Texas Book Festival authors, friends, and coordinators gathered at The Contemporary Austin tonight to share some exciting news.

After half an hour of mingling and catching up, folks turned their attention to Board Chair Marc Winkelman, new Executive Director Lois Kim, and new Literary Director Steph Opitz, who in turn shared their excitement over the Oct. 26-27 event, the stunning and stark event poster by photographer Randal Ford, and the 225-plus authors who are confirmed for the fall fest.

Of all the confirmed readings, signings, panels, cooking demos, and kids' activities, Opitz is especially looking forward to some unique events with a few: Kevin Fedarko (The Emerald Mile) is going kayaking with 20 or so lucky Austinites, R.L. Stine will be telling ghost stories in a cemetery, and James McBride (The Good Lord Bird) will be singing spirituals over in the music tent.

More than a few big names from across the world will be joining this year, including the Wall Street Journal's Reed Albergotti and Vanessa O'Connell, who broke the Lance Armstrong doping story; Reza Aslan, a religious scholar and contributing editor for the Daily Beast; and many more, from Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison to Jeopardy! champ Ken Jennings. There are plenty of other familiar names on the list as well: Owen Egerton, Domenica Ruta, Stephen Harrigan, Fiona Maazel, Marion Winik, David Alan, Lucinda Hutson, and Mando Rayo and Jarod Neece, to name a few.

Check out the full list here, divided by section:

Artbook

Eric Draper, Front Row Seat

David K. Langford and Lorie Woodward Cantu, Hillingdon Ranch: Four Seasons, Six Generations

Roy Flukinger, Arnold Newman: At Work

John Rohrbach, Color

Cookbook

David Alan, Tipsy Texan: Spirits and Cocktails from the Lone Star State

Beekman Boys: Josh Kilmer-Purcell and Brent Ridge, The Beekman 1802 Heirloom Dessert Cookbook

Addie Broyles, The Austin Food Blogger Alliance Cookbook

Tim Byres, Smoke: New Firewood Cooking

Lucinda Hutson, Viva Tequila!

Diana Kennedy, My Mexico

Jarod Neece and Mando Rayo, Austin Breakfast Tacos

Daniel Vaughn, The Prophets of Smoked Meat: A Journey Through Texas Barbecue

Robb Walsh, The Hot Sauce Cookbook and Barbecue Crossroads

Joe Yonan, Eat Your Vegetables: Bold Recipes for the Single Cook

Fiction

Robert Antoni, As Flies to Whatless Boys

Amy Brill, The Movement of Stars: A Novel

Lea Carpenter, Eleven Days

Catherine Chung, Forgotten Country

Dianne Dixon, The Book of Someday

Ben Dolnick, At the Bottom of Everything: A Novel

Jennifer duBois, Cartwheel: A Novel

Geoff Dyer, Zona: A Book About a Film About a Journey to a Room

Owen Egerton, Everyone Says That at the End of the World

Stephen Elliott, Happy Baby

Aminatta Forna, The Hired Man

Ben Fountain, Dallas Noir

Karen Joy Fowler, We Are Completely Beside Ourselves

Cristina Garcia, King of Cuba

Alex Gilvarry, From the Memoirs of a Non-Enemy Combatant

Michael Glasscock, Utopia, Texas

Manuel Gonzales, The Miniature Wife: and Other Stories

Masha Hamilton, What Changes Everything

Peter Heller, The Dog Stars

Anne Hillerman, Spider Woman's Daughter

A.M. Homes, May We Be Forgiven: A Novel

Bronwen Hruska, Accelerated: A Novel

Lindsay Hunter, Don't Kiss Me: Stories

Paulette Jiles, Lighthouse Island

Stephen Graham Jones, Flushboy

Zachary Karabashliev, 18% Gray

Kathleen Kent, The Outcasts

Julie Kibler, Calling Me Home

Brian Kimberling, Snapper

Adam Langer, The Salinger Contract

Joe R. Lansdale, The Thicket

Starling Lawrence, The Thief of Words

Jonathan Lethem, Dissident Gardens

Jeff Lindsay, Dexter's Final Cut: A Novel

Kelly Luce, Three Scenarios in Which Hana Sasaki Grows a Tail

Eric Lundgren, The Facades

Fiona Maazel, Woke Up Lonely

Adam Mansbach, The Dead Run

Ayana Mathis, The Twelve Tribes of Hattie

Joyce Maynard, After Her

Colin McAdam, A Beautiful Truth

James McBride, The Good Lord Bird

Fiona McFarlane, The Night Guest

Shannon McKenna Schmidt, Writers Between the Covers

Carson Mell, Saguaro: The Life and Adventures of Bobby Allen Bird

Peter Orner, Last Car Over the Sagamore Bridge

George Pelecanos, The Double (Spero Lucas)

