Last November the first Westchester Book Festival sold 546 tickets. Organizers estimated that more than 1,000 people took part, counting library sessions, gallery talks, book signings and partner events around the hamlet, according to The Recorder. The festival's reach went well past the people holding seats.
The second festival is on Saturday, November 7. The ticketed author conversations fill two rooms for four time slots. Everything else is free or cheap, spread along Katonah Avenue, Bedford Road and Edgemont Road, and it runs on the same morning the John Jay Homestead Farm Market fills Lot 2. If you live here, the thing to plan around is downtown space, since a sold-out session only affects the people holding tickets.
The ticketed half, and how much of it is left
The festival's paid program is eight author conversations in two buildings a few doors apart on Bedford Road: the Katonah Village Library at 26 Bedford Road and Katonah Presbyterian Church at 31 Bedford Road. Every session costs $25 with no booking fee shown. Orders are capped at four tickets per session, tickets are non-refundable, and seating is first come, first served.
| Time | Katonah Village Library | Katonah Presbyterian Church |
|---|---|---|
| 10am | Anand Giridharadas and Priya Parker | Ada Calhoun and Madeline Cash, with Megan Labrise |
| 12pm | 'Pemi Aguda and Nafissa Thompson-Spires, with Wadza Mhute | Malcolm Gladwell, David McCloskey and Noah Oppenheim |
| 2pm | Elizabeth Kolbert and David Pogue, with Perrin Ireland | Maria Semple, with Leigh Newman |
| 4pm | Kevin Powers and David Nasaw, with Chip Reid | Hernan Diaz, with Adam Dalva |
The festival's checkout page lists three of the eight as sold out: Giridharadas and Parker at 10am, the Gladwell panel at noon, and Kolbert and Pogue at 2pm. The other five are shown as on sale, including Maria Semple and both 4pm sessions. Availability changes week to week, so check the festival's ticket page before you build a day around one name.
The sell-out pattern repeats last year's. Festival director John Glusman told The Recorder that the 2025 main events sold out and needed overflow rooms, and that downtown parking lots were full. With eight sessions in two rooms, the ticketed program has a hard ceiling, and once those seats are gone the extra demand moves out onto the street.
The free half, hour by hour
The festival's partner list shows where that demand goes. Most of these events need no festival ticket, and several are free outright. Here is the day in order.
- 8:30 to 11am, Lasdon Public Gardens. A free Autumn Nature Journaling program with seasonal book recommendations, a writing prompt and journaling materials. It's outdoors and may be canceled for extreme weather.
- 9am, John Jay Homestead Farm Market, Lot 2. Members get first pick from 9 to 9:30, and the market is open to everyone until 2pm.
- 9:30am to 4pm, The Katonah Reading Room, 19 Edgemont Road. A free, unticketed Authors' Corner. The festival hasn't posted the author list yet. The Reading Room also sells books for the festival, along with the two main venues.
- 10am to noon, Katonah Museum of Art. An Open Studio of bookmaking for all ages and abilities. Registration is required.
- 11am to noon, Petite Art Studio. A drop-off bookplate-design activity for kindergarten through fifth grade. Advance registration is requested.
- 11am to 1pm, G Willikers. An author signing with Piper Klemm, owner and publisher of The Plaid Horse.
- 11:30am, Oak & Oil. The Katonah Poetry Series presents Pam Hart's "Five Ways of Looking" workshop and poetry reading. An RSVP is requested.
- All afternoon, Katonah Wine & Liquor. A Book Club Wines section and free samples.
- 3 to 5pm, Katonah Museum of Art. Westchester County Poet Laureate Phylisha Villanueva leads a poetry workshop that ends in a public reading at 4:30pm. Admission is $25, or $20 for members, and advance registration is required.
The free calendar runs from 8:30 in the morning to the 4:30 reading at the museum, so it starts ninety minutes before the first ticketed session and its last event begins after the 4pm sessions do. It also runs on a different clock. The paid sessions start on the even hours, while the partner events fill the gaps between them and cluster late in the morning, while the farm market is open. By 11:30 on a Saturday, there could be a signing at G Willikers, a workshop at Oak & Oil, kids at Petite Art Studio and the Authors' Corner on Edgemont Road all going at once, within a short walk of each other.
Last year the Reading Room was a hub of its own. The Recorder described authors sitting three and four at a time upstairs at The Reading Room for five rounds of signings. Local writers such as Ann Leary of Katonah and Heather Clark of Mount Kisco signed books for anyone who came to their corner.
The farm market is the other half of the morning
The festival has to share downtown that Saturday. The John Jay Homestead Farm Market is in its 16th season, and it's once again being held in downtown Katonah instead of at the Homestead, because Bedford House is closed for historic restoration. It sets up in Lot 2 at 190 Katonah Avenue. Cars enter at Coldwell Banker and exit at Katonah Art and Frame Shop.
The market's season is extended this year, to every Saturday through November 21, rain or shine. That runs it through festival day and two Saturdays past it, so its dozens of weekly vendors share the morning with the author crowd. The market emails a vendor list every Friday morning to its newsletter subscribers. Dogs are welcome on short leashes.
Where the cars go
The Katonah Village Improvement Society, a festival partner, says free festival parking is available all day in two commuter lots, Lot #1 and Lot #3. The market says parking is available in Lot 2, with more on Katonah Avenue, and market shoppers and festival visitors will be looking for those same spaces.
Some practical points for the day:
- Parking that morning. If you're coming for the festival, Lot #1 and Lot #3 are the free lots it names. The KVIS festival page links to maps of both lots.
- Getting to the sessions. Both ticketed venues are on Bedford Road and both seat first come, first served, so getting there early matters even with a ticket.
- Recording rules. Photography and video are not allowed during author presentations.
- Closing time. KVIS lists the festival as 10am to 5pm. The ticketing site labels it 10am to 6pm, but the last sessions start at 4pm.
Sunday has one more event
The festival has one more event on Sunday. Caramoor, a festival partner, lists a talk and signing with Anthony Roth Costanzo in the Rosen House Music Room on Sunday, November 8, at 3pm. The same room hosts Caramoor's Rosen House Concert Series, which brings jazz pianist Aaron Diehl there on Friday, November 6, at 7:30pm, the night before the festival.
The festival is still new. According to its own history, it was founded in 2025 by editors, literary agents, publishing professionals and book lovers with Westchester ties. John Glusman developed the idea, and Town Supervisor Ellen Calves suggested Katonah as the first host. After last year, planner Midge Iorio told The Recorder that many people had asked for "an assurance that we plan to do this again next year." This year the festival shares its downtown with a farm market that is usually held at the Homestead.
If you'll be downtown on November 7 and want to talk about something more local than the reading list, Robert Mulvey knows these streets and lots as well as anyone in Katonah. Call or text Robert for a free, no-obligation home valuation and a market strategy built around your own corner of the hamlet.
