About the Twentynine Palms Book Festival

Organized by Desert General, a local bookstore, the Twentynine Palms Book Festival returns for its third edition this November, building on the city’s growing reputation as a book lovers’ destination—recently featured in The L.A. Times, Vogue, Travel & Leisure, and the Financial Times. This year’s festival is expected to welcome more than 80 established and emerging authors from Friday, November 7, through Sunday, November 9.

Launched in 2023, the festival brings together authors, readers, and professionals from the publishing and entertainment industries in a vibrant program hosted at the Twentynine Palms Community Center. The expo will feature independent publishers and self-published authors, while attendees can enjoy author talks, readings, panel discussions followed by signings, and networking opportunities. A Young Readers Zone will engage children and families, and the festival’s identity as a hub for local writing talent continues to drive attendance from both residents and visiting literary travelers, thanks to the region’s thriving community of novelists, journalists, essayists, historians, poets, and screenwriters.

Evenings come alive with sidebar events in iconic desert settings: Mojave Noir at the Old Schoolhouse Museum, Happy Poetry Hour at the 29 Palms Inn, Voices of the Desert and Red Light Lit at The Palms, and Noir in the Boneyard at the Twentynine Palms Public Cemetery.

Looking ahead, the festival is also proud to partner with Palm Springs–based NoirCon to launch Desert Noir in 2026—an initiative designed to support crime fiction and nonfiction stories with strong screen adaptation potential, ideally suited to be filmed in the Mojave Desert.