Nashville is about to prove it is every bit as much a book town as a music town. The 38th Annual Southern Festival of Books takes over Bicentennial Mall State Park on Saturday, October 17, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday, October 18, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. — and admission is completely free.
Presented by Vanderbilt University in partnership with Humanities Tennessee, the festival is one of the oldest and largest literary events in the country. More than 25,000 readers are expected for two joyful days of panel discussions, author conversations, book signings and readings with nearly 200 writers spanning fiction, nonfiction, young adult literature, poetry, science fiction, romance and mystery.
The lineup reads like a dream bookshelf. Pulitzer Prize winners Ayad Akhtar and Jayne Anne Phillips headline alongside bestselling authors Kathryn Stockett, Allegra Goodman, Elizabeth Kostova, Maria Semple, PC Cast and Sarah Beth Durst, poet Claudia Rankine, Nashville favorites Ann Patchett and Margaret Renkl, actress and math-book champion Danica McKellar, and former Tennessee governor and U.S. senator Lamar Alexander.
The celebration spreads across Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park, the Tennessee State Museum and the Tennessee State Library and Archives, with Vanderbilt University Press spotlighting Nashville-rooted stories — from local history to “Nashville’s New Americans,” a tribute to the immigrant neighbors who make Music City home. Bring the whole family: the best seat in the house costs nothing at all.
Photo: Vanderbilt University
