Three-day literary celebration to spotlight desert heritage, environmental storytelling, and family literacy
Twentynine Palms, CA – The Twentynine Palms Book Festival returns for its third annual celebration on November 7–9, 2025, with an expanded lineup of over 100 authors, artists, and speakers. This year’s festival welcomes acclaimed environmental writer Josh Jackson as its first VIP Guest Author. Jackson will headline Saturday’s programming with a keynote conversation tied to his upcoming book The Enduring Wild, which chronicles California’s vast and threatened public lands.
Hosted at Freedom Plaza Community Center in Downtown Twentynine Palms, with satellite events across the city, the festival’s three-day schedule is organized around themed days:
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Friday, Nov. 7 – The Power of Heritage Stories
Featuring Native voices, veterans, local historians, and longtime residents. -
Saturday, Nov. 8 – Never Underestimate the Desert
A deep dive into the Mojave’s ecology, art, and resilience, led by writers, scientists, and visual storytellers. -
Sunday, Nov. 9 – Books Don’t Need Chargers
A family-friendly day of literacy, bookmaking, poetry, and interactive storytelling.
Special features include Drawing Her Voice, a panel on the feminist comic revolution of the 1970s, and Writing Joan, a tribute to literary icon Joan Didion. Indigenous narratives, a jazz-and-literature crossover, and workshops on book-to-film adaptation round out the programming.
The event remains free and open to the public, with early registration available through 29PBF.com. The Book Day kickoff event, held earlier this May at Kitchen in the Desert, showcased over 30 local authors and musicians, setting the tone for what’s expected to be the festival’s biggest year yet.
