Texas Book Festival 2011: Get Yr Planner Pants On!

Y'all! The Texas Book Festival is a week away! And we're pretty much spazzing out here at FYA HQ, because this festival is full of opportunities to swimfan meet fantastic YA authors and booze it up with our fellow book nerds. Two years ago, Posh met Sara Zarr, and then last year, we got to have fancy pants brunch with Meg Cabot, so this year has a lot to live up to. But there's a good chance that this festival could be the best one yet, because LIBBA BRAY and SARAH DESSEN and LIT CRAWL and YA AUTHORS IN A CEMETERY?!!!! WHAT.

Since there's so much awesome shizz happening, we thought it might be a good idea to create a round-up of our top picks. And if you're attending the festival, hopefully you can meet up with us! Stalkers, this does not apply to you. Unless you come bearing cupcakes and champ cans. Then feel free to STALK. US. UP.

After combing through the official schedule, I've determined that the festival organizers are huge Harry Potter fans, because they seem to believe that Hermione's Time-Turner exists in real life. Why else would they have all of these great panels overlap or, even worse, occur at the same time? Don't they realize that certain people are really bad at making decisions? And that said people might get really stressed out because they're being FORCED to choose between two or three or five authors they really love? I THOUGHT THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE FUN YOU GUYS.

Well, Erin and Jenny and I might have to whip up one of those paper fortune tellers to help us decide which of these amazing panels to attend. But no matter what we choose, we will WIN. Check out our YA roundup!

SATURDAY

The Secrets Girls Keep
With Jill Alexander, Rosemary Clement-Moore, and Jennifer Ziegler

Date: Saturday, October 22, 2011
Time: 10:30 - 11:30
Location: Capitol Extension Room E2.014

All adolescent girls keep secrets from the people in their lives. But the secrets these girls keep are too huge - and potentially disastrous - to stay hidden for long. In Paradise, new author Jill Alexander introduces Paisley Tiller, a girl with a secret dream of becoming a musician and escaping her rural life. Rosemary Clement-Moore, whose book The Splendor Falls was featured in the 2009 Festival, discusses secret-witch Amy Goodnight and her not-so-secret crush on the boy next door in her new book Texas Gothic. And Jennifer Ziegler, the author of How Not To Be Popular, brings double the secrets with a pair of sisters in Sass & Serendipity.

Playing with Your Fiction
With Louis Sachar and Meg Wolitzer

Date: Saturday, October 22, 2011
Time: 11:15 - 12:15
Location: Family Life Center (1300 Lavaca)

Do you havea hobby that you love enough to share with the world? Meg Wolitzer declares her passion for scrabble in her gradeschool book The Fingertips of Duncan Dorfman, in which three unique kids come together at a Youth Scrabble Tournament. And in his book The Cardturner, Sachar displays his flare for bridge with a heartwarming story about a lonely boy and his bridge-playing uncle. Listen to the authors discuss their favorite hobbies and you might just leave with a new hobby of your own.

Literary Death Match
It's like American Idol for writers, without the meanness

Date: Saturday, October 22, 2011
Time: 1:00 - 2:00
Location: Paramount Theatre

A genre-busting performative event that features four writers, three all-star judges, and a non-literary harebrained finale to decide the final winner, Opium magazine's Literary Death Match invites audiences and authors to talk about literature, with hilarious and profound results. The Literary Death Match writers (Martha Hall Foose, Karen Russell, Charles Yu and Libba Bray, among others) perform their most electric work (in 7 minutes or less) before an audience and a panel of three judges (Adam Mansbach, Chuck Palahniuk, and Lisa Loeb). After the writers perform, the judges take turns spouting affectionate, off-the-wall commentary about each story, each focusing on one of the three categories: literary merit, performance, and intangibles. They then select their favorite of the two writers to advance to the finals. And for the finale, we trade in the show's literary sensibility for an absurdly comical climax to decide who takes home the Literary Death Match crown (which is invisible). It may sound like a circus --- that's the point.

*I attended this event (with different authors) last year, and it was a blast! It's also where I found out about the wonderfulness known as Dinosaur Vs. The Potty. And yes, I bought a copy. And yes, I already know how to use the potty.

