On September 12, 2026, San Jose, California, will hold its first annual book festival. That’s a very exciting statement for me because this festival was my idea. After attending successful book festivals in surrounding communities, I asked myself why San Jose didn’t have one.
Book festivals attract families, educators, professionals and engaged consumers. Pew Research found that adults in households earning $75,000 or more were significantly more likely to have read a book than adults earning under $30,000. More recent Pew research found that 88% of college graduates had read a book during the previous year, compared with 60% of adults with a high school education or less. Education and household income are closely connected to consumer purchasing power.
The latest research also shows that 75% of American adults read at least one book during the past year, so this is not a small or specialized audience. It is a broad market that includes parents, young adults, grandparents and professionals.
“Festivals are where books meet readers. Where stories step off the page and into conversation. Where writers and audiences encounter each other directly—not through algorithms, but through dialogue.”
~Julie Finch, Keynote Speech, 2026 London Book Fair
It’s exhilarating for an author to talk about their book to readers, and for readers to meet new favorite authors. So I talked to my councilmember, created a committee, and began to plan a festival.
The San Jose Book Festival will be held September 12, 2026, at Eastridge Center in San Jose, California. We have 40 authors coming to the event, as well as 5 publishers and 5 other literary organizations. Our keynote speaker will be Karen Joy Fowler, author of Booth, and Booksmart, the bookstore at the mall, will host author panels all day. We will be raffling off signed books by the attending authors, and SJBF merchandise will be on sale, too. Best of all, admission is FREE! Please come by and visit us!
For more information, or to sign up for our newsletter, go to sanjosebookfestival.org
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