Books are displayed in the Trinity University Press booth at the 2017 San Antonio Book Festival. The festival is an asset to our city and worthy of continued investment, our guest columnists write.
As city leaders make decisions about the fiscal 2027 budget, they are deciding what kind of community we want to build in San Antonio.
Their choices impact our future workforce, economy, quality of life and opportunities. This should matter to every resident, business leader, educator, employer and policymaker invested in San Antonio’s long-term success.
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The bigger question is this: What kind of city do we want to build, and what investments will help us get there?
Investing in our community of readers is one of them.
This past April was a record-breaking year, with more than 25,000 people attending the San Antonio Book Festival downtown. For 14 years, the festival has brought readers, authors and families together for one of the largest free literary festivals in the country.
Each year, attendees have the opportunity to hear from and meet more than 100 acclaimed local, Texas and national authors.
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The festival is free for all ages, thanks to city funding, making it accessible to everyone. An economic impact study conducted with Trinity University found the festival generated an estimated $3 million in economic impact for our city through restaurants, hotels, book purchases and shopping with local small-business vendors at the festival.
The festival’s greatest return, however, isn’t measured in dollars. It’s measured in people.
It is measured in the child who meets an author for the first time and begins to see themselves as a reader. In the family that discovers joy through a shared experience that didn’t cost them a ticket fee. In the student who goes home after hearing an author speak, opens a book and cannot put it down.
Though the San Antonio Book Festival is best known for its one-day event, our impact extends far beyond festival day. Year-round programming includes community partnerships that bring nationally recognized authors directly to students, including Title I schools.
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This past school year, we gave away more than 2,500 free, high-quality books to students. Authors engage with students, answer their questions, and autograph books that each child gets to take home for free.
Our free Get Lit events also bring nationally recognized writers to San Antonio for conversations, presentations and book signings accessible to the broader community.
The need for this work is clear. Nearly one in four adults in Bexar County struggles with basic reading proficiency, and fewer than half of students are reading on grade level. These are workforce statistics, economic-development statistics, and indicators of our city’s future.
This is not frivolous spending. It is public investment in the intellectual, economic and cultural future of our city.
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That is why comments by Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones, suggesting the San Antonio Book Festival is a nonprofit “the city didn’t need to be funding,” should concern our community.
The question before us is not whether we can afford to invest in readers. It is whether we can afford not to.
The book festival does not rely on public funding alone. Philanthropy matters deeply. Corporate and private support are essential partners in sustaining nonprofit work. Philanthropy, however, was never intended to replace civic responsibility. A healthy city requires partnership among government, community organizations, businesses, philanthropists, educators, artists and residents.
The festival is the city’s largest literary cultural event, but more importantly, it is an investment in our workforce, our economy and our future.
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Help us keep the story going and keep the festival free for everyone. We encourage residents to attend upcoming budget meetings and contact their City Council representatives and the mayor’s office to voice support for sustained public investment in the San Antonio Book Festival.
Our mission is to unite readers and writers in a celebration of ideas, books, libraries and literary culture. The San Antonio Book Festival is an asset to our city and worthy of continued investment.
Lisa Ayres is executive director of the San Antonio Book Festival. Stephanie Dodge Bigley is chair of the San Antonio Book Festival’s board of directors.