Ernest Cline & Daniel H. Wilson in Conversation

Date: Saturday, October 22, 2011
Time: 1:00 - 2:00
Location: Senate Chamber

Ernest Cline and Daniel H. Wilson will join forces to discuss their featured works and versions of a future Earth. Set in a dystopian 2044, Ernest Cline's Ready Player One takes place on a not-so-far-fetched Earth. From undead magicians and simulated realties to Sixteen Candles references and underdog hero stories, Ernest Cline's novel is imaginative and ambitious managing to feel groundbreaking and wonderfully familiar all at once.

Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl
A talk about Beautiful Chaos, from their Beautiful Creatures series

Date: Saturday, October 22, 2011
Time: 1:00 - 1:45
Location: Capitol Extension Room E2.028

In Beautiful Chaos, Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl's third installment of their romantic, supernatural Beautiful Creatures series, Ethan Wate and Lena Duchanness might actually find themselves way in over their heads. Swarms of locusts, record-breaking heat, and devastating storms ravage Gatlin as Ethan and Lena struggle to understand the impact of Lena's Claiming. Stohl was inspired to write this novel on a dare from her teenage daughter.

To Ban or Not to Ban: What Is the Question?
With Jessica Lee Anderson, Jay Asher, Ellen Hopkins, and David Levithan, presented with the Association of American Publishers

Date: Saturday, October 22, 2011
Time: 1:45 - 2:45
Location: The Sanctuary at First United Methodist Church (1201 Lavaca, enter from Lavaca St.)

Are controversial booksdangerous to young adult audiences or necessary to broaden their perspectives? What do banned books offer? In a session co-sponsored by the Association of American Publishers, Jessica Lee Anderson, who won the Milkweed Prize for Children's Literature for her novel Trudy, discusses her new novel Calli, which features lesbian parents and homophobic bullying. Jay Asher brings his best-selling debut Thirteen Reasons Why, which struck a cord with young audiences with its themes of teen suicide and adolescent cruelty. Ellen Hopkins, a best-selling author and a frequent presence on banned-books lists, reveals the tragic lengths adolescents will go to achieve perfection in her new novel Perfect. And David Levithan, the recipient of a 2003 Lambda Literary Award and the author of Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, discusses his newest book, Every You, Every Me, a haunting, psychological tale of mental illness and betrayal.

Sarah Dessen & Libba Bray in Conversation

Date: Saturday, October 22, 2011
Time: 3:30 - 4:30
Location: Family Life Center (1300 Lavaca)

Two of the most beloved contemporary young adult authors, Libba Bray and Sarah Dessen, have been asked to join in conversation to discuss their new novels.

In Libba Bray's Beauty Queens the plane carrying the 50 contestants of the Miss Teen Dream pageant crashes into a deserted, Lost-esque island with little food, little water, and practically no eyeliner. With evening gowns and a body count, Beauty Queens satirizes consumer culture while exploring issues of beauty and identity. Bray is the hilarious New York Times bestselling author of the 2010 Michael L. Pritnz Award-winning novel Going Bovine, and the acclaimed Gemma Doyle trilogy.

With What Happened to Goodbye, Sarah Dessen combines graceful writing, vibrant characters, and compelling storytelling for a moving tale of one girl's journey to self-discovery. Keenly observed, Dessen's latest is an irresistible read. Her other books include Someone Like You and Keeping the Moon, both ALA Quick Picks and School Library Journal Best Books of the Year.

*And guess who gets to moderate this panel? YRS TRULY! AND I AM FREAKING OUT RIGHT NOW. But obvs I will totally be a professional on stage. I mean, you know, just hanging with two superstar YA authors. Asking them questions. NO BIG DEAL.

How to Booze: Exquisite Cocktails and Unsound Advice
With Jordan Kaye

Date: Saturday, October 22, 2011
Time: 4:00 - 5:00
Location: Cooking Tent

How to Booze: Exquisite Cocktails and Unsound Advice by Jordan Kaye and his co-author Marshall Altier pairs the perfect cocktail with unfailingly entertaining advice for all of life's most alcohol-inducing moments. As the introduction states a "good drink, when it's put together right and is suited to the occasion, transforms you into a better version of yourself." Kaye is a writer and attorney residing in Brooklyn, New York.

*One word: DUH.

SATURDAY NIGHT

Lit Crawl is a collaboration between the Texas Book Festival, American Short Fiction, and Austin's East Side. Inspired by San Francisco's long-running Lit Crawl (and produced with their participation), Austin's Lit Crawl will feature some of America's most groundbreaking and beloved writers onstage at various East Austin venues talking about their latest books and ideas. Lit Crawl is a one-of-a-kind jolt to Texas' readers and arts community.

