Southern Festival of Books

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Humanities TN

Southern Festival of Books 2025

The Southern Festival of Books: A Celebration of the Written Word is among the oldest literary festivals in the country, annually welcoming hundreds of authors and thousands of visitors to downtown Nashville each October.

The Festival is free and includes performance stages, food trucks, and loads of publishers and booksellers.

We look forward to celebrating the written word with you this October 18 (9am to 6pm) and 19 (10am to 5pm), 2025 in downtown Nashville at the Bicentennial Mall, Tennessee State Museum, and Tennessee State Library and Archives.

In addition to the author sessions, festivalgoers can enjoy a children’s creativity area, author signing tent, a live recording of author interviews through Vanderbilt University’s Quantum Potential podcast, nearly 100 book-related exhibitors, performance stages featuring local talent, food trucks, special exhibits, and a welcoming atmosphere of community and conversation. Parnassus Books will return as the festival’s official bookseller after a successful “twenty bucks” campaign led by Ann Patchett helped raise significant funds for the event.

The 2025 festival is made possible by presenting partner Vanderbilt University, along with The Frist Foundation, Sandra Schatten Foundation, Visit Music City, Ingram Content Group, Dollar General Literacy Foundation, Metro Arts: Nashville Office for Arts and Culture, Tennessee Arts Commission, the Federation of State Humanities Councils with support from the Mellon Foundation, and generous gifts from more than 1,200 individuals in the past three months. Sponsorship opportunities for the festival and dinner are available by contacting Sandy Obodzinski at sandy@humtn.org.

For more information, visit www.sofestofbooks.org and stay updated on festival announcements by following the festival on Facebook (@SoFestofBooks) and Instagram (@sofestofbooks).