Mississippi Book Festival

Founded in 2014 by a number of book lovers and literary enthusiasts, the Mississippi Book Festival brings together people of all ages and backgrounds to nurture a culture of literacy and ideas and to celebrate the joy of reading and the craft of writing books. Free and open to the public, this one-day annual event takes place on the second Saturday in September and features panel discussions, keynote speakers, booksellers, author signings, family-friendly activities, and more. The festival takes place in and around the grounds of the historic Mississippi State Capitol and nearby Galloway Memorial United Methodist Church.

The festival is built around a series of panel discussions between a moderator and one or more authors, each organized by topic. Striving to offer something for everyone, the festival draws authors representing some of the year’s best writing in fiction, poetry, history, photography, music, politics, short stories, food and cooking, current events, and children’s and young adult books. The festival has welcomed a Booker Prize winner, a dozen Pulitzer Prize winners, eleven National Book Award winners, and five Newberry Medalists. Since the first festival in 2015, more than 1,100 authors have participated on more than 330 panels.

A Board of Directors governs the festival. In addition, there is an advisory board composed of representatives from various Mississippi organizations that partner with the festival, including the Mississippi Library Commission, the Mississippi Humanities Council, Mississippi Department of Archives and History, the Mississippi Arts Commission, the University Press of Mississippi, independent bookstores and publishers, and several of the state’s universities and colleges. The Community Foundation for Mississippi serves as the festival’s fiscal agent and presenting sponsor. The festival is supported financially by more than 150 donors, including government agencies, foundations, corporations, and individuals.

Beyond the Saturday festival day of panel discussions and author signings, the Mississippi Book Festival sponsors a series of “KidNote” programs in the days leading up to the main event. These feature one or more nationally recognized children’s or young adult writers who meet in convocation with up to a thousand young learners in person and several thousand via livestream.

The newest initiative of the book festival is its “Turn the Page” program. To inspire reading and writing among young people, festival staff creates venues in schools for live author appearances, either in classrooms or with book clubs or in writing workshops. As with the KidNote program, participating students receive free books from the authors who lead the workshops.

The Mississippi Book Festival celebrated its tenth anniversary with its 14 September 2024 festival. On that Saturday, 188 authors and moderators participated on 57 panels, attended by almost 8,100 readers. Over the three days of activities, the festival reached more than 37,840 people. Six panels in the Old Supreme Court chamber were broadcast on C-SPAN’s Book TV channel, resulting in nearly eight hours of nationally broadcast coverage from the state capitol, while five panels in the Galloway sanctuary were streamed live by Mississippi Public Broadcasting. Ten years earlier, the Mississippi Book Festival, in its first year, hosted eighty-nine authors on twenty-four panels. The event was a one-day affair in 2015 and recorded an attendance of 3,700. Over the years, the festival joined with Galloway Methodist Church to expand the number of panel rooms, added other attractions—especially for young readers—on the grounds of the state capitol, and created workshops for aspiring writers to meet and work with some of the authors participating at the festival.

Noted author Harrison Scott Key once captured the spirit of the Mississippi Book Festival after participating on a panel: “All these great authors, all in one place on this one day every summer! Signing books and rubbing elbows and partying with the people! This has to be what heaven is like. It’s hands-down the best and liveliest literary event in the country.”