January 29 – 30, 2022
January 29 – 30, 2022
Register early—Number of booths is limited.
Registration closes January 2, 2022, or sooner if limit is reached.
Welcome to the 2022 Sunshine State Book Festival—bringing readers and writers together again.
Our 2021 festival, held online due to the pandemic, was a huge success! Over 5,000 readers visited with 100 authors. These numbers surpassed our 2020 festival, which brought 75 authors and 3,000 readers together in the beautiful Santa Fe College Fine Arts Hall. We’re proud of these accomplishments, and invite you to view pages of our previous festivals.
To accommodate even more visitors, our 2022 in-person festival is being held at the spacious Oaks Mall in Gainesville, Florida.
Popular aspects of our previous festivals will continue. Prominent guest speakers, intended to draw community attention to the festival, will give featured talks—all free and open to the public.
A book festival is a celebration of learning and literacy that should be fun as well as educational, bringing together people of all ages who share a love of reading and who will leave the event inspired by their experiences.
Florida has an amazing literary history dating back to William Bartram nearly 250 years ago. Today, Gainesville is a leading center of literary culture and home to hundreds of writers, novelists, playwrights, and poets, many of whom you can meet at the Sunshine State Book Festival on Saturday, January 29, 2022 at the Oaks Mall, and on Sunday, January 30, 2022, at the Matheson History Museum in downtown Gainesville, Florida.
Authors of all genres are invited to participate in the 2022 festival. The goal of Writers Alliance of Gainesville (WAG) is to promote, encourage, and support writers.
See the many who have already registered as 2022 Authors
Authors, secure your place in the festival by registering now!
We’d appreciate your help to get the word out. Please mention to fellow authors that festival registration is now open, but spaces are limited. Send them the link: SunshineStateBookFestival.com.
Letting visitors know about our festival is obviously important. Our marketing and publicity plan includes both print and electronic media. Media outlets have been identified, including newspapers, magazines, area television stations, and online community calendars. We also plan to initiate a social media campaign to advertise the event and promote interaction among participants and their followers. Schools, libraries, bookstores, retirement homes, museums, and other organizations are part of our outreach program.
The book festival is completely indoors and will be held January 29, 2022, rain or shine.
Free Admission for the public
Saturday, January 29, 2022
10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. at the Oaks Mall Directions
Sunday, January 30, 2022
1:00 – 5:00 p.m. at the Matheson History Museum Directions and museum info
Sunday, January 30, 2022
Presentations at the Matheson History Museum continued
6419 W. Newberry Road
Gainesville, Florida
Plenty of Free Parking
Food Court with numerous dining choices
7516 W. Newberry Road
Gainesville, Florida
Near to Oaks Mall
Special discount for festival participants
Funded in part by Visit Gainesville, Alachua County, FL. For 2022, we again look to the business community, non-profit organizations, and government agencies for their generous support.