Neal Pollack, Open Your Heart (A Matt Bolster Yoga Mystery)

Wayne Rebhorn, Boccaccio's The Decameron

Ray Robertson, David

Ethan Rutherford, The Peripatetic Coffin and Other Stories

Bob Shacochis, The Woman Who Lost Her Soul

Elissa Schappell, Blueprints for Building Better Girls

Robin Sloan, Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore

David Hale Smith, Dallas Noir

Matthew Specktor, American Dream Machine

J. Courtney Sullivan, The Engagements

Manil Suri, The City of Devi: A Novel

Chris L. Terry, Zero Fade

Jean-Christophe Valtat, Luminous Chaos: A Novel (The Mysteries of New Venice)

Claire Vaye Watkins, Battleborn

Shawn Vestal, Godforsaken Idaho

Daniel Wallace, The Kings and Queens of Roam: A Novel

Jess Walter, Beautiful Ruins

Teddy Wayne, The Love Song of Jonny Valentine

George Wier, Long Fall From Heaven

Meg Wolitzer, The Interestings

Mario Alberto Zambrano, Lotería

Tom Zigal, Many Rivers to Cross

Mary Kay Zuravleff, Man Alive!

Nonfiction

Ricardo Ainslie, The Fight to Save Juarez: LIfe in the Heart of Mexico's Drug War

Holly Aker, Shaun Martin, and Caroline Wallace: Austin Beer: Capital City History on Tap

Reed Albergotti and Vanessa O'Connell, Wheelmen: Lance Armstrong, the Tour de France, and the Greatest Sports Conspiracy Ever

Jonathan Alter, The Center Holds: Obama and His Enemies

Scott Anderson, Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East

Reza Aslan, Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth

Hugh Aynesworth, November 22, 1963: Witness to History

Dan Balz, Collision 2012: Obama vs. Romney and the Future of Elections in America

Deni Béchard, Empty Hands, Open Arms: The Race to Save Bonobos in the Congo and Make Conservation Go Viral

A. Scott Berg, Wilson

Mark Binelli, Detroit City Is the Place to Be: The Afterlife of an American Metropolis

Scott Blackwood and Dean Blackwood, Rise and Fall of Paramount Records: Volume I

Philip Bobbitt, The Garments of Court and Palace: Machiavelli and the World that He Made

H.W. Brands, The Man Who Saved the Union: Ulysses S. Grant in War and Peace

Alfredo Corchado, Midnight in Mexico: A Reporter's Journey Through a Country's Descent Into Darkness

Steve Davis and Bill Minutaglio, Dallas 1963

William Eggers, The Solution Revolution: How Business, Government, and Social Enterprises Are Teaming Up to Solve Society's Toughest Problems

Benita Eisler, The Red Man's Bones: George Catlin, Artist and Showman

David Ensminger, Left of the Dial: Conversations With Punk Icons

Kevin Fedarko, The Emerald Mile: The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon

David Finkel, Thank You for Your Service

Glenn Frankel, The Searchers: The Making of an American Legend

Kate Galbraith and Asher Price, The Great Texas Wind Rush: How George Bush, Ann Richards, and a Bunch of Tinkerers Helped the Oil and Gas State Win the Race to Wind Power

Erica Grieder, Big, Hot, Cheap, and Right: What America Can Learn from the Strange Genius of Texas

Jessica Grogan, Encountering America: Humanistic Psychology, Sixties Culture, and the Shaping of the Modern Self

Jeff Guinn, Manson: The Life and Times of Charles Manson

Chad Hammett, Two Prospectors: The Letters of Sam Shepard and Jonny Dark

Stephen Harrigan, The Eye of the Mammoth: Selected Essays

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, Unflinching Courage: Pioneering Women Who Shaped Texas

Ken Jennings, Because I Said So!: The Truth Behind the Myths, Tales, and Warnings Every Generation Passes Down to Its Kids

Jeffrey Stuart Kerr, Seat of Empire: The Embattled Birth of Austin, Texas

Nick Kotz, The Harness Maker's Dream: Nathan Kallison and the Rise of South Texas

Taya Kyle on behalf of Chris Kyle, American Sniper: Memorial Edition

Linda Leavell, Holding On Upside Down: The Life and Work of Marianne Moore

Mark Leibovich, This Town

Michael J. Lennon, Norman Mailer: A Double Life

Jerome Loving, Confederate Bushwhacker: Mark Twain in the Shadow of the Civil War

Lynda Obst, Sleepless in Hollywood: Tales from the New Abnormal in the Movie Business

George Packer, The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America

Elena Passarello, Let Me Clear My Throat: Essays

Betsy Prioleau, Swoon

Byron Reese, Infinite Progress: How the Internet and Technology Will End Ignorance, Disease, Hunger, and War

Kevin Smokler, Practical Classics: 50 Reasons to Reread 50 Books You Haven't Touched Since High School

Deanne Stillman, Desert Reckoning

Rose Styron, Selected Letters of William Styron

Margaret Talbot, The Entertainer: Movies, Magic, and My Father’s Twentieth Century

John Taliaferro, All the Great Prizes: The Life of John Hay, From Lincoln to Roosevelt

Terry Teachout, Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington

Brad Tyer, Opportunity, Montana: Big Copper, Bad Water, and the Burial of an American Landscape

Steven Weinberg, Texas Writer Award Winner

Alan Weisman, Countdown: Our Last Best Hope for a Future on Earth?

