“Toro Obscuro,” Joel Salcido, poster artist for San Antonio Book Festival 2013, http://www.joelsalcidogallery.com/

A full day of readings by recently published Texas authors is on the horizon for Saturday, April 13. No need to steel yourself for a drive up I-35 because the San Antonio Public Library Foundation is bringing a fresh edition of the Texas Book Festival here to the Central Library and the Southwest School of Art for seven hours of readings, discussions and signings.

The preliminary schedule is so packed I assembled links to resolve (or attempt to resolve) conflicting pulls among the readings in advance. Definitely check the official website for updates before heading downtown:

All Day

• Book Sales
• Coloring Station, Painting Bookmarks; H-E-B Children’s Area
• Latino Leadership for the Library En Nuestras Palabras: My Story Van, Stories on the Porch, Create A Story, Meet the Story Tellers, Stories are Milagros for the Future; Central Library Plaza Walk

10 a.m.

• American Turnaround: Reinventing AT&T and GM and the Way We Do Business in the USA with Ed Whitacre; Moderator, Skip Hollandsworth; Central Library
• Bestselling thriller writer Alex Berenson; Moderator, David Hendricks; Central Library
• Carmen Tafolla (That’s Not Fair! / No Es Justo!; What Can You Do With a Paleta? / Qué puedes hacer con una paleta?); Children’s Area, Central Library
• María, Daughter of Immigrants with María Antonietta Berriozábal; Moderator, Graciela I. Sánchez; Southwest School of Art, Navarro Campus
• The Shadow Catcher: A U.S. Agent Infiltrates Mexico’s Deadly Crime Cartels with Hipolito Acosta; Moderator, Sergio Troncoso; Southwest School of Art, Navarro Campus
• You Can’t Go Home Again: Fiction about Family Secrets with Nan Cuba and Andrew Porter; Moderator, David Martin Davies; Southwest School of Art, Ursuline Campus
• Hugo Ortega’s Street Food Of Mexico with Hugo Ortega; Copper Kitchen
• Recycled art station with Mary Cantu; H-E-B Children’s Area
• Bubble Station; H-E-B Children’s Area
• Elijah Zane; Music in Frost Garden, Southwest School of Art

10:45 a.m.

• Elaine Scott (Buried Alive!: How 33 Miners Survived 69 Days Deep Under the Chilean Desert); Children’s Area, Central Library
• Storytelling with Sarah Loden; H-E-B Children’s Area

11 a.m.

• Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief with Lawrence Wright; Moderator, Robert Rivard; Central Library
• Every Love Story Is a Ghost Story: A Life of David Foster Wallace with biographer D.T. Max; Moderator, Billy Taylor; Central Library
• The Dallas Cowboys: The Outrageous History of the Biggest, Loudest, Most Hated, Best Loved Football Team in America with Joe Nick Patoski; Moderator, Joe Holley; Southwest School of Art, Navarro Campus
• Robert B. Parker’s “Ironhorse” with Robert Knott; Moderator, Wolfgang Niedert; Southwest School of Art, Navarro Campus
• Gran Cocina Latina: The Food of Latin America with Maricel Presilla; Copper Kitchen
• Pop-up book creation with Regina Sanders; H-E-B Children’s Area

11:15 a.m.

• Celebrating Small-Town Texas Souls with Liza Palmer and Lynda Rutledge; Moderator, Josie Seeligson; Southwest School of Art, Ursuline Campus

11:30 a.m.

• Don Tate (It Jes’ Happened: When Bill Traylor Started to Draw); Children’s Area, Central Library
• Melina; Music in Frost Garden, Southwest School of Art

Noon

• Unflinching Courage: Pioneering Women Who Shaped Texas with Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison; Moderator, Judge Susan Reed; Central Library
• 100 Tricks Every Boy Can Do: How My Brother Disappeared with Kim Stafford; Moderator, Naomi Shihab Nye; Central Library
• Big State, Big Politics: Erica Greider and James L. Haley; Moderator, Evan Smith; Southwest School of Art, Navarro Campus
• Sweet on Texas: Lovable Confections from the Lone Star State with Denise Gee; Copper Kitchen
• Storytelling with Elijah Zane; H-E-B Children’s Area

12:15 p.m.

• Jennifer Gaines Drez (Goodnight San Antonio); Children’s Area, Central Library

12:30 p.m.

• A Sense of Birthplace: Investigating the Past: Beatriz de la Garza and Sarah Cortez; Moderator, Yvette Benavides; Southwest School of Art, Navarro Campus

12:45 p.m.

• Epic Journeys, New Lands: Fiction about Uprooted Lives with Daniel Chacón, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni and Alex Espinoza; Moderator, Michael Soto; Southwest School of Art, Ursuline Campus

1 p.m.

