasha West
Nov. 16, 12:15 PM - 1:00 PM, Poetry Tent
Wei Tchou’s essays and reporting can be found in the New Yorker, The New York Times, the Paris Review, and the Oxford American, among other publications. She likes to write about food, nature, and the complications of identity. She is the recipient of a MacDowell Fellowship and has an MFA from Hunter College. She lives in New York City, with her family.
Family Memoirs about Culture, Connection & Individual Identity
With Deborah Jackson Taffa
Nov. 16, 2:00 PM - 2:45 PM, Capitol Extension Room: E2.012
J. M. Tyree is the editor of Film Quarterly and the co-author (with Michael McGriff) of Our Secret Life in the Movies, an NPR Best Books selection, and the author of The Haunted Screen. A former Capote-Stegner Fellow in Fiction at Stanford, he has published in American Short Fiction, Brick, McSweeney’s, New England Review, Sight & Sound, and in the BFI Film Classics series of books on film from Bloomsbury and the British Film Institute. He is an associate professor in the Cinema Program at VCUarts.
The Art of Terror: Horror Novels Inspired by Frightening Films
With Paul Tremblay
Nov. 16, 1:00 PM - 1:45 PM, Kirkus Tent
Joaquín Zihuatanejo is the proud descendant of migrant field workers. Joaquín was recently named the inaugural Dallas Poet Laureate, and he received a Poet Laureate Fellowship Prize from the Academy of American Poets in honor of the outstanding service he provided while serving as Dallas’ first poet laureate. The second sentence of this bio is not more poetic or important than the first. The second sentence would not be possible without the first. Joaquín received his MFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts. His last book, Arsonist, won the Anhinga Prize for Poetry as selected by Eduardo C. Corral. His new book, Occupy Whiteness, is out now from Deep Vellum Publishing. Joaquín has two passions in his life, his partner Aída and poetry… always in that order.
Voces que Brillan: Poetas Latinos Ganadores de Premios
With José Olivarez & Reyes Ramirez
Nov. 16, 1:00 PM - 1:45 PM, Leamos Tent
Poetry Reading & Discussion: José Antonio Rodríguez & Joaquín Zihuatanejo
Nov. 17, 12:00 PM - 12:45 PM, Poetry Tent