Seeking volunteers for the 2026 Louisiana Book Festival!

Book-loving volunteers are essential to the Louisiana Book Festival’s success. At this year's event on Saturday, October 31, we'll need hundreds of volunteers in a variety of capacities, including escorting authors, bookselling, concessions, programs, transportation, and more.

Volunteers are now being sought from all over the state, especially from Baton Rouge and surrounding areas, including employees of local businesses; librarians; high school, undergraduate and graduate students; Louisiana writers; and book lovers in general! We're happy to accommodate groups of friends, family, or organizations who wish to volunteer together. Volunteers must be sixteen (16) years of age or older to register.

Volunteers registered by Tuesday, October 6 will receive a free 2026 Louisiana Book Festival T-shirt, which features this year's artwork by Louisiana artist and author Malaika Favorite. Visit our site to learn more about available volunteer positions or to sign up or email us at lbfvolunteer@state.lib.la.us with any questions.

One Book, One Festival book discussion for 2026: Interview with the Vampire

In recognition of the fact that the Louisiana Book Festival takes place on Halloween, the subject of this year's One Book, One Festival book discussion will be the Anne Rice classic novel Interview with the Vampire. It is also the book's 50th anniversary! Each year, One Book, One Festival participants read the program’s featured material in advance and then join the scholar-led discussion with others at the festival. 

The program is open to all festival attendees and will be led by Dr. Gary Richards, professor of English and former chairman of the Department of English and Linguistics at the University of Mary Washington. Richards is an expert on southern literature and culture who previously taught at the University of New Orleans and has facilitated thirteen previous sessions since One Book, One Festival began in 2008.

Interview with the Vampire (1976) tells the story of Louis de Pointe du Lac, a vampire recounting his centuries-long existence to a young reporter in modern-day New Orleans, tracing a journey through guilt, longing, and the moral weight of immortality that begins in eighteenth-century Louisiana. A landmark of American gothic fiction, the novel launched Rice's bestselling Vampire Chronicles series and reshaped the genre by centering its protagonist's own consciousness and anguish. Its deep roots in Louisiana helped make Rice one of the state's most iconic literary voices and helped cement New Orleans as a capital of gothic imagination in popular culture.

Recently confirmed authors and titles featured at LBF 2026

Over 150 featured authors and presenters have been confirmed to date for the 2026 Louisiana Book Festival. As our staff continues to add to the lineup, we’ll highlight some of the recently booked participants here. Bookmark and stay tuned to LouisianaBookFestival.org for news and updates – in early fall we’ll be posting the complete lineup of featured authors and programs.

Louisiana Readers' Choice honorees featured

Winners of the 2025-26 Louisiana Readers' Choice Awards will be recognized at a special award ceremony during the Louisiana Book Festival. The annual awards program motivates young readers to engage with high-quality literature and vote for their favorite books. This year more than 26,600 Louisiana K-12 students read over 89,000 books to select the winners.

Louisiana students in grades K-12 vote after reading or listening to two or three nominated titles corresponding to their grade level. Booklists are carefully chosen by committees of school and public librarians across the state and include a mix of high-quality fiction, nonfiction, graphic novels, and poetry representing a variety of genres and reading preferences.

Now in its 27th year, the program recorded 26,658 total votes – a 10.46 percent increase over the previous year – and 89,460 books read, up 8.22 percent. Louisiana students have cast more than half a million votes and read over 1.6 million books in total since the program's founding.


Readers' Choice Award Winners confirmed to attend the 2026 Louisiana Book Festival include Kelly J. Baptist (Eb & Flow, Grade 6-8 winner); Tadgh Bentley (One Chicken Nugget, K-2 winner); Anastasia Magloire Williams, Frank Murphy, and Charnaie Gordon (Heroic Heart: An Illustrated Biography of Joe Delaney, Grade 3-5 winner); Deya Muniz (The Princess and the Grilled Cheese Sandwich, Teen winner); and Nicki Pau Preto (Bonesmith, Teen honor).

Exhibitor update, Exhibitors Row spots available

The Louisiana Book Festival provides the perfect opportunity for authors, booksellers, publishers, scholarly programs, and other literary-related businesses and organizations to showcase their products and services to thousands of book lovers. Each year over 100 exhibitors participate in the event.

For the 2026 festival, exhibitor booths and minibooths have already sold out, but “Exhibitors Row” spaces are still available. These are external tables located along the west walkway between Spanish Town Road and the State Capitol or in front of the Capitol Park Museum. Exhibitors' Row packages include one six-foot draped table, two chairs, a sign, and a wastepaper bin. The price to reserve a space is $150 until September 13, increasing to $175 until registration closes on September 27.

The 2026 Louisiana Book Festival date is Saturday, October 31. For more information or to register as an exhibitor online, check out our Exhibitor Information page or email us at lbfexhibitor@state.lib.la.us for additional information.

The 2026 Louisiana Book Festival is October 31!

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