Malcolm Gladwell, other award-winning authors to descend upon Katonah

Organizers add church venue, double events 

The Westchester Book Festival returns Nov. 7 with author talks and book signings. Above, a book signing session at Katonah Village Library during last year’s festival. FILE PHOTO

By AMY SOWDER

Malcolm Gladwell’s session sold out weeks ago, but more than a dozen other bestselling and prize-winning authors will be on hand when an expanded Westchester Book Festival returns to Katonah on Saturday, Nov. 7.

The festival is back for its second year, after a successful launch in 2025. Last year, more than 1,000 people attended or participated in the “Authors in Conversation” at the Katonah Village Library, local author meet-and-greets and book signings at the Katonah Reading Room, and events at nearby galleries, museums and parks.

“I feel as if everyone left it with a smile on their face, and books in their hands. It exceeded all of our expectations, and we are a naturally critical group,” said John Glusman, chairman of the festival and vice president and executive editor of W.W. Norton & Company.

Organizers say they doubled the number of events for 2026.

What worked and will be repeated: the ticketed conversations at the library with a question-and-answer period and book signings afterward, casual author meetings at the book shop, live jazz at the library and various other events.

What’s changing: The biggest change is organizers added a venue, the Katonah Presbyterian Church, which seats nearly 200 and roughly triples the festival’s ticketed seating, from about 100 at the library to about 300 across both buildings. Most conversations will also have a moderator, often an author as well. And the check-in process will be more streamlined, said Lili Lynton, the festival’s secretary.

While many of these authors are known worldwide and have garnered major awards and top rankings, including Pulitzer Prizes for Elizabeth Kolbert and Hernan Diaz, a National Book Award finalist nod for Kevin Powers, and for New York Times bestseller status no one is more of a household name than Gladwell.

Gladwell takes the noon stage at the church with novelists David McCloskey and Noah Oppenheim. The lineup of 15 authors across eight sessions also includes Maria Semple, Anand Giridharadas, Priya Parker and Madeline Cash. Sessions start at 10 a.m., the last begins at 4 p.m., and each requires its own ticket.

Pairings are deliberate. Glusman matched Kevin Powers, an Iraq War veteran and author of the historical novel “Children of the Wild,” with author David Nasaw, whose “The Wounded Generation” explores coming home after World War II. Their 4 p.m. talk at the library, moderated by Chip Reid, takes up homecoming and reintegration.

If his novel has a thesis, Powers said, it’s that hardship, in war or anything else, is a permanent part of life. 

“The people in our lives make the struggle endurable, and if we’re lucky, maybe even meaningful,” he said.

Powers, who’s traveling from Florida to participate, said he likes meeting readers in places he has never been.

“I love people who want to talk about books in their free time,” he said. “It gives me hope that there might still be a future in this line of work.”

“Having read a book creates a real bond, not only with the author but with other people who’ve read the book,” Lynton said.

Organizers chose an almost equal mix of fiction and nonfiction, and prioritized authors from nearby, Lynton said. Fiction sales are up, driven by “romantasy,” while nonfiction is down slightly, and audiobooks are growing, she said.

More than 550 people attended just last year’s ticketed sessions, and organizers expect 1,200 this year, not counting authors and volunteers.

The town has made that growth easy.

“In this era of red tape, we seem to have found none,” Lynton said. Nearly 90 volunteers signed up almost instantly when organizers needed 100.

Her tip for attendees is to try two panels, one with an author you love and one with an author you don’t yet know.

Beyond the main stages, the Katonah Reading Room, located at 19 Edgemont Road, hosts local authors for meet-and-greets and signings from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Partners around town have added events. The Katonah Museum of Art holds a bookmaking open studio from 10 a.m. to noon, then a poetry workshop led by Westchester County Poet Laureate Phylisha Villanueva at 3 p.m., and Katonah Wine & Liquor will pour free samples of “Book Club Wines” all afternoon. Free parking is available in commuter lots 1 and 3, and the Katonah Metro-North train station is within walking distance of the main venues.

Glusman, who has worked in publishing for more than four decades, said the way books are taught has changed radically and attention spans, driven by new technologies, have shrunk. But he said he sees the beginning of a promising counter-reaction, as younger people overwhelmed by technology return to reading attentively on paper.

“I don’t ever think that the most human of impulses, to hear and tell a story, will ever go away,” he said.

Visit westchesterbookfest.org for tickets and the full schedule.