After two years of virtual and hybrid programming, the Texas Book Festival is returning in full in-person force November 5 and 6 in downtown Austin. With a sizable list of impressive literary talent for readers of all ages, the beloved bookworm gathering has uncovered 15 authors that will headline the fest.

The festival will feature Arlington resident, Texas literary legend, and author of 73 New York Times bestsellers Sandra Brown; Screen Actors Guild Award recipient and nine-time NAACP Image Award winner Omar Epps; Good Morning America Book Club Pick author and Women’s Prize finalist Angie Cruz; Pulitzer Prize finalist and Guggenheim Fellow biologist David George Haskell; NYT bestselling children’s author-illustrator and Caldecott medalist Michaela Goade, and many more.

“This announcement marks the beginning of our Festival season, and we are very excited to bring talented authors and thousands of readers together again at our beloved annual event, ” says Lois Kim, the festival's executive director. “We hope all Texans, young and old, newly Texan or seventh generation, are marking their calendars to join us for an epic literary weekend.”

Included in the sneak peek on July 13 is actor-producer Omar Epps, known for his roles in House, Shooter, This Is Us, and many more television shows and feature films. Epps will present his debut young-adult novel Nubia: The Awakening, an epic Afro-futurist saga billed as perfect for fans of Black Panther.

Returning to the festival is Angie Cruz, the award-winning author who debuted her first novel, Soledad, at Texas Book Festival 2001. Cruz will present her new work, How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water, about a woman who, faced with an unexpected job loss amid the Great Recession, re-evaluates her life. Texas native, DFW resident, and former TBF First Edition Literary Gala emcee (2003) Sandra Brown also returns, presenting her latest novel, Overkill, in which a former NFL superstar struggles with a crisis of conscience and juggles a life-or-death decision.

"There’s something special about seeing authors in-person again," says TBF literary director Matthew Patin. "Virtual programming provided us, and continues to provide, creative opportunities, yet nothing quite matches an author visiting Austin once more. In pre-COVID times we took a physical appearance for a given, but now it feels that much more valuable and important. And the fifteen names here are only a fraction of what’s to come.”

The full list of sneak peek authors includes:

• Vishwesh Bhatt, I Am From Here: Stories and Recipes from a Southern Chef
• Sandra Brown, Overkill
• Sandra Cisneros, Woman Without Shame: Poems
• Angie Cruz, How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water
• Erin Entrada Kelly, Those Kids from Fawn Creek
• James Kirchick, Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington
• Omar Epps, Nubia: The Awakening
• Sidik Fofana, Stories from the Tenants Downstairs
• Michaela Goade, Berry Song
• Xochitl Gonzalez, Olga Dies Dreaming
• David George Haskell, Sounds Wild and Broken: Sonic Marvels, Evolution's Creativity, and the Crisis of Sensory Extinction
• Elizabeth McCracken, The Hero of This Book
• Matt de la Peña, Patchwork
• Mary Laura Philpott, Bomb Shelter: Love, Time, and Other Explosives
• Roger Reeves, Best Barbarian: Poems