StoryFest is a multi-day, genre-spanning literary festival, now in its seventh year. It is a celebration of the story in all its forms and storytellers from across all media. Those attending will hear award-winning and debut authors talk about their work and books.
StoryFest is back for its seventh edition in 2024, with an accomplished lineup that features a genre-spanning cohort of some of the leading lights in letters.
The Westport Library’s annual literary festival — the largest annual literary festival in Connecticut and one of the biggest in the Northeast — will be held Friday, September 20, through Sunday, September 22, featuring acclaimed author, essayist, and editor Roxane Gay (Bad Feminist, Difficult Women), best-selling writer Christopher Golden (Hellboy, The House of Last Resort), and award-winning author Claire Messud (The Emperor’s Children, This Strange Eventful History), plus many more.
The event will also feature a special Library tribute to the late Sybil Steinberg and a PitchFest workshop delivered by Bloom Writers’ Studio. Steinberg, the former Publisher’s Weekly editor who shared her much-anticipated Sybil’s List with the Westport community every spring and winter, passed away earlier this year.
Among the authors currently scheduled to appear at StoryFest 2024 are Kirsten Bakis, Julia Bartz, Clay Chapman, May Cobb, Rachel Harrison, Isi Hendrix, Don P. Hooper, Gabino Iglesias, Hal Johnson, Chris Knapp, Ryan La Sala, Josh Malerman, GennaRose Nethercott, Anna Noyes, Courtney Preiss, Oliver Radclyffe, Ainissa Ramirez, Shannon C.F. Rogers, Hugh Ryan, Peng Shepherd, and Diana Sussman. In addition, Jennifer Baker will conduct a live recording of her podcast, Minorities in Publishing, and storied editor Ellen Datlow returns to the Library’s Trefz Forum for a panel discussion with authors from her latest anthology.
Additional attendees will be announced in the coming weeks and throughout the summer.
“Our little literary festival that is turning 7 this fall, and it’s not so little anymore,” said StoryFest organizer and co-founder Alex Giannini, who serves as the Library’s associate director of programs and events. “StoryFest is always my favorite event of the year, and we can't wait to see friends old and new, and to talk about our favorite thing: books!”
“StoryFest has always been and will forever be the bar by which other author conventions are judged,” said Chapman, who will be attending StoryFest for a third consecutive year. “The awe-inspiring roster of authors, the intimacy between writers and the audience, and the level of passion both onstage and off truly sets this festival aside from all the others.”
The multi-talented Gay will kick off the festival Friday evening, in discussion with author and memoirist Radclyffe. Gay’s writing has appeared in Best American Mystery Stories 2014, Best American Short Stories 2012, Best Sex Writing 2012, A Public Space, McSweeney’s, Tin House, Oxford American, American Short Fiction, Virginia Quarterly Review, and many others.
In addition, Gay is a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times and the author of the books Ayiti, An Untamed State, The New York Times best-seller Bad Feminist, the nationally best-selling Difficult Women, and The New York Times best-selling Hunger. She is also the author of World of Wakanda for Marvel.
Gay has several books forthcoming and is at work on television and film projects. She also has a newsletter, The Audacity, and previously hosted the podcast, The Roxane Gay Agenda.
Radclyffe is the author of Adult Human Male. His essays have appeared in The New York Times and Electric Lit, and his newest memoir, Frighten the Horses, is debuting in September through Roxane Gay Books.