A book festival that drew about 13 authors and lasted barely an hour in its debut year is coming back to downtown Napa on Nov. 14 with more than 70 authors, an open mic, children's programming and wine for purchase. The free, all-day Napa Valley Book Festival runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Blue Oak School, and for the first time, anyone can walk in — last year's edition was members-only.
The event is organized by the Napa Valley Writers branch of the California Writers Club, according to The Napa Valley Register. Blue Oak School sits at 1455 Polk St. in downtown Napa, and the festival will fill the grounds with author tables, independent bookstore booths from Napa Bookmine and Copperfield's Books, food trucks and more. As the Register notes, this year's open-to-all event marks a shift from last year's members-only trial, and organizers have said they're looking for published authors to join the lineup, per a separate Napa Valley Register roundup.
From an Hour-Long Trial to a Full-Day Lineup
The scale-up is dramatic by any measure. Last year's inaugural festival featured roughly 13 authors and ran for about an hour; this year's version is set to feature more than 70, per the Register's reporting. Teri Stevens, an author and the festival's principal organizer, said the event helps readers connect with authors and discover new books while giving authors a chance to connect with audiences.
Stevens is also a participant this year — she wrote her debut novel, Makenzie's Ring, a story about ghostly friendship and self-discovery, illustrated by Mikayla Stevens. She's expected to staff a festival booth throughout the day, according to the Register's reporting. Yvonne Baginski, president of the Napa Valley Writers, expects the festival to keep growing next year, the outlet reports.
Sideways Author Headlines the Day
The festival's marquee name is Rex Pickett, author of Sideways, who will deliver the keynote presentation and a book signing from 1 to 2:15 p.m. His talk, titled The Fiction Writing Process: From the Blank Page to Publication, will cover finding an original voice, facing rejection and navigating the publishing world, the Register notes.
Earlier in the day, from 11:15 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., San Francisco Chronicle writer emeritus Tom Stienstra will give his own talk and book signing. He's promoting Heaven Delayed: One Man's Survival of Sixteen Near-Death Encounters, a book the outlet describes as chronicling his lifetime of adventures and brushes with death.
Children's Authors and a Napa Author's Rapid Output
Families can start the day with a children's story hour from 10 to 11 a.m. featuring local authors, with an open mic following later from 2:30 to 3:15 p.m. Among the children's authors is Claudette Shatto, a Napa children's author who is also a professor at Napa Valley College and an executive in the wine industry.
Shatto will promote two titles, The Gratitude Rock and Gazill Hill, at her festival booth, and she's releasing The Gratitude Rock, her second self-published book, this November. The book, aimed at children ages 4 to 8, follows sisters Rosa and Maria as they learn about gratitude after finding a rock; it's available in Spanish and uses a dyslexia-friendly font, the Register reports. Shatto will read the book in English at 10:15 a.m. during the children's story hour and plans a separate Spanish-language reading at her booth later in the day. She's said she wants to advise interested attendees on self-publishing, having completed her first book over four years and her second in just one.
A Growing Writers Community Behind the Event
The Napa Valley Writers branch has operated for 14 years as part of the California Writers Club, and more than 90 local writers meet with the group each month, according to the Register's reporting on the club. That built-in community helps explain how the festival could leap from a short, members-only gathering to a full-day public event in a single year.
Other California book festivals show how far that growth can go. The Sacramento Book Festival, hosted by the Sacramento branch of the California Writers Club, expanded from about 25 authors in its first year to more than 140 the following year, according to sacbee.com. A more recent promotion for the 2026 Sacramento event, posted on sacramentobookfestival.com, describes a free, all-ages event with three indoor performance halls and more than 270 authors, where attendees can chat with writers, buy their books and get them signed. Napa's festival is considerably smaller for now, but organizers' own trajectory — and Baginski's expectation that it will keep expanding — suggests this year's 70-plus authors may not be the ceiling.
