Spencertown Academy Festival of Books Returns Labor Day Weekend
The event has evolved from a modest fundraiser to a major event.
Lisa Lerer and Elizabeth Dias will discuss their national bestseller, The Fall of Roe: The Rise of a New America, with Rebecca Hart Holder, executive director of Reproductive Equity Now, at the Spencertown Academy Festival of Books.
- Evelyn FrejaWhat began in 2006 as a modest fundraiser with card tables of dusty hardbacks has blossomed—somehow without losing its old-school charm—into one of the region’s premier literary gatherings. The Spencertown Academy Festival of Books, celebrating its 20th anniversary this Labor Day weekend (August 29–September 1), is part high-minded author salon, part joyous rummage, and entirely fueled by volunteers and caffeine.
The formula? Take one quaint 19th-century schoolhouse, add 15,000+ used books lovingly sorted all summer by bibliophilic locals, stir in a few best-selling authors with sharp takes on everything from Gilded Age jurisprudence to AI-generated art, and sprinkle in a Rainbow Fish costume for the kids. Serve warm under the big tent.
The festival’s author lineup, curated by co-chairs Wayne Greene and David Highfill, features a mix of marquee names and under-the-radar gems. Politico editor Peter S. Canellos opens the Saturday program with The Great Dissenter, his sweeping biography of Supreme Court Justice John Marshall Harlan—an unlikely civil rights hero who happened to have grown up alongside an enslaved man believed to be his half-brother.
Later that day, art historian Bonnie Yochelson offers a richly detailed portrait of Victorian Staten Island rebel and proto-queer icon Alice Austen, whose lens and lifestyle quietly pushed back against the patriarchy before “queer” was even a term. Closing out Saturday are Lisa Lerer and Elizabeth Dias of the New York Times, whose The Fall of Roe unpacks the religious and political machinery behind America’s seismic shift on abortion rights.
Sunday brings a change in tempo with Hudson Valley favorite Chloe Caldwell’s Trying, a raw and radiant memoir about infertility and self-invention. Mayukh Sen then turns the spotlight on Hollywood history with his long-overdue biography of Merle Oberon (Love, Queenie), while David Hajdu wraps the weekend with The Uncanny Muse, charting the uneasy tango between art and machines.
Meanwhile, the children’s program on Saturday morning brings out The Rainbow Fish in the glittery flesh—proof that not everything good in this world needs a Pulitzer.
But let’s be honest: for many, the star of the show is still the used book sale. With more than 15,000 titles spanning every genre and price point (plus LPs, DVDs, and other media), this is the bibliophile’s equivalent of the Running of the Bulls. Teachers with ID get 20 percent off, and Academy members get early-bird access on Friday—with a new “no scanners allowed” rule to keep things neighborly.
Whether you’re here for discourse or discounts—or just a good cup of coffee and a thick paperback—the Festival of Books has something to say. And at 20 years in, it’s not slowing down.
