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24th ANNUAL COLLINGSWOOD BOOK FESTIVAL IS COMING IN OCTOBER

Book the date! The 24th annual Collingswood Book Festival is set for Saturday, October 3, 2026. As in past years, readers and writers will converge in Collingswood to celebrate literacy. It’s an opportunity for nationally recognized authors to meet their fans, and for fans to listen to their favorite authors. More than six blocks of Haddon Avenue will be filled with exhibitors, booksellers, storytellers, poetry readings, workshops, and performers. All events are free.  

Town Book

Each year, festival organizers name a Town Book that will promote reading and discussion. The Town Book for 2026 is national bestseller A Guardian and a Thief, by Megha Majumdar. Winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence and a National Book Award finalist, the novel is "a literary gem with the pace of a thriller,” according to USA Today. Set over the course of one week in a near-future Kolkata, A Guardian and a Thief tells two stories, Ma’s frantic attempts to save her family from a collapsing society, and Boomba, whose escalating crimes set him on a collision course with Ma.

There will be a guided Town Book Discussion at the Collingswood Public Library during the week leading up to the festival, where readers will have an opportunity to talk about A Guardian and a Thief before meeting the author on the day of the festival, where she will be in conversation with literary historian Laura B. McGrath, author of Middlemen: Literary Agents and the Making of American Fiction.

New and Returning Authors for Adult Readers

Another book with a lot of buzz is Emma Copley Eisenberg’s provocative Fat Swim, a collection of linked stories that explores the contradictions, joys and violence of a modern world through a cast of characters navigating bodies, queerness, power and sex, reflecting what it means to be alive.

The festival is welcoming back beloved local favorite Matthew Quick, the New York Times bestselling author of The Silver Linings Playbook and eight other novels, who has been at work on his debut memoir. Dad, Love, Me explores the complicated burden of caring for an abusive parent who is dying. Available in July 2026, this is his most personal work to date, and not to be missed.

Kareem Rosser last joined the presenting author lineup with his amazing story of perseverance and mentoring, Crossing the Line. This year, he returns with his own memoir. When You’re Ready tells the true story of love interrupted by a devastating accident and the struggle to heal in the years that follow.

If you were here in 2021, you may recall when Kareem Rosser was introduced in style by Jeannine A. Cook, who rode in on a horse. Writer, cultural curator and founder of Harriett’s Bookshop and Ida’s Bookshop, she will return with her debut novel, It’s Me They Follow, which introduces readers to a surreal world where books are portals for intimacy and transformation. Her follow-up memoir, Shut Up & Read, merges memoir, spiritual reflection, activism and literary criticism. She will be in conversation with first-time festival author Camille, whose debut short story collection, Training School for Negro Girls, grapples “with ideas like gentrification and social-climbing through the fine-tuned eyes of her characters,” writes Publishers Weekly. Her new novel, A Very Special Episode, is due in August.

Also in the lineup: first-time festival authors Earl Hopkins and Dr. Jeremy C. McCool (Raps of Resistance).

Poetry

The Poetry Tent will come alive again this year with a mix of poetry, spoken word, haiku and more. 

Among the many award-winning and emerging poets featured this year are Collingswood native Jim Hoch, Philadelphia poet laureate Raina Leon, Guggenheim fellow and Monmouth University professor Mihaela Moscaliuc, and Philadelphia poet J.C. Todd, who will present poets represented in a new anthology about the impact of war on the environment.

We are excited to present a few invited local poets to share works written from prompts we shared in cooperation with Perkins Center for the Arts for National Poetry Month.

Our day will also include poets representing several local reading series and regional publications, as well as interactive elements including the Wall of Haiku, a collaborative town poem, book signings and an open mic. We will also feature a performance by a winner of the NJ Poetry Out Loud competition and young poets who have won our annual Walt Howat Memorial Youth Poetry Content. 

Just across the Avenue, our Workshop Tent will feature a full day of programming including generative writing workshops, panel discussions and much more.

Calling All Competitors

The Collingswood Book Festival Poetry Tent invites young poets to submit their work to the 18th Annual Walt Howat Youth Poetry Competition. This year, the theme is “Freedom to be Me.”

Poets in grades 2 to 8 who submitted their entries are encouraged to attend the festival. A poetry writing workshop will follow the award ceremony.  

For Young Readers

We’ve all been a little bad sometime, but not like a certain feline who’s been wreaking havoc on pages since 2005. Nick Bruel, author of the bestselling series Bad Kitty, will appear in person to delight children with the hilarious antics of Kitty, including the newest release, Bad Kitty Goes to the Beach.

The Big Tent returns for children, middle grade, and YA readers to meet authors and have their books signed. Featured this year is New York Times bestselling and Caldecott winning author, Carole Lindstrom, who will unveil her newest middle grade novel, Red River Rose. As an indigenous woman writer, she celebrates the strength and resilience of her people to help them be seen and heard. Fest favorites Charlotte Bennardo, Alyssa Reynoso Morris, Eric Smith, Cordelia Jensen, Jamar Nicholas, Talia Tucker, Lauren Magaziner, Colleen Rowan Kosinski, and N. West Moss will be in attendance, plus new authors to be discovered. Collingswood school librarians are excited for Roxie in Color by Diane Debrovner, which will be implemented into the fall school curriculum.

Volunteers Needed

In addition to promoting literacy, the Collingswood Book Festival invites community members to help make Collingswood "Where You Want to Read." The event is run entirely by volunteers. Planning meetings are held the first Wednesday of every month, from April through September, at 7:30 pm in the Collingswood Library. All are welcome to attend, especially to help various committees plan and coordinate details.

The Collingswood Book Festival is a 501 (c) 3 organization. For additional information on the Book Festival, go to www.collingswoodbookfestival.com, follow on Facebook and Instagram.                                                              

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