Visit the Boston Book Festival

The Boston Book Festival returns to Copley Square, bringing panels, book vendors, and writing activities.

The Boston Book Festival sets up shop in Copley Square on October 29. Photo courtesy of Boston Book Festival

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The 14th annual Boston Book Festival returns to town this year on the last Saturday in October. Free and open to the public, the festival hosts keynote speakers, writing workshops and contests, kids activities, poetry readings, book vendors of all kinds, and live entertainment.

Returning in person for the first time since 2019, the festival has attracted over 30,000 guests in the past. However, it’s not just for bibliophiles. Vendors, entertainers, and food trucks line Copley Square, while other events throughout the day take place in venues like the Boston Public Library and Old South Church. Local bookshops like Brattle also sell new and used books at pop-ups on the street.

Keynote speakers at this year’s festival include Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, a best-selling trauma researcher; Yiyun Li, a novelist and MacArthur Foundation Fellow; Malinda Lo, National Book Award winner; Tui T. Sutherland, a New York Times best-selling author; and Patrick Radden Keefe, an award-winning staff writer at The New Yorker. Other headlining speakers include Wajahat Ali, Steve Almond, and Dr. Deborah Birx.

“This year’s festival has a slightly smaller footprint than our last live event in 2019,” said Deborah Z Porter, BBF founder and executive director, in a statement. “But we are still welcoming nearly 250 presenters to our venues in the Boston Public Library, Old South Church, Church of the Covenant and Boston Architectural College, as well as the Goethe-Institut.”

Past presenters at the festival have included authors, artists, and journalists like Lemony Snicket (Daniel Handler), Ken Burns, Alicia Silverstone, Alison Bechdel, Mary Louise Kelly, and Rick Riordan (of the “Percy Jackson” series). A more detailed schedule for this year’s BBF will be posted on the event’s website in the coming weeks.

The Boston Book Festival, based out of Cambridge, holds programming year round, such as the Greater Roxbury Book Fair, Writers Fest, and Lit Crawl.