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9th annual San Antonio Book Festival brings community together in free 3-day virtual gathering with nearly 200 authors

Online event runs April 9-11

SAN ANTONIO – The San Antonio Book Festival (SABF) is excited to announce its 2021 author lineup and events schedule, which includes nearly 200 local, regional, and national authors who will be participating in the festival, as well as an event new to San Antonio, Lit Crawl.

This year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the festival will take place entirely online thru April 9-11 and allows for people outside of San Antonio to join in on the festivities. The free virtual festival will feature award-winning authors like Sandra Cisneros, Walter Isaacson and Kristin Hannah.

San Antonio native Ally Brooke from Fifth Harmony will also be attending the virtual event on Friday, April 9 to discuss her new, heartwarming memoir Finding Your Harmony: Dream Big, Have Faith, and Achieve More Than You Can.

SABF is a free, family-friendly event that showcases both first-time and established, prominent writers, introducing attendees to new and well-known literary talents and connecting them with their favorite authors.

The book festival will offer over 100 sessions for participants of all ages.

“Festivals and book events have had to adapt a lot over the last year, but we see this as a huge opportunity to bring more authors and content to book lovers,” said Clay Smith, SABF’s literary director.

SABF brings together many award-winning authors from around the nation, including Walter Isaacson, author of The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, the Future of the Human Race.

“When I look at this year’s book festival lineup and programming, the word that comes to mind is ‘abundance,’” said Lilly Gonzalez, SABF’s executive director. “Longtime fans will find comfort in the wealth of options that our online edition offers. Plus it’s reassuring to know that amid everything that’s happened, art is still thriving. It’s reason enough for us to come together, even if that’s via our computer screens this year.”


The 2021 festival will feature sessions for adults, teens and children alike. Select sessions include:

  • Revolutionary Women of Texas and Mexico
  • Sandra Cisneros Presents: Diana Marie Delgado, John Olivares Espinoza, Joe Jiménez
  • Let the Lord Sort Them: The Rise and Fall of the Death Penalty
  • Nic Stone in Conversation with J. Elle
  • Lit Crawl

Lit Crawl is a virtual block party for books and everyone who loves to read them.

The event will feature a cocktail demonstration with Desert Door Sotol (a limited number of cocktail kits will be available for viewers to follow along from home) and one of its several events features a conversation with the minds behind Notes from the Bathroom Line: A Conversation with the Funniest Women in Comedy, an anthology about some of the world’s leading female comedians.


The online Festival will offer book clubs, groups of friends, and classes the opportunity to chat privately among themselves during an event. There’s also a “networking” capability to mimic the in-person festival, where attendees can meet one another and talk about which events they’re attending and enjoying.

For the first time in its history, SABF teamed up with local t-shirt vendor, BarbacoApparel, for its official event tee. The shirt, book-themed with San Antonio flair, can be purchased here.

A full list of the 2021 San Antonio Book Festival’s participating authors is available to view here.

KSAT Community operates in partnership with University Health, Energy Transfer and Randolph-Brooks Federal Credit Union.


About the Author
Kiersten Ehr headshot

Kiersten has been a Digital Content Creator with KSAT12 since 2017. She graduated from Texas State University with an electronic media degree and previously worked for the Spurs Sports & Entertainment.

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