Moonlight Tour of the Texas State Cemetery
With Cemetery historians Will Erwin and Jason Walker

Date: Saturday, October 22, 2011
Time: 8:00 - 8:45
Location: Lit Crawl: Texas State Cemetery

During this session, open and free to the public, take a moonlight tour of the majestic Texas State Cemetery, led by the Cemetery's historians, Jason Walker and Will Erwin, the authors of the beautiful coffeetable book Texas State Cemetery. Those who fought great battles, negotiated historic treaties, and wrote the laws that brought Texas into being lie at rest in the Texas State Cemetery. So do a host of writers, educators, astronauts, athletes, Texas Rangers, and elected officials. Even some rogues and scoundrels have a resting place at the State Cemetery. Texas is the only state with a cemetery dedicated to its heroes and public officials, and all of the State Cemetery's honored dead helped make Texas what it is today. Texas State Cemetery tells the stories of many noteworthy Texans who are buried in this memorial ground's peaceful lawns and hillsides.

A Convergence of Souls
A collaboration with Austin Bat Cave featuring the Festival's young adult writers

Date: Saturday, October 22, 2011
Time: 9:00 - 9:45
Location: Lit Crawl: Texas State Cemetery

What's spookier than a slew of the nation's finest young adult authors all gathered together in one place? Well, a lot actually -- that sounds downright pleasant. But did we mention they're gathering in the Texas State Cemetery, where the hallowed graves of countless former statesmen (and sometime ghosts) pass their grim vigil? OK, so it might be more than a little spooky, but terror aside, this collection of sheer talent should make for a rather fun evening. You'll get to meet the writers (listed below), hear them talk about their newest books, and maybe even watch them compete for literary glory. And don't worry, we promise to keep the prospect of your looming mortality to, you know, a minimum. Bring a blanket and flashlight!

Authors:
Jennifer Ziegler
Margaret Stohl
Cynthia Leitich Smith
Joe Schreiber
Alex Sanchez
Louis Sachar
David Rice
Kathy Reichs
Kenneth Oppel
Shelia P. Moses
Barry Lyga
David Levithan
Joe R. Lansdale
Ellen Hopkins
Kami Garcia
Sarah Dessen
James Dashner
Rosemary Clement-Moore
Libba Bray
Chris Barton
Jay Asher
Jessica Lee Anderson
Jill S. Alexander

*I KNOW, RIGHT?!!!

Adam Mansbach
Wants you to Go the F*** to Sleep

Date: Saturday, October 22, 2011
Time: 9:00 - 9:45
Location: Lit Crawl: Scoot Inn

Profane, affectionate, and radically honest, Go the F**k to Sleep captures the familiar -- and unspoken -- tribulations of putting your little angel down for the night. Adam Mansbach's novels include The End of the Jews, winner of the California Book Award, and the best-selling Angry Black White Boy, a San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of 2005.

*This is at the same time as the YA event, which makes me v. sad. Festival schedulers, go the f*** to the real world and understand that I CAN'T SPLIT MYSELF IN HALF.

SUNDAY

Don't Let the _____ Get You Down

Date: Sunday, October 23, 2011
Time: 3:00 - 4:00
Location: Capitol Extension Room E2.026

More young adult novels than we can name are coming-of-age novels. But what if a teenager has to confront circumstances that would wither most adults? In his first young adult book All the Earth, Thrown to Sky, Joe R. Lansdale tells the story of Jack Catcher, a newly orphaned youth traveling in Depression-era America. Shelia Moses, a National Book Award Finalist, explores drug addiction and redemption in the harrowing Joseph's Grace. And David Rice, the author of Crazy Loco, demonstrates the trials facing Hispanic youth in his collection of short stories Heart-Shaped Cookies. Although it's infused with a pulsating sense of adventure - and is a lot of fun to read - Joe Schreiber's buzzed-about Au Revoir, Crazy European Chick definitely has its dark, overwhelming moments for Perry, who's at the heart of Schreiber's novel.

So yeah. Like I said, this year's festival is probably gonna blow our pants off. AND WE CAN'T WAIT TO BE PANTSLESS!

If you're planning on attending, let us know in the comments! And you best believe we'll have a recap on the site for those of you who don't get to come play with us. (We'll try not to make you too jealous.)