Howard Willens, History Will Prove Us Right: Inside the Warren Commission Investigation into the Assassination of John F. Kennedy

Richard Wolffe, The Message: The Reselling of President Obama

Lawrence Wright, Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief

Memoir

David Berg,

Allen Childs, We Were There: Revelations from the Dallas Doctors Who Attended to JFK on November 22, 1963

Nick Flynn, The Reenactments: A Memoir

Leigh Newman, Still Points North: One Alaska Childhood, One Grown Up World, One Long Journey Home

Domenica Ruta, With or Without You: A Memoir

Rosie Schaap, Drinking With Men

David Schickler, The Dark Path: A Memoir

Dean Smith, Cowboy Stuntman: From Olympic Gold to the Silver Screen

Justin St. Germain, Son of a Gun: A Memoir

Jocob Tomsky, Heads in Beds: A Reckless Memoir of Hotels, Hustles, and So-Called Hospitality

Marion Winik, Highs in the Low Fifties: How I Stumbled through the Joys of Single Living

Children’s – Young Adult

Jon Agee, Little Santa

Katherine Applegate, The One and Only Ivan

Mac Barnett and Jon Scieszka, Battle Bunny

John Bemelmans Marciano, Madeline and the Old House in Paris

Sophie Blackall, Ivy & Bean

Monica Brown, Marisol McDonald and the Clash Bash

Clark Burbidge, The Prodigals: Giants in the Land

Amy Rose Capetta, Entangled

Alexandra Coutts, Tumble & Fall

Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin, Click, Clack, Boo!: A Tricky Treat

Caprice Crane, Confessions of a Hater

Matt de la Pena, The Living

Tracy Deebs, Doomed

Kristina Ellis, Confessions of a Scholarship Winner: The Secrets That Helped Me Win $500,000 in Free Money for College-How You Can Too!

Brian Floca, Locomotive

Gayle Forman, Just One Year

Kami Garcia, Unbreakable

Xavier Garza, Maximillian and the Bingo Rematch

Adam Gidwitz, The Grimm Conclusion

Marcia Goldman, Lola Goes to Work: A Nine-to-Five Therapy Dog

Karen Harrington, Sure Signs of Crazy

Edward Hemingway, Bad Apple: A Tale of Friendship

P.J. Hoover, Solstice

Kate Hosford, Infinity and Me

Gordon Korman, The Hypnotist: Book 1

Jessica Khoury, Origin

Claire Legrand, The Year of Shadows

Diana Lopez, Ask My Mood Ring How I Feel

Bennett Madison, September Girls

Yuyi Morales, Niño Wrestles the World

Herman Parish, Amelia Bedelia Chapter Book #1: Amelia Bedelia Means Business

Joanna Philbin, Rules of Summer

Aprilynne Pike, Earthbound

James Preller, Scary Tales: Good Night Zombie

Chris Raschka, Daisy Gets Lost

Adam Rex, Moonday

Adam Rubin, Secret Pizza Party

Sergio Ruzzier, Bear and Bee

Leila Sales, This Song Will Save Your Life

Liz Scanlon, Happy Birthday, Bunny!

Bob Shea, Unicorn Thinks He’s Pretty Great

Steve Sheinkin, The Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism & Treachery

Neal Shusterman, UnSouled

Lemony Snicket, “When Did You See Her Last?” (All the Wrong Questions)

Bob Staake, Bluebird

R.L. Stine, A Midsummer Night’s Scream

Elizabeth Suneby, Razia’s Ray of Hope: One Girl’s Dream of an Education

James Swanson, The President Has Been Shot: The Assassination of John F. Kennedy

Don Tate (illustrator), Hope’s Gift

Heather Terrell, Relic: The Books of Eva

Duncan Tonatiuh, Pancho Rabbit and the Coyote: A Migrant’s Tale

Jude Watson, The 39 Clues: Unstoppable: Nowhere to Run

Brian Yansky, Homicidal Aliens & Other Disappointments

Gabrielle Zevin, Birthright: In the Age of Love and Chocolate

* Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated Marc Winkelman's title and misspelled the poster artist's first name.

For all our Texas Book Festival coverage, visit our TXBF landing page here.