[CHARLESTON, WV] – The West Virginia Book Festival has announced the 2026 featured authors. This years’ festival will feature award-winning children’s novelist R. L. Stine, nonfiction author Margot Lee Shetterley, New York Times bestselling author Kate Quinn, mystery author and West Virginia native Craig Johnson, and local author and illustrator Rosalie Haizlett.
West Virginia Public Broadcasting is a sponsor of the event, along with The West Virginia Library Section, The Marshall University Foundation, The Friends of The Library, Encova Foundation of West Virginia, Martha Gaines & Russell Wehrle Memorial Foundation, and the Nelle Ratrie Chilton Charitable Trust.
The Festival will feature:
R. L. Stine is the bestselling author of more than three hundred books, including the bestselling Goosebumps series. He has sold over 400 million books, and his books have been translated into 35 languages, making him one of the best-selling authors in history. Stine continues to turn out Goosebumps books, taking the series into its 25th year.
Margot Lee Shetterly is a writer, researcher, entrepreneur, and the author of Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race, the basis for the Academy Award-nominated film Hidden Figures.
Kate Quinn is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of historical fiction. The Astral Library, releasing in 2026, is her first foray into magical realism.
Craig Johnson is a Huntington, WV native and is the New York Times bestselling author of the Walt Longmire mystery novels, the basis for Longmire, the Netflix original drama. This will be Johnson’s second appearance at the WV Book Festival.
Rosalie Haizlett is a wildlife illustrator and author. She is the author and illustrator of Watercolor in Nature and her latest book, Tiny Worlds of the Appalachian Mountains. Haizlett has been an artist-in-residence at Great Smoky Mountains National Park, with the National Audubon Society, and at the Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History.
The West Virginia Book Festival will take place on Saturday, October 24 at the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center. The Festival will feature presentations from bestselling national authors, local and regional authors, writing workshops, family activities, a literary marketplace, and the annual Used Book Sale. All events and programs are free and open to the public.
The Festival is made possible by its charter presenters, The Kanawha County Public Library, The Library Foundation of Kanawha County, Inc., The West Virginia Humanities Council and The Charleston Gazette-Mail. Sponsors for this year’s festival include West Virginia Public Broadcasting, The West Virginia Library Section, The Marshall University Foundation, The Friends of The Library, Encova Foundation of West Virginia, Martha Gaines & Russell Wehrle Memorial Foundation, and the Nelle Ratrie Chilton Charitable Trust.
For more information, visit www.wvbookfestival.org or reach out to the Festival Co-Chairman Stan Howell at stan.howell@kcpls.org.
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