During a press conference at the State Capitol, the Mississippi Book Festival announced its first round of authors set to participate in the annual event.
The festival, which will be moving to a new date of Sept. 14 in hopes of cooler weather, will welcome the following writers to Jackson:
- Kate DiCamillo (The Puppets of Spelhorst)
- Angie Thomas (Nic Blake and the Remarkables)
- Erik Larson (The Demon of Unrest)
- Sebastian Junger (In My Time of Dying: How I Came Face to Face with the Idea of an Afterlife)
- Aimee Nezhukumatathil (Bite by Bite: Nourishments and Jamborees)
- Kaveh Akbar (Martyr!)
- Rachel Khong (Real Americans)
- Ron Rash (The Caretaker)
- Grace Elizabeth Hale (In the Pines)
- Maurice Carlos Ruffin (The American Daughters)
More author announcements are expected to be made between now and the festival as thousands of attendees will once again visit the state’s largest literary lawn party held annually on the grounds of the State Capitol and at Galloway United Methodist Church.
Mississippi Book Festival officials thanked lawmakers in attendance for allowing them to use the Capitol and for continuing to support the event financially.
“We want to express our immense gratitude to our state leaders and community partners for all of your support over the last 10 years,” Ellen Daniels, the festival’s executive director, said. “This event is massively important to not only our city but our entire state, and to see how it’s grown and expanded through the years has been incredible. From hosting literary legends to fostering educational opportunities, the festival would never have been able to leave such a lasting impact without your support, and that is not lost on us.”
Since its inception in 2014, the number of attendees at the Mississippi Book Festival has nearly doubled after a record 2023. Overall, nearly 50,000 people have attended the festival and over 44,000 students have been reached through its mission.
“It’s an honor to host my friends from the Mississippi Book Festival here at the Capitol today,” Sen. Briggs Hopson said. “It’s inspiring to see what we can do when we as state leadership partner with organizations in our community to make a difference in our state. That is what we have seen happen through the book festival. We celebrate a decade of its success and hope to see it continue to thrive for many years to come.”
To learn more about the Mississippi Book Festival, click here.
