Southern Festival of Books

Program Overview

The Annual Southern Festival of Books Humanities Tennessee's Southern Festival of Books: A Celebration of the Written Word (SFB) was first held in Nashville on the second full weekend (Friday-Sunday) in October, 1989, and has been held annually on the same weekend since then. SFB is nationally known among authors, readers, other festivals/Humanities Councils, publishers, and publicists. It is among the oldest book festivals in the country and has served as a model for other book festivals, inspiring the start of the National Book Festival, the Texas Book Festival, the South Dakota Book Festival, among others.

One of the key features of the Festival is HT's dedication to
excellence in programming. SFB director and youth programs' director keep abreast of all new releases of importance, regularly reading publisher catalogs, industry publications of note, blogs, bestseller lists and lists of forthcoming books. They visit New York City twice annually to meet with publishers and review possibilities for SFB, including attendance at the
largest book convention in the country annually. Because of this dedication, we are proud to offer Nashville and our region the very best each year.