Bill Gates headlines additional authors, culinary and musical offerings announced for the 2023 New Orleans Book Festival at Tulane University
Microsoft co-founder, business leader and philanthropist Bill Gates leads a prestigious and award-winning group of authors, children’s authors, local chefs and musicians who round out the 2023 New Orleans Book Festival at Tulane University.
The second annual New Orleans Book Festival at Tulane University returns March 9-11 on Tulane’s uptown campus. The festival is free and open to the public. A full schedule of events will be released in the coming weeks. The complete 2023 lineup can be found here.
“The New Orleans Book Festival exemplifies Tulane’s mission to create and promote knowledge that enriches the community and region it calls home. This Mardi Gras for the mind is an exciting, not-to-be-missed opportunity for the entire community to gather together and grow culturally and intellectually as we celebrate some of the country’s greatest authors and most impactful works,” said Tulane University President Michael A. Fitts.
"This Mardi Gras for the mind is an exciting, not-to-be-missed opportunity for the entire community to gather together and grow culturally and intellectually as we celebrate some of the country’s greatest authors and most impactful works."
- President Michael A. Fitts
Along with Gates, additional authors joining the lineup include Sarah M. Broom, James Carville, Sharon Epperson, Christopher John Farley, Malcolm Gladwell, Gary Ginsberg, Claudia Gray, Richard Haass, Douglas Harris, Ben Jealous, Michael Kuczynski, Katy Morlas, Walter Mosley, Scott Nelson, Peter Ricchiuti, Savannah Sellers, Ethan Skaggs and Nick Spitzer.
The popular culinary symposium features a distinguished lineup of chefs, including Kevin Belton, Molly Kimball, Alon Shaya, Susan Spicer, Bryant Terry and Poppy Tooker. The group will participate in roundtable discussions and food tastings.
The Preservation All-Stars will close the book festival with a musical celebration on Saturday afternoon with their famous New Orleans traditional jazz performance.
Family Day at the Festival will take place from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, March 11, in Avron B. Fogelman Arena in the Devlin Fieldhouse. The festival will once again partner with Scholastic, the global children’s publishing, education and media company, and feature a group of talented and award-winning local and national children’s authors. Family Day is open and accessible to all children of our community and their families.
The children’s authors include Shawn Amos (Cookies & Milk), Shannon Kelley Atwater (Alligators Don’t Like Flowers), Alex Beard (The Lying King/Crocodile’s Tears), Johnette Downing (Five Little Possums/Today is Monday in Louisiana), Marti Dumas (Wildseed Witch/Jaden Toussaint, the Greatest), Matt Haines (The Little Book of King Cake), Julie Buehrle Luyster (Our 5 Senses: What We See, Hear, Smell, Taste and Touch), Big Chief Juan Pardo (When the Morning Comes: A Mardi Gras Indian Story), Michael Strecker (Young Comics Guide to Telling Jokes, Books 1+2; Jokes for Crescent City Kids), Valerie Thompkins (Boys Like Me) and Gayle Webre (When I was an Alligator).
Scholastic authors Traci N. Todd (2022 Coretta Scott King honoree Nina: A Story of Nina Simone; Holding Her Own: The Exceptional Life of Jackie Ormes) and Traci Swain (Finding a Friend) will also hold featured sessions.
“Our 2023 lineup is a collection of some of the most talented and unique individuals who excel at their respective craft. We are so excited to share this offering with the New Orleans community, booklovers, enthusiasts and families around the state and Gulf Coast region. Our family day will once again feature local and national award-winning authors whose stories will capture the imagination and creativity of the children in the audience,” said Cheryl Landrieu, festival co-chair.
“We are elated to announce this amazing group of innovative and creative authors for our second book festival,” said Walter Isaacson, festival co-chair and the Leonard A. Lauder Professor of American History and Values in Tulane’s School of Liberal Arts. “We will once again offer a very diverse and engaging lineup for three days, and we believe there are authors and discussions for children and adults of all ages.”
“We couldn’t be more excited to participate once again in this wonderful festival and sponsor Family Day, a day devoted to bringing communities together to celebrate the magic of discovering a new book,” said Judy Newman, President and Reader in Chief of Scholastic Book Clubs. “Scholastic shares the New Orleans Book Festival’s mission of making books accessible to all and helping children find the joy in reading, and we can’t wait to bring so many of our beloved authors to New Orleans for what is sure to be a truly memorable day.”
Along with Scholastic, several other local groups have partnered with the festival to sponsor Family Day, including 826 New Orleans, Children's Hospital, The Louisiana Children's Museum, City of New Orleans Mayor's Office of Youth and Families, City Year, Geaux Girl! Magazine, KID smart, Little Free Library, Make Music NOLA, Muses, New Orleans Public Library, One Book One New Orleans, Stair New Orleans, Stone Center for Latin American Studies, Strong City, Tulane Brain Institute: Book on Brains Program, Tulane Department of Psychology, Brain and Development Lab, Tulane Pediatrics, Tulane University’s Clinical Translational Unit and the Youth Empowerment Project.
Please click here to view a list of current sponsors and partners for the New Orleans Book Festival at Tulane University.
All events will take place on Tulane’s uptown campus, including the Avron B. Fogelman Arena in the Devlin Fieldhouse, the Malkin Sacks Commons, Dixon Hall, the Lavin-Bernick Center for University Life, McAlister Auditorium, the Navy ROTC Building, the Goldring/Woldenberg Business Complex and the Berger Family Lawn.
For more information on the New Orleans Book Festival at Tulane University, please visit www.bookfest.Tulane.edu or follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
