About

The Houston Indie Book Festival is sponsored and organized through a collaboration among NANO Fiction, Gulf Coast, and the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses.

Begun by Donald Barthelme and Phillip Lopate, Gulf Coast is the nationally-distributed journal housed within the University of Houston’s English Department, home to one of the nation’s top ranked creative writing programs. Gulf Coast is a student-run journal that seeks to promote and publish quality literature in our local and national communities, while simultaneously teaching excellence in literary publishing to graduate and undergraduate students. In addition, Gulf Coast differs from many other literary journals in its commitment to exploring the visual arts.

Founded in 2006 by Kirby Johnson and Jennifer Eberhardt, NANO Fiction  is a bi-annual publication with issues appearing in the spring and fall.  NANO Fiction began its co-sponsorship of the Houston Indie Book Festival in 2008 and has since assisted Gulf Coast in growing the festival to over 80 exhibitors and a variety of programming throughout the day.

Mission & History

Now in its fifth official year, the Houston Indie Book Festival remains the only event of its kind in the Houston and Austin areas, featuring a variety of nationally-distributed literary journals and small-press books alongside local booksellers, book and magazine publishers, small presses, literary organizations, and writers. Magazines and books are for sale throughout the day, though the event is free and open to the public.

Since 2008, the festival has steadily expanded from a small gathering of local booksellers and artists to a full-scale regional event featuring dozens of local exhibitors and attracting hundreds of visitors throughout the day. The event has grown to include a day-long reading series, children’s events, musical acts, and, for the first time ever in 2012, informational panel discussions organized by HIBF exhibitors and local readers, writers, and publishers.

For the past two years, the event has been held on the Menil Lawn to accommodate the growing number of exhibitors and visitors; the 2011 festival received an estimated 2,500 visitors throughout the day.