• Sandra Cisneros performs from Have You Seen Marie?; Moderator, John Phillip Santos; Central Library

I always tell people that I became a writer not because I went to school but because my mother took me to the library.

Sandra Cisneros

• The Children of the Revolución with Lionel Sosa, panelists Dr. Maria Ferrier, Dr. Nef Garcia and Jesus Ramirez; Moderator, Gilberto M. Hinojosa; Central Library
• Diane Gonzales Bertrand (Sofía and the Purple Dress/Sofía y el vestido morado); Children’s Area, Central Library
• The Fight to Save Juárez: Life in the Heart of Mexico’s Drug War with Ricardo Ainslie; Moderator, Alfredo Corchado; Southwest School of Art, Navarro Campus
• Star Book Creations with Eric Reyna; H-E-B Children’s Area
• Chris Lopez; Music in Frost Garden, Southwest School of Art

1:45 p.m.

• Cynthia Levinson (We’ve Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children’s March); Children’s Area, Central Library
• The Ranch That Was Us with Becky Crouch Patterson; Moderator, Sheila Black; Southwest School of Art, Navarro Campus

2 p.m.

• The Boy Kings of Texas with Domingo Martinez; Moderator, John Phillip Santos; Central Library
• In Search of What Can’t Be Found: Two Journalists Hunt Elusive Legends with Stephen Harrigan and Bob Thompson; Moderator, Katy Flato; Central Library
• Where Done It?: Mysteries Set in Texas, with Jay Brandon and Miles Arceneaux; Moderator, Ed Conroy; Copper Kitchen

2:15 p.m.

• The Searchers: The Making of an American Legend with Glenn Frankel; Moderator, Clay Smith; Southwest School of Art, Ursuline Campus

2:30 p.m.

• Lupe Ruiz Flores (Alicia’s Fruity Drinks/Las aquas frescas de Alicia); Children’s Area, Central Library
• Finding Friday; Music in Frost Garden, Southwest School of Art

2:45 p.m.

• At War Over the Environment: Two Experts on the Politics of Parks and the Natural World with George Bristol and Char Miller; Moderator, Weir Labatt; Southwest School of Art, Navarro Campus

3 p.m.

• Esmeralda Santiago on Conquistadora; Moderator, José Rubén De León, Central Library
• For readers of Young Adult fiction: Summer of the Mariposas with Guadalupe Garcia McCall; Moderator, Yvette Benavides; Southwest School of Art, Navarro Campus
• Thinking caps and creativity crowns; H-E-B Children’s Area

3:15 p.m.

• H.W. Brands on his new biography of Ulysses S. Grant; Moderator, Gregory Curtis; Central Library
• Xavier Garza (Maximilian and the Mystery of the Guardian Angel); Children’s Area, Central Library
• The Distance Between Us: A Memoir/La Distancia entre Nosotros with Reyna Grande; Moderator, Gregg Barrios; Southwest School of Art, Ursuline Campus
• Our Lost Border: Essays on Life Amid the Narco-Violence with Sarah Cortez and Sergio Troncoso; Moderator, Cecilia Ballí; Copper Kitchen

4 p.m.

• A Celebration of South Texas Voices with moderator Sandra Cisneros and writers and poets Anel Flores, Erasmo Guerra, Laurie Ann Guerrero, Joe Jiménez and Pablo Miguel Martinez; Central Library
• Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (Grandma and the Great Gourd: A Bengali Folktale); Children’s Area, Central Library
• The Rise of Reagan (and the Aftermath of His Administration) with Robert Flynn and Gilbert Garcia; Moderator, Rick Casey; Southwest School of Art, Navarro Campus
• Storytelling with Javier Garza; H-E-B Children’s Area

4:15 p.m.

• Let the People In: The Life and Times of Ann Richards with biographer Jan Reid; Moderator, Jan Jarboe Russell
• San Antonio Poet Laureate Carmen Tafolla; Moderator, Ellen Riojas Clark; Southwest School of Art, Ursuline Campus
• In the Country of Empty Crosses with Arturo Madrid; Moderator, Tomás Ybarra-Frausto; Copper Kitchen

An incredible agenda for a first-time event (May there be many more).

Of course you will need breaks, so there will be children’s activities and music throughout the day.

And nourishing your mind makes you hungry, so some of San Antonio’s favorite food trucks will be parked nearby for refueling.

Hmm, this is San Antonio. Wonder where the beer stand is….

Note to Austinites: Your turn to hit I-35.

Note to Self: Never get so excited about something you decide to post the whole schedule – with custom links – again.

And thanks to the Mister Barista for that caffe corretto blast.

April 12, 2013, Update:

Just received the schedule for the Latino Leadership for the Library area just outside the Central Library, and it adds another slew of author appearances.