2025 Festival

With more than 45 authors & presenters across 9 venues in Downtown Ithaca, nearly 30 programs, and a book fair on The Commons. 

Scroll down to see all the details!

Highlights

Cory Doctorow - Enshittification

Prolific author, activist, and journalist Cory Doctorow in conversation with TCPL Librarian Judd Karlman launched the Festival.

Eve L. Ewing - Original Sins

Educator, author, poet, and icon Eve L. Ewing in conversation with Sean Eversley-Bradwell and Nia Nunn at the State Theatre.

Blair Fell - Disco Witches of Fire Island

To celebrate our 5th annual festival, we launched an art contest. Ithaca-based illustrator Emily Howland created this year’s artwork reflecting a love of books in her design.

We had sunny autumn days looking for favorites at the Book Fair with:

Autumn Leaves Bookstore, Beacon Press, Black Walnut Books, Buffalo Street Books, Censored Press, Durland Alternatives Library, Haymarket Books, Ink Alchemy Publishing, The New Press, Odyssey Bookstore, PM Press, Riot Act, Saddle Road Press, Verso Books

2025 Schedule

Poetry Slams, Journal Making, Storytelling Workshops, Drag Story Hour, and book talks of all varieties, our 2025 schedule had something for everyone and every age.

  • Storytellers Bag Workshop with Yvonne Wakim Dennis

  • Freeman’s Challenge: The Murder That Shook America’s Original Prison for Profit with author Robin Bernstein & Karen Jaime

  • A People’s Guide to Abolition and Disability Justice with author Katie Tastrom

  • TCPL Baby & Toddler Story Time Outside

  • Booksellers on Bookselling with Danny Caine, Rachel Crawford, and Lisa Swayze

  • Jonathan Lethem in Coversation with Eleanor Henderson

  • Poetry Slam with Nia Nunn & Gladira Velazquez + DJ ha-MEEN

  • From Sun to Sun with author Kenneth Wishnia

  • The Godfather: The Movie is Better Than the Book

  • The Editor is IN Workshop with Leslie Daniels

  • Drop In Journal Making with Ithaca Print Commons

  • 100 Things to Do in Ithaca Before You Die with author Amanda Jaros Champion

  • After World with author Debbi Urbanski & Aaron Arm

  • Something New Under the Sun with author Alexandra Kleeman & Chris Holmes

  • Karl Marx, Private Eye with author Jim Feast & Jonathan Lethem

  • Storytelling with Jaime Warburton

  • What’s the Deal with Queer Romance with Susi Dumond, Timothy Janovsky, and Steven Salvatore in conversation with John Jacobson

  • Jonathan Lethem in conversation with Jim Feast

  • The Sapling Cage with author Margaret Killjoy & Elizabeth Sandifer

  • Book Talk & Ithaca Queer Lit Walking Tour with Dr. Jeffry Iavannone

  • An Evening With Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovitch From Cornell Class of 1991 to Award Winning Children’s Author

  • Zapatista Stories for Dreaming An-Other World with author Antonia Carcelén-Estrada

  • Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Movie is Better Than the Book

  • Drag Story Hour with Tilia Cordata & Coraline Chardonnay

  • YA Authors Tell All with authors Kalynn Bayron, Gray Bulla, and Steven Salvatore

  • Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich Read Aloud for Early Readers

  • Sing Me a Story! Read Me a Song! with John Simon & Cal Walker

  • GW Carver Gardens Project

  • A Panel of Poets with Jamaica Baldwin, Nicole Basta, and Dan Rosenberg

  • Mayor & Friends Read Aloud  with Mayor Robert Cantelmo & friends

  • Read Aloud for Grownups with Jennifer Savran-Kelly & friends

  • Playwrights’ Jam with Lesley Greene & AJ Sage

  • Abolishing Fossil Fuels: Lessons from Movements That Won with author Kevin A. Young

  • The Shining: The Movie is Better Than the Book

Looking forward to seeing you this year!