Festival of Books Schedule
Holiday Inn Programming
South Dakota Book Fair
Click here to learn more about our book fair.
Imagine the nostalgia of a Scholastic Book Fair reimagined for adults. Our Book Fair brings together a curated mix of vendors featuring books, magazines, journals, stationery, and unique literary finds. It’s a space to explore, shop, and rediscover the excitement of discovering your next favorite read.
Sculpture Walk Tour #1
We will meet in the lobby. Click here for more details.
Experience SculptureWalk Sioux Falls up close on a guided walk through downtown Sioux Falls. Discover the stories, artists, and inspiration behind the sculptures that help shape our city. Led by SculptureWalk and South Dakota Humanities Council board member Jim Mathis, you’ll explore how visual artists use form, materials, and imagination to tell stories in three dimensions.
Coffee & Conversation
The Missouri, America’s Longest River – Jon K. Lauck & Dr. Harry Thompson
South Dakota Poetry Society Reading – Participants TBA
Greater Minnesota
With Patrick Hicks
Patrick Hicks will read from his popular new book, Greater Minnesota. It’s a witty, wise, and affectionate journey to every corner of the North Star State. After years of living abroad, Hicks returns to Minnesota only to find that his home state feels like a foreign country. In the tradition of Bill Bryson and Paul Theroux, Greater Minnesota is an account of Hicks’s discoveries. Half travelogue, half history, and fully delightful, this book has become a favorite for readers all across the Midwest.
Pté Oyate – Buffalo Nation – Tracy Hauff and Richard Zauft
South Dakota, Yesterday & Today – Paul Horsted
Stroke, Stroke – Marcella Remund
Educator’s Panel: Indigenous Voices & ELA Curriculum
With Dr. Anton Treuer & SDCET
Join Dr. Anton Treuer and SDCTE for a roundtable, Q&A discussion session about incorporating Indigenous American culture, literature, and pedagogy in secondary and post-secondary classrooms. This session offers a space for educators and community members to come together and learn about the complexities of modern curriculum development and how we can work together to make education more representative of our unique and extraordinary region!
City of Hustle: A Sioux Falls Anthology
– Patrick Hicks & Jon K. Lauck
Sculpture Walk Tour #2
TBA – Jeanne Bowman
Our South Dakota – Bruce Roseland
Publishing & Research Panel – Matthew Davis and Dedra Birzer
TBA
UnMothered/Untounged & Pan de Alma
– Lee Roripaugh & Marcella Prokop
TBA – Norma C. Wilson
The Biography of a Mountain (2026 One Book)
– Matthew Davis
White Lies – Ann Bausum
Author Signing
Siouxland Libraries Programming
Writing Workshop: “Exploring Your Origins”
With Marcella Prokop
The small details of your life hold the beginnings of the universe. During this generative workshop, participants will turn personal memory into an origin story, using a “Mad Libs” style story template as a starting point for crafting poetry, fiction or creative nonfiction. Through this writing prompt and conversation, writers of all backgrounds and skill levels are invited to develop drafts of their origin stories during this free workshop.
Author Pat Zietlow Miller
Writing Workshop: Poetry
With Lee Ann Roripaugh
This workshop will introduce participants to “hermit crab” forms, in which poems are written in the shapes/structures of extra literary forms. The session will look at various models for inspiration and also guide participants through a series of fun, generative exercises in which they can experiment with writing different types of “hermit crab” poems.
Writing Workshop: Horror
With Dr. duncan barlow
Develop the eerie art of storytelling in this horror writing workshop. Guided by English professor Dr. Duncan Barlow from the University of South Dakota, participants will explore the chilling theme of haunted places, from abandoned houses to uncanny public spaces, and learn how to evoke atmosphere, tension, and unforgettable scares in just a few sentences. Through creative prompts and quick writing activities, you’ll experiment with turning ordinary settings into spectral ones and crafting flash fiction pieces that linger like a ghostly whisper. A perfect chance to stretch your imagination
Historical Fiction Workshop
With Patrick Hicks
In this workshop, renowned novelist, Patrick Hicks, will talk about how to do research that is “beyond the desk”. What does it mean to do field work as a writer? How can you make the past come alive on the page? Hicks will talk about the research he did for his three Holocaust novels and offer suggestions on how to weave history into fiction.
Dr. Anton Treuer
Self-Publishing Workshop
With MJ McMillian
Learn how to avoid the pitfalls and perils of self-publishing at this workshop led by author, MJ McMillan. There is so much to know when publishing your own book. At this program, you’ll learn from McMillan’s journey and then have plenty of time to ask your questions.
