Austin’s African American Book Festival

This weekend in Texas offers tons of Juneteenth festivities, and if you’re in the Austin area on Saturday, you’ll want to head over to the Carver Library for the 7th annual African American Book Festival.

This year’s festival features a host of great speakers, including headliner/bestselling author Terry McMillan, whose novels include A Day Late and a Dollar Short and Waiting to Exhale.

Another highlight will be a discussion of The Warmth of Other Suns, Isabel Wilkerson’s epic nonfiction narrative about the Great Migration. Warmth has been one of the most highly lauded nonfiction books of the past few years. The New Yorker called it a “deeply affecting, finely crafted and heroic book” that encapsulates not only the experience of northbound African Americans fleeing the South, but also much of the American 20th century. Other reviewers were also impressed, including The Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times, which compared Wilkerson’s narrative skill and prose touch to Toni Morrison and Zore Neale Hurston.

Admission is free, and you can find the full schedule here.