Texas Book Fest unveils 2015 poster and announces featured authors

In honor of its 20^th anniversary, the Texas Book Festival is announcing 20 authors who will be featured at this year’s Festival weekend, Oct. 17 and 18.

“This year is going to be huge. And it should be, it’s our 20^th anniversary!” says literary director Steph Opitz.

“I’m so happy we can finally share a handful of the literary stars and soon-to-be-stars joining us this year. It’s like a holiday gift list of incredible people. Looking for something for that gourmand friend? Check. Angsty tween who loves comics? Check. A 20-something aspiring poet who’s read it all? Check. The family history buff? Check.”

The 2015 Festival authors and their featured books announced today are:

Margaret Atwood – The Heart Goes Last

Chuck Palahniuk – Make Something Up: Stories You Can’t Unread

Elizabeth Strout – The O. Henry Prize Stories 2015: The Best Stories of the Year

Sloane Crosley – The Clasp

Sandra Cisneros – A House of My Own: Stories from My Life

Chip Kidd – Judge This

Adrian Tomine – Killing and Dying

Wendell Pierce – The Wind in the Reeds

Avi with Brian Floca – Old Wolf

Raúl Colón – Draw!

H. W. Brands – Reagan: The Life

Margo Jefferson – Negroland: A Memoir

Alejandro Zambra – My Documents

Attica Locke – Pleasantville

Saeed Jones – Prelude to a Bruise

Linda Gray – The Road to Happiness is Always Under Construction

Aaron Franklin – Franklin Barbecue: A Meat-Smoking Manifesto

Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely – All American Boys

Stephen L. Moore – Texas Rising: The Epic True Story of the Lone Star Republic and the Rise of the Texas Rangers, 1836-1846

Marie Lu – The Rose Society: A Young Elites Novel

The 2015 Festival poster, by artist Fatima Ronquillo, was also unveiled today.

Ronquillo is a self-taught painter whose classical imagery is inspired by literature, theatre, and opera, evoking a world of serenity and charm. Her intimate works play with the style of European old masters coupled with a magical realism rooted in folk and colonial Latin American traditions. The Festival poster image, a boy with a goldfinch perched on his hand, suggests an inner world where art history meets with nostalgia and imagined storybook characters.

Books taught Ronquillo how to paint, says Rachel Stephens of Wally Workman Gallery, which has represented Ronquillo for many years.

“Moving to San Antonio from the Philippines, Fatima discovered for the first time the joys of a public library. For a small, foreign, friendless girl, that San Antonio library was a refuge,” Stephens says.

“She devoured the work of Gabriel García Márquez, Octavio Paz, and many others. The endless supply of books opened up imaginary places and characters into which she escaped. She began to copy the pages of art history, teaching herself to draw and then to paint, mimicking the sensibility of Titian, Goya, and Renoir,” Stephens says.

The Texas Book Festival is one of the largest and longest-running book festivals in the country. The first Festival took place in November 1996, and since then has grown into one of the nation’s premier literary events with 250-plus authors, 40,000 attendees, live music, kids’ activities, food trucks, book signings and sales, and 100 exhibitors all in and around the State Capitol over two full days. The Festival continues to be free and open to the public.

For more information, go to www.texasbookfestival.org.