Las Vegas Book Festival

Free Literary Event Includes Lectures, Activities, Workshops, Book Signings And More For All Ages

 The Las Vegas Book Festival, now in its 21st year, returns to downtown Las Vegas Saturday, Oct. 22, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. The free annual event is held at the Historic Fifth Street School, 401 S. Fourth St., and is open to all ages.

The 2022 Las Vegas Book Festival will feature four headline authors — Carl Bernstein, Elin Hilderbrand, Kiley Reid and chef Hubert Keller. Topics include politics, book club favorites, diversity and cookbooks. Each headliner will sign books after their sessions.

Carl Bernstein, famed American investigative journalist and author, who, in 1972, while a reporter for The Washington Post, teamed up with Bob Woodward to report on the infamous Watergate scandal, will appear at the Las Vegas Book Festival at 5:00 p.m. p.m. for a discussion moderated by Las Vegas Review-Journal politics editor, Steve Sebelius. A prolific author, Bernstein’s most recent book is “Chasing History: A Kid in the Newsroom,” a New York Times Bestseller about becoming a teenage reporter during the Kennedy era and turbulent 1960s. His other books include “All the President’s Men” (1974) and “A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton” (2007), among others.

Romance novelist Elin Hilderbrand is a favorite of book clubs across the country. A native of Nantucket, Massachusetts, the setting for most of her books, Hilderbrand was dubbed “the queen of beach reads” by New York Magazine in 2019. She published her first novel, “The Beach Club,” in the summer of 2000. Her 2019 novel, “Summer of ‘69” was her first to debut at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. Hilderbrand will appear at the festival at 3:15 p.m. for a “book club” discussion moderated by Steph from Mercedes in the Morning (Mix 94.1) and Kayla from The Chet Buchanan Show (KLUC 98.5).

Author Kiley Reid, whose debut novel, “Such a Fun Age,” was published in December 2019 and was ranked #3 on the New York Times hardcover fiction list within two weeks of its release, is joining the festival this year. The first selection of 2020 for Reese Witherspoon’s Book Club, “Such a Fun Age” was critically lauded by several media outlets, including The Atlantic, which said that the book was “A funny fast-paced social satire about privilege in America.” She will appear at the festival at 1:30 p.m. for a discussion moderated by Las Vegas-Clark County Library District Executive Director Kelvin Watson.

Celebrity chef, restaurateur, TV personality and author, Hubert Keller, who operates Fleur by Hubert Keller, featuring his contemporary French cooking accented with cuisine from around the world, is another festival headliner. Keller has appeared on shows like “The Chew,” “Rachel Ray,” “The Travel Channel,” “ The Food Network,” “The Real House Wives of Orange County” and “Good Morning America.” Chef Keller’s own cooking show, “Secrets of a Chef,” aired on PBS for multiple seasons showing the chef visiting sites like Rio de Janeiro, Paris, Honolulu, Cuba, Las Vegas and San Francisco. His latest cookbook is “Souvenirs – Memoires, Stories and Recipes from My Life,” written with Penelope Wisner. Keller will appear at the festival at 12:00 p.m. for a discussion moderated by well-known food critic and attorney John Curtas.

A full schedule of activities that includes panel discussions, book signings, arts and crafts for children and musical performances can be found here.

Produced by the city of Las Vegas, Nevada Humanities and NV Energy, the event also is supported with funding from donors via The Mayor’s Fund for Las Vegas LIFE. Additional sponsors include the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Audacy Radio and The CW. Gold/silver/bronze sponsors include Arts Midwest, Healthplan of Nevada, the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District, Las Vegas Rotary and the UFC. Additional event sponsors include the National Endowment for the Arts, Nevada Center for the Book and Spread the Word Nevada.

For updates and information, visit lasvegasbookfestival.com.