The Texas Book Festival is coming back to Austin again on November 16 and 17, bringing plenty of opportunities to browse books and hear from authors. But one free, annual event expands the opportunities for community engagement beyond the main festival — the Lit Crawl, now turning the page for its 13th year on Saturday.
This year things are different: attendees won't move from venue to venue (i.e. no more crawling), but the spirit is the same with nine different events and organizations coming together for programming under one roof. That central venue is Speakeasy (412 Congress Ave. D), a three-level nightclub about half a mile down the road from the main festival.
Since the venue is so large, there will still be a change of scenery for book-lovers who aren't ready to sit still. (They exist.)
On the ground floor there are readings from comedy and satire books, and then readings by noir writers. Simultaneously, on different sides of the ballroom, there's collaborative storytelling, advice from books, a trivia game show, and a Literary Death Match for selecting a favorite live reading.
Finally, on the rooftop, there are poetry readings, a showcase of Black women writers, and a celebration of banned books — or even books organizers expect to banned in the future.
Programming is organized by:
- Haunt Happy Books
- Literary Death Match
- Austin Indie Book Festival
- American Short Fiction
- Texas Poetry Crush
- Torch Literary Arts
- Librotraficantes
- Worded Funny
- Noir at the Bar
All the events take place from 7-10 pm, so it's possible to hop between them, but difficult to make all of them. Thankfully, it won't cut into festival time: the events closer to the capitol are scheduled from 10 am to 4:15 pm. Guests must be at least 21 years old to attend the crawl, but the main festival is open to everyone. Both are free and accessible to the public.