The first Westchester Book Festival filled Katonah faster than its rooms could hold. The Recorder's recap of the first festival reported sold-out main events and overflow rooms, and festival director John Glusman said parking lots downtown were full.
The second festival, on Saturday, November 7, holds its ticketed panels in two buildings facing each other on Bedford Road. Much of the day, though, runs on Katonah Avenue and Edgemont Road, where most events need no panel ticket and a few are free. A resident with no panel ticket can still fill a full day between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. The one thing that takes planning is parking, because Katonah's farm market is in the same village lot that morning.
Two Buildings, Eight Conversations
The festival's main events are called Authors in Conversation. They run at the Katonah Village Library at 26 Bedford Road and the Katonah Presbyterian Church at 31 Bedford Road, across the street from each other. Every session needs its own ticket, and each costs $25. Each order can include up to four tickets per session. Tickets are nonrefundable, and photos and video aren't allowed during the presentations.
Here is the lineup, according to the festival's 2026 events page:
| Time | Katonah Village Library | Katonah Presbyterian Church |
|---|---|---|
| 10 a.m. | Anand Giridharadas and Priya Parker | Ada Calhoun and Madeline Cash, with Megan Labrise |
| Noon | 'Pemi Aguda and Nafissa Thompson-Spires, with Wadza Mhute | Malcolm Gladwell, David McCloskey and Noah Oppenheim |
| 2 p.m. | Elizabeth Kolbert and David Pogue, with Perrin Ireland | Maria Semple, with Leigh Newman |
| 4 p.m. | Kevin Powers and David Nasaw, with Chip Reid | Hernan Diaz, with Adam Dalva |
According to The Recorder's preview this summer, the 2026 festival has twice as many venues and twice as many literary sessions as the first one. Westchester Magazine said the eight panels cover everything from thrillers to "solving the world's problems." Doubling the rooms answers last year's overflow problem. It also means the 10 a.m., noon, 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. slots each make you pick one of two panels, so most ticket holders will have time between sessions to walk downtown.
The format is the same as last year. Organizers pair authors whose books share a common thread and add a moderator, rather than holding straight readings. Glusman told The Recorder in 2025 that the format "seems very conducive to a really relaxed sharing of ideas."
The festival is new enough that its start is easy to trace. According to the festival's own history, it began when Glusman, a publishing executive, asked where Katonah's books and authors were. On a May day in 2024 he talked the idea over coffee with Bedford Town Supervisor Ellen Calves, who suggested Katonah as the first site. The first festival, on November 8, 2025, brought in more than 30 authors and an estimated 1,000-plus participants, by the organizers' count.
The Unticketed Day Runs on Katonah Avenue
The organizers' estimate covered library sessions, gallery talks, book signings and partner events across the village. The festival's partners page for 2026 says its list of partner activities is still growing.
Here is the Saturday that doesn't need a panel ticket, in time order:
| Time | Where | What | Sign-up |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8:30 to 11 a.m. | Lasdon Public Gardens, Welcome Center | Literacy at Lasdon: Autumn Nature Journaling | Free; outdoor program |
| 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. | Lot 2, 190 Katonah Ave. | John Jay Homestead Farm Market | Open; members shop first, 9 to 9:30 |
| 10 a.m. to noon | Katonah Museum of Art, Pollack Family Learning Center | Saturday Open Studio: Bookmaking | Registration online |
| All day | The Reading Room, 19 Edgemont Road | Authors' Corner with local authors | Drop in |
| 11 a.m. to noon | Petite Art Studio | Book Plate Design, K–5 drop-off | Advance registration requested |
| 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. | G Willikers, 29 Katonah Ave. | Author signing with Piper Klemm | None listed |
| 11:30 a.m. | Oak & Oil Gallery, 89 Katonah Ave. | Pam Hart: Five Ways of Looking, workshop and reading | RSVP |
| Afternoon | Katonah Wine & Liquor | Book Club Wine tasting | Free samples |
| 3 to 5 p.m. | Katonah Museum of Art | Poetry workshop with Phylisha Villanueva, public reading at 4:30 | Advance registration requested |
A few of these are tied to the festival in a specific way. The Katonah Museum of Art is giving its regular weekly Open Studio a bookmaking theme for the day, open to all ages and abilities. Phylisha Villanueva, the Westchester County Poet Laureate, will lead a workshop that responds to the art now on view and ends with a reading open to the public. Pam Hart, writer in residence at the museum, will run the Oak & Oil session, exploring five ways of responding to the artworks on view through a series of prompts that turn visual art into poetry. Katonah Wine & Liquor is setting up a "Book Club Wines" section, which the partners page describes as wines that are "delicious, affordable, and – like the people in book club – interesting."
