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Collaboration, community and love for the written word were celebrated at the 2025 Southern Festival of Books, presented by Vanderbilt University in partnership with Humanities Tennessee Oct. 18–19 in downtown Nashville.
The free event, the 37th in festival history, brought hundreds of prominent national authors together in dialogue with fellow writers, readers and thousands of Middle Tennesseans. It also marked the first year of an expanded partnership between the festival and Vanderbilt, evidence of the university’s deepening investment in the cultural fabric of the region.
The weekend kicked off Friday evening with Authors in the Round, an annual fundraiser where guests are invited to dine alongside 40 authors appearing at the festival. In her welcome remarks, Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs C. Cybele Raver noted the extraordinary collaboration that took place among the university, longtime festival organizer Humanities Tennessee, and author and Parnassus Books owner Ann Patchett—as well as many donors, sponsors and volunteers—to make the 2025 event possible after the loss of federal funding.
“When news spread that the festival’s future was uncertain, Tennesseans responded—not with resignation, but with resolve,” Raver said. “The outpouring of support from this community reaffirmed something powerful: that stories, ideas and the written word remain essential to our shared civic life.
“That’s why Vanderbilt University is so honored to serve as the presenting partner of this year’s festival,” she said. “At Vanderbilt, we believe that the humanities are not a luxury; they are a cornerstone of democracy and discovery. They help us wrestle with complexity, cultivate empathy, and see the world through someone else’s eyes.”
Raver thanked Alice Randall, writer-in-residence of African American and diaspora studies and holder of the Andrew W. Mellon Chair in the Humanities, and her daughter, Caroline Randall Williams, writer-in-residence of medicine, health and society, for serving as co-chairs of the sold-out dinner.
Saturday and Sunday brought book talks spanning every genre to the festival grounds at Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park and in spaces at the Tennessee State Museum and Tennessee State Library and Archives. These included festival headliner and National Humanities Medalist Joyce Carol Oates discussing her latest novel, Fox, in a conversation moderated by Raver. Oates was introduced by University Librarian Jon Shaw, who noted that the Southern Festival of Books provides an ideal venue for community members to gather in shared purpose and mission.
“Core to our values at Vanderbilt are curiosity, collaboration and a commitment to constructive discourse, as demonstrated in our Dialogue Vanderbilt program. Catalyzing bold ideas into knowledge breakthroughs is fundamental to our Discovery Vanderbilt initiative,” he said. “These same values are uniquely on display here and the essence of what this festival is about.”
Other prominent authors appearing at the festival included former U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith, 2024 Pulitzer Prize winner Jonathan Eig, award-winning fantasy writer Alix E. Harrow, John Prine memoirist Tom Piazza, culinary historian Michael W. Twitty in conversation with Nashville chef Sean Brock, musicians and children’s book co-authors Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo, and more. Numerous Vanderbilt faculty, alumni and staff participated as featured authors, session moderators or hosts.
The weekend also included book signings with authors, booths featuring titles by Vanderbilt University Press and other independent booksellers, musical performances by Blair School of Music students and others, and presentations by Vanderbilt students representing the Buchanan Library Fellowship, MFA Creative Writing program and first-year student programming.
The Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries joined Humanities Tennessee to lead the planning for this year’s festival in collaboration with Vanderbilt’s Office of the Provost, Communications and Marketing and Vanderbilt University Press.