St. Louis County Library is closing its biggest branch to the public for an entire day so 22 young adult authors can take over instead. The fifth annual St. Louis Teen Book Festival lands Saturday, Oct. 10, at the Clark Family Branch in Ladue, and organizers are calling it the event's largest lineup yet.
The festival will shut down the entire 74,000-square-foot Clark Family Branch to regular public library services for the full day, according to St. Louis County Library. Food trucks will operate on-site during lunchtime. The branch opened in July 2024 as the largest facility in the county library system, replacing its former headquarters, per KSDK.
Doors open at 9:30 a.m. and programming begins at 10 a.m., with the keynote conversation led by Jasmine Guillory and Lynn Painter, as reported by Ladue News. Guillory is making her young adult debut with It's Only Dancing, a contemporary romantic comedy inspired by Dirty Dancing, while Painter is known for Better Than the Movies and Fake Skating, both of which are being adapted for the screen, the outlet notes.
A Bigger Lineup Than Ever
This year's roster of 22 authors includes Sarah Dessen, Maureen Johnson, April Henry, Libba Bray, Chloe Gong, Adib Khorram, Ama Ofuosa Lieb, Jessica L. Cozzi, Randy Ribay, Jeff Zentner, Samantha Markum and Soman Chainani, according to the same report. Among them, Lieb wrote Goldenborn, a fantasy novel drawing from Ghanaian mythology, and Cozzi wrote We've Hit Turbulence, a romantic comedy, while Ribay is a National Book Award finalist, Ladue News reports.
Chainani brings particular star power as the author behind The School for Good and Evil fantasy series, which spans seven books since its 2013 launch and was adapted into a 2022 Netflix feature starring Charlize Theron and Kerry Washington, per TIME. Bray, meanwhile, carries veteran literary credibility: she won the American Library Association's 2010 Michael L. Printz Award for her novel Going Bovine and is widely known for her Victorian gothic Gemma Doyle trilogy, according to the Young Adult Library Services Association.
The Library's Most-Attended Teen Event
The festival typically draws around 700 attendees and ranks as the library's most-attended event among teens, according to Sarah Wood, assistant manager of youth services at St. Louis County Library, as reported by Ladue News. Wood said the festival celebrates eager readers, and she hopes attendees will be inspired to read more, read new authors, and share books with friends and family.
The day includes multiple panels covering contemporary issues, dystopian fiction, fantasy, historical fiction, horror, mysteries and romance, plus a session on the writing and publishing process, per the same report. Book signing sessions begin at 3:30 p.m.
The festival is organized in partnership with The Novel Neighbor, an independent bookstore that opened in Webster Groves in 2014, which helps develop the author lineup and panels. Stephanie Skees, the bookstore's director of events, said the store creates panels bringing together authors with different experiences, perspectives and approaches to writing. Skees recommended reviewing the panel schedule in advance, noting that attendees may discover other authors at the festival they weren't previously familiar with.
Free Books, Food Trucks and a Pop-Up Shop
The Novel Neighbor will sell books on-site, and attendees can bring books from home or preorder titles through the bookstore for pickup at the festival, the Ladue News report states. The event is free, requires no tickets or registration, and welcomes readers of all ages.
The bookstore's nonprofit arm, The Noble Neighbor, was established in 2019 to fund author visits and distribute free books to students in under-resourced St. Louis schools, according to Town & Style. The nonprofit has provided more than 20,000 free books across the region, the outlet reports, underscoring the literacy mission behind the bookstore's festival partnership.
Why Teen Fiction Keeps Packing Them In
Print sales for young adult fiction remained nearly 50% higher in 2022 compared with pre-pandemic 2019 levels, propelled by viral discovery on platforms like TikTok, according to Circana BookScan tracking data cited by Circana. Romance has been a particular driver of that momentum, with romance readership and growth continuing to draw attention.
That national appetite for YA romance and fantasy helps explain why the Teen Book Festival's keynote pairing of Guillory and Painter, alongside fantasy heavyweights like Chainani, carries such draw. The festival takes place at the Clark Family Branch. The branch includes the Post Event Space and Plaza, sponsored by Post Holdings Inc., which Hoodline previously covered in a recent report on the branch's amenities. St. Louis County Library's author event series has been recognized as number one in the nation.
The Clark Family Branch was the final project of Your Library Renewed, a decade-long effort covering 19 branches. The festival is located at St. Louis County Library's Clark Family Branch, 1640 S. Lindbergh Blvd. in Ladue, and the branch can be reached at 314-994-3300.