The museum's work on view that weekend is its new fall exhibition, Intermittent Islands: Four Caribbean Women Artists, which opened October 18. That makes Villanueva's 3 p.m. workshop one of the first public programs built around the show.
The Reading Room Holds the Middle of the Day
The festival's events page describes The Reading Room at 19 Edgemont Road as "just around the corner from the Library and Presbyterian Church." On November 7 it hosts the Authors' Corner all day, with local authors meeting readers and signing books. The festival says visitors can shop the store, get coffee, tea or a baked good, and buy breakfast or lunch from a food truck in the back parking lot. The panel authors' books are sold onsite through The Reading Room too, so the shop handles book sales for the ticketed rooms and also runs its own program.
These authors are listed for the Authors' Corner:
- Jill Brooke, The Genius of Flowers
- Aimee Pokwatka, Accumulation
- Carol Davis, Restoration
- Leisha Douglas, Triple Threat
- Eric Eichhorn, Ogallala
- Heather Eng, Double Happiness
- Beth Gelles, Crazy for College
- Natasha Girshin, Burnt Olives
- Barbara Josselsohn, The Paper House
- Heiress Love, Moonlight — The Veil Saga, Book One
- Jessica Rao, Nowhere To Go But Everywhere
- Meredith Schorr, Room Mating
- Katie Sise, You Must Be New Here
- Meredith Turits, Just Want You Here
Individual signing times will be posted on the @katonahreadingroom and @westchesterbookfestival Instagram accounts.
The Reading Room in its current form is fairly young. According to the shop's own history, it reopened in February 2021 as a combined bookstore and café, bringing together Little Joe's bookstore and the Reading Room café. Owner Gretchen Menzies is on the festival's advisory board. Speaking to The Recorder after last year's event, she described the day this way:
"Katonah was one big bookish smile Saturday at the book festival. People were wandering town just so happy to be a part of an event so uplifting and community-centered."
Last year The Reading Room ran five signing sessions upstairs, with three or four authors signing at the same time. This year it has an all-day room.
Lot 2 Already Has a Market in It
Last year's full lots matter this year for a specific reason. While the John Jay Homestead's Bedford House is closed for historic restoration, the Homestead's Farm Market has spent its 16th season in downtown Katonah, in Lot 2 at 190 Katonah Ave. It runs every Saturday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., rain or shine, and the season has been extended this year through November 21. So on November 7 the market and the festival share the morning, and the village's central lot is filled with vendor stalls.
The festival's ticket page points drivers to free parking in the train station lots instead:
- Lot #1 on Jay Street
- Lot #3 on Woods Bridge Road
The market page says Lot 2 has its own entrance and exit with signs to keep traffic moving, and that more parking is available on Katonah Avenue. If you're doing both, it makes sense to shop the market early, before the 10 a.m. panels and the Open Studio start. Friends of John Jay Homestead members get first pick from 9 to 9:30.
The Weekend Keeps Going Past Six
The festival ends at 6 p.m. on Saturday, but one partner event is set for the next day. On Sunday, November 8, at 3 p.m., countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo will talk about and sign his debut book, Countertenor, in the Rosen House Music Room at Caramoor. The festival describes the book as part memoir and part cultural history. Tickets are sold through Caramoor.
The Katonah Museum of Art follows the next weekend, on Sunday, November 15, with Family Day: Caribbean Connections from noon to 3 p.m. It includes artmaking, an artist-led workshop, a performance and mixed-media stations, with a sensory-friendly inclusive hour starting at 11 a.m. Intermittent Islands stays on view through January 24, 2027, and the Farm Market's last Saturday in Lot 2 is November 21.
At The TurnKey Team at Houlihan Lawrence, we enjoy watching Katonah fill up on a Saturday like this one. If you're spending November 7 between Bedford Road and Edgemont Road and start wondering what your own home in Bedford might be worth, ask us for a free home valuation. We'll look at it with the same local eye we bring to a day like this.