On Nov. 11 and 12, white tents and rows of chairs lined Congress Avenue and the Capitol grounds for the annual Texas Book Festival. The festival was first started to bring readers and authors together over their common love of books.
Authors were lined up to talk about a variety of topics from cooking to the roles of women in historical fiction. These panels were followed by book signings and the opportunity to meet the authors behind the books.
“I love books a lot, so just being around books and learning about books [was] my favorite part. I’m getting to hear from the authors of books [about] their processes, how they go about writing, what they do to research for their books, and all [the] love and time put into them,” Lucy Allison ‘26 said.
Other authors had booths to promote their recent books. One author was B. K. Greenwood, who advertised his recent book, “The Last Roman,” which combines historical fiction with modern thriller as it follows the story of Marcus Sempronius Gracchus as he heads into battle.
“I came here last year, and I just enjoy talking to people, promoting my book, and letting people know about my history of writing, why I like writing, and why I wrote this series,” Greenwood said.
In addition to the numerous booths for authors, publishers also used the festival as an opportunity to expand their following and promote their new authors. After five years in the business, it was W. Brand Publishing’s first time attending the Texas Book Festival. The business began when founder Julee Brand lost a loved one and didn’t want to lose their stories and memories.
“I had been working at one of the big five publishers before as an art director and I knew how publishing worked, but I also knew that the independent space was growing, and so I was just inspired when my 99-year-old aunt passed away to start a company, and as a woman that was about to hit 50, I was like, ‘Now is the time to do it,’ so that’s why I started the company,” Brand said.
Among the many vendors were several booksellers promoting their businesses. One such business was Vignette, a local online bookstore that matches customers with a mystery book based on their favorite genres. The bookshop was the brainchild of Jordan Foland and Molly Moore.
“We just started this summer,” Foland said. “Molly is an experienced book buyer, [having] worked at BookPeople for many years, and I am a marketing and branding person, and we’ve been friends for ten years, so we thought, ‘Why not put our skill set together?’ and Vignette was born.”
Through the various authors, readers, publishers, and bookstores present at the event, the book festival aimed to promote and praise reading and literature.
“I tried to go to panels that are for books that I would not normally read,” librarian Ms. Lauren Kluck said. “I always ended up finding books that I think would be interesting, even though I probably never would have picked them up had I not gone to that session.”
