The Sonoma Valley Authors Festival returns April 26-28 with a lineup of esteemed authors and speakers for the seventh annual event at the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa.
The three-day festival offers speaker presentations, breakout sessions and opportunities for engagement with fellow authors. Literature enthusiasts are invited to join authors of many genres and speakers in science, technology and medicine at the popular event.
The Sonoma Valley Authors Festival (SVAF) was designed to “stimulate the minds and nurture the souls of readers.”
List of speakers
The 2024 speakers include Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Doris Kearns Goodwin; “Killers of the Flower Moon” author David Grann; bestselling author Hampton Sides; “The Joy Luck Club” writer Amy Tan; Irish novelist Colm Tóibín; biographer Jonathan Eig, who wrote “King: A life” about Martin Luther King Jr.; Elliot Ackerman, a former Marine who writes about war; retired U.S. Navy Admiral James Stavridis; Kori Schake, the director of foreign and defense policy at the American Enterprise Institute; Yale law professor Akhil Reed Amar; Dr. Deepak Srivastava; writer and photographer Wade Davis, “The Peach Seed” writer Anita Gail Jones; Luis A. Miranda Jr., a political strategist who is the father of “Hamilton” playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda; illustrator Craig Frazier; and Jeffrey Brown of “PBS NewsHour.”
For the full list of speakers, visit, svauthorsfest.org/2024-authors-speakers/.
The SVAF is a nonprofit public charity founded by Ginny and David Freeman in 2018 that is focused on education and community engagement.
The event welcomes individuals committed to enriching their lives through literature, learning, science, technology and medicine.
The festival will feature Ted Talk-style presentations and breakout sessions and attendees will hear from more than 20 authors, discussing advances being made in science, technology and medicine. The festival is limited to 400 seats and admission fees help sponsor free programming such as Students Day, Authors on the Plaza, the Virtual Festival and additional special events.
The festival offers a matching gift program to leverage all donations to help extend the reach of free access. Interested parties can donate under Sponsorship Packages at https://one.bidpal.net/svaf2024/welcome.
“The intimacy of the Sonoma Valley Authors Festival creates amazing synergies, where the audience is as interesting as the speakers,” co-founder Ginny Freeman stated in a press release. “The festival audience is well-educated, well-traveled and dedicated to lifelong learning and life enrichment.”
The Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa offers a fitting environment for attendees and speakers to engage and connect throughout the three-day festival.
Jeffrey Brown, senior correspondent and chief arts correspondent for “PBS NewsHour” and returning interviewer at the festival, said, “One of the nice things for the people who attend the festival is they get to talk to the authors. Not only hear them speak, but actually ask the authors their own questions — they can share what they like about the book, and in turn get to know the authors.”
Details of festival
Three-day VIP festival passes start at $2,750 and include access to all presentations, two on-site breakfasts and lunches, a special dinner with the authors, and access to the Virtual Festival.
The festival’s Students Day, offered at local schools such as Sonoma Valley High School, aims to inspire intellectual curiosity in youth.
This month more than 1,400 young scholars will have the opportunity to engage with speakers and receive free books by the presenting authors.
Private donations support distributing thousands of books to students.
Authors on the Plaza is on April 27 and is free and open to the public. From 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., authors David Grann, Amy Tan and Colm Tóibín will speak at Plaza Park in Sonoma.
To purchase passes, learn more about Students Day and Authors on the Plaza and find additional festival information, visit svauthorsfest.org/.