Texas Teen Book Festival To Go Virtual

AUSTIN, TX — Texas Book Festival officials on Wednesday revealed a pair of keynote speakers for its upcoming Texas Teen Book Festival occurring in the fall.

Like other large-scale events, the literary gathering has metamorphosed into a virtual festival due to continued presence of the coronavirus. The event is scheduled from Oct. 31 to Nov. 1, and will feature keynote panels with authors Nic Stone and Elizabeth Acevedo, officials confirmed.

Clap When You Land, Acevedo’s 2020 novel written in verse, received “a standing ovation” from Kirkus. Acevedo’s The Poet X was a New York Times bestseller and won the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, the Michael L. Printz Award, the Pura Belpré Award, the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award, and the Walter Award. She is also a National Poetry Slam champion.

Courtesy image.

Photo of Elizabeth Acevedo courtesy of Texas Teen Book Festival.

Stone is a New York Times-bestselling author and former festival keynote speaker. Dear Justyce, a much-anticipated follow-up to her young adult bestseller Dear Martin, will be published on September 29, 2020. Stone’s middle-grade fiction debut, Clean Getaway, and the first of a series based on Marvel’s Black Panther comics, Shuri: A Black Panther Novel, were published in January.

Courtesy image.

Photo of Nic Stone courtesy of Texas Teen Book Festival.

“The decision to move TTBF to a virtual format in place of a face-to-face celebration of reading this year was a difficult one. However, I find myself excited about what this new opportunity offers us,” Shawn Mauser, chair of the Texas Teen Book Festival, said in a prepared statement. “This year's format is going to allow us to explore new avenues of connection with our TTBF fans and our authors. We get to explore new ways to be creative with this year's festival, and that experience is going to make our in-person festivals even better when they return (and they will).”

For more information on the Texas Book Festival, please visit www.texasbookfestival.org, and
follow along on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @texasbookfest.

ABOUT TEXAS BOOK FESTIVAL

With a vision to inspire Texans of all ages to love reading, the Texas Book Festival connects authors and readers through experiences that celebrate the culture of literacy, ideas, and imagination. 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 2020 Virtual Texas Book Festival will take place from Oct. 31 through Nov. 15. Thanks to generous donors, sponsors, and volunteers, the Festival remains free and open to the public. Visit www.texasbookfestival.org for more information, and join the conversation using the hashtag #txbookfest on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @texasbookfest.

ABOUT TEXAS TEEN BOOK FESTIVAL
The Texas Teen Book Festival celebrates the teen reading experience by inviting fans to visit with some of the most popular and critically acclaimed young adult authors in the country. The Texas Teen Book Festival was born as the Austin Teen Book Festival in 2009, when librarian Heather Schubert partnered with BookPeople to organize a gathering at Westlake High School. Five hundred people and 16 authors attended the first year. The event continued to grow, and in 2011-2013 was sponsored by the Austin Public Library Friends Foundation. In 2014 the Fest
became a program of the Texas Book Festival and was renamed the Texas Teen Book
Festival. One of the largest gatherings of its kind anywhere, the annual Fest takes place
in the fall. The 2020 Texas Teen Book Festival will take place virtually from Oct. 31 to Nov. 1, during the Texas Book Festival.

For more information, see texasteenbookfestival.org.