The Texas Book Festival is excited to announce the lineup for its annual Festival featuring nationally renowned authors, including Matthew McConaughey, David Chang, Kevin Kwan, Sigrid Nunez, Isabel Wilkerson, Julia Alvarez, Michael J. Sandel, Ibi Zoboi  and more. One of the largest literary festivals in the country, Texas Book Festival is moving to a virtual format for the 25th anniversary of the Festival. The two-week online event will kick off on Saturday October 31 and run through Sunday November 15. (The Texas Book Festival, 2020).

Among the award-winning authors scheduled to appear at the festival this year, Academy Award-winning actor Matthew McConaughey will present “Greenlights,” a memoir filled with stories and life lessons from the beloved native Texan’s life. McConaughey is also the founder of the ‘just keep livin’ foundation, which helps promote the health and well-being of high school students.

Kevin Kwan will present his new novel, “Sex and Vanity,” a modern retelling of E. M. Forster’s “A Room with a View,” set on the island of Capri and starring Lucie Churchill, who has always ignored her Chinese-American mother’s culture in favor of her white New Yorker father’s,   especially when she meets and falls for George Zao. Kwan’s “Crazy Rich Asians” was a The New York Times bestseller, a major motion picture and has been translated into more than 30 languages.

The 2020 Virtual Festival lineup features more than 125 authors, illustrators, poets, journalists, artists, and thought leaders across a diverse array of genres and topics. The Festival will also showcase previously announced authors Michael Ian Black, Nick Hornby, Dean Koontz, Erin Brockovich, Robert Draper, Stephen Graham Jones, Kathy Valentine and more.

Elizabeth Acevedo and Nic Stone will be the keynote speakers for the 2020 Texas Teen Book Festival.  The TTBF lineup also includes Tiffany D. Jackson, Candace Bushnell, Natalia Sylvester, Lilliam Rivera, Yamile Saied Méndez, Rory Power, Francisco X. Stork and more.

Children’s programming will run from Monday November 2 to Friday November 6 and will include acclaimed children’s authors and illustrators Jon Scieszka and Steven Weinberg, Derrick Barnes, Raúl The Third, David Bowles, Jerome Pumphrey and Jarrett Pumphrey and more.

Adult author programming will run from Friday November 6 to Sunday November 15. The First Edition Literary Gala will also take place virtually this year on Friday, November 6 at 7:30p.m., featuring authors Julia Alvarez, Nick Hornby, and Natasha Trethewey, as well as emcee Michael Ian Black.

The Festival continues to be free and open to the public thanks to generous sponsors and dedicated volunteers. The 2020 Virtual Texas Book Festival is co-presented by H-E-B and AT&T. Other major sponsors include Brigid Cockrum and Family, Kirkus Reviews, Tocker Foundation, Tapestry Foundation, Texas Monthly, Buena Vista Foundation, Still Water Foundation, C-SPAN 2/Book TV, Central Market, Austin American-Statesman, Pentagram, Jordan Foster Construction and Loewy Law Firm.

Founded in 1995 by former First Lady Laura Bush, Mary Margaret Farabee and a group of volunteers, the nonprofit Texas Book Festival promotes the joys of reading and writing through its annual Festival, the Texas Teen Book Festival, the Reading Rock Stars Title I elementary school program, the Real Reads Title I middle and high school program, grants to Texas libraries and year-round literary programming.

“The 25th Anniversary Texas Book Festival will be one for the record books, and not only because we will be all virtual. The authors we are hosting are so talented, and we can’t wait to share dozens of unforgettable conversations with everyone, everywhere.” – Lois Kim, Texas Book Festival Executive Director