The office where the first Salt Lake Book Festival is being planned is, of course, filled with books.

Many of them are vintage books that once belonged to festival director Amanda Warren’s grandmother, who handed them down to her granddaughter along with her love of reading.

“We went to the library every Friday,” Warren said. “Books were intrinsic with my childhood.”

Warren was “raised by readers.” And she was also shaped by her city. When a new local library opened, she remembers becoming a part of a human chain with her grandmother, where she passed books one at a time from the old location to the new one.

Now Warren is helping pass on her love of reading and community by creating the Salt Lake Book Festival, which will debut at The Gateway on Oct. 17.

Cities across the U.S. have dedicated book festivals. Warren said now is the perfect time for one in Utah’s capital city.

“Salt Lake is all over the zeitgeist,” Warren said. “There’s enough of a clamor around Salt Lake as a destination. We’re not a secret anymore, and we need a festival that represents the culture that we have here.”

What to expect at the Salt Lake Book Festival

The festival will feature three stages. The main stage will seat 400 people.

There will be music, a custom festival beer created by Fisher Brewing, and panels for every type of reader, from young adult to romantasy. There will also be a kid’s corner with storytime all day and a Spanish storytime.

This year’s headlining author is Jodi Picoult. One of her novels is currently banned in all Utah public schools. There’s a mix of out-of-town and local authors set to attend, including Nghi Vo, Brian Laidlaw, Moudi Sbeity, Erica Hendry and Alexis Powell.

The festival has a strong focus on all things local.

The festival will feature local food, hobby, and arts-and-crafts vendors and businesses — including eight independent bookstores based in Utah’s capital city. The festival is also partnering with Utah Humanities and The King’s English Bookshop.

“It should be built by people and the places that reside here. Part of our ethos is ‘how does it feel like it’s born from Salt Lake?’” Warren said.

The festival’s team includes Sidney Smith, the director of operations and Ashley Pinales, the director of finance.

Warren said they tried reaching out to around 100 authors, all of whom have published a book within the last year.

Warren first noticed the fervor of Salt Lake’s reading community as a co-founder of Bookish SLC, a community group that hosts reading events. Think Scholastic Book Fair but for adults.

Those events are how Smith, Pinales and Warren all met.

Smith said attending her first event two years prior “launched” her back into reading for fun. Whereas Pinales, who moved to Salt Lake City two years ago, was dating and hoping for her own Dua Lipa and Callum Turner moment — the singer-songwriter and actor met because they were reading the same book.

“I ended up getting the best girlfriends. I’ll take that any day,” Pinales said.

When she filled out a questionnaire about how many books she wanted to read this year and wrote 12, Pinales said she didn’t feel judged. The community made her stay in the book group — and that’s the energy they are harnessing for this festival — slowing down and reconnecting.

As Warren puts it, the group wants reading to have a stake in the ongoing “attention economy” of the digital age.

“There’s something right now happening in Salt Lake that just feels palpable. The energy is here, it kind of feels like an arrival,” Pinales said. “People want to be interlocked. They’re craving community. They’re craving being off their phones.”

The bulk of this year’s festival will take place on Oct. 17, but there will be a night at the library event on Oct. 16.

The Salt Lake Book Festival is free to attend for all — though specific author panels will require tickets that cost $10 each. The headlining Jodi Picoult panel will be at West High School and costs $49 because it includes a copy of the author’s latest book.

Note to readers: The Tribune’s culture and music reporter Palak Jayswal was asked to moderate a panel on romantasy at the 2026 festival by the organizers.