Texas Book Festival has iPhone app

AUSTIN (KXAN) - Former First Lady Laura Bush joins the ranks of authors participating in this weekend's 15th annual Texas Book Festival at the State Capitol Building. She is the first presenter on Saturday, Oct. 16, scheduled from 10 a.m. to 10:45 a.m. at the Paramount Theater. She will talk about her new memoir, Spoken From the Heart.

Attendees can keep up with the schedule of events and authors this year for the first time via an iPhone app . In a time when readers are deciding between the e-reader and the book, the festival is celebrating both, according to its website.

All events are free and open to the public, and people are advised to arrive early. No one will be admitted to rooms that reach full capacity. There are 23 different rooms and facilities which house various speakers, musicians and panels. No food and drinks are allowed inside any of the venues inside the State Capitol.

Saturdays hours are from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Some of the highlights include:

Pulitzer Prize winner Eugene Robinson is scheduled on Saturday from 11:15 a.m. to noon in the C-Span/Book TV Tent. He will talk about his book Disintegration: The Splintering of Black America.

Karl Rove talks on Sunday at 1:15 p.m. at the The Sanctuary at First United Methodist Church, 1201 Lavaca St. The public is asked to enter from the Lavaca Street side.

Conversations with Cronkite with Cronkite's friend and oral historian Don Carleton is set for 10 a.m. on Saturday in the Lone Start Tent. The presentation will provide attendees a glimpse into the life and times of Walter Cronkite in his own words, combining interviews between the famous journalist and an experienced oral historian, Cronkite's friend, Dr. Don Carleton. Carleton is executive director of the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at The University of Texas at Austin.

The Paramount Theater is the site of a talk called David Foster Wallace: A Writer's Life with David Lipsky, David Means, and Antonya Nelson at 3:30 on Saturday. Wallace has been called his generation’s most gifted writer, but he was also among its most troubled, according to TBF. Wallace’s friends and fellow writers David Means and Antonya Nelson join the conversation about Wallace’s books and life; the session is co-presented with the Harry Ransom Center, which recently acquired Wallace’s papers. Moderator Matt Bucher is the administrator of Wallace-l, the David Foster Wallace listserv. He is the publisher of two books on Wallace's work, lives in Austin and is an editor at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Events in the Cooking Tent include a focus on wine, baking and food books with events beginning at 11 a.m., 12:30 p.m., 2 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. on Saturday. Food Network star Claire Robinson talks on Sunday at 3:30 and will demonstrate recipes from 5 Ingredient Fix: Easy, Elegant, and Irresistible Recipes.

TBF also features three different children's areas:

• Children's Chapter Read Me a Story Tent
• Children's Entertainment Tent on west Capitol driveway, near Colorado Street
• Children's Activity Tent, on Colorado Street between 12th and 13th streets

A Music Tent, events at Alamo Drafthouse , Austin Museum of Art , the AAMP Building , and the ND at 501 Studios and Family Life Center round out the event locations.

Authors will sign their books for 15 minutes after their presentations, in the Book Signing Tent on Congress Avenue between 10th and 11th streets. Children's book authors will sign in the tent at 13th Street and Colorado Street.