What if I told you the largest young adult book festival is a mere three hour drive from Weddington High School? Some of you would be shocked, excited even to meet your favorite authors. Others would roll their eyes indifferently, maybe shrug a bit, cock their head to the side, wondering why anyone would choose this over the annual Scarowinds rides.

It might play out a bit like this:
Rob: Charles, apparently there’s some book fest coming to Charleston.
Charles: Isn’t Charleston, like, a historical place, except for those rainbow houses?
Rob: I don’t know dude, but seriously, why would anyone go to that? We just finished
Animal Farm with Mr. Doherty and he’s all, “This book revolves around an alleg-g-oy.” Like what even is that?
Charles: (shakes his head) I have no idea man, but count me out.

But here’s how students really feel about YALLFest, the young adult book festival, at Weddington High School:
Saanvi Gandhi: “It makes me feel like I’d wanna go there, you know, though it’s kinda far. It makes me excited for new opportunities.”
Gloria Gao: “I am excited and I would definitely want to go and get some autographs.”
Uma Feist: “I absolutely want to go and plan on going!!! I can’t wait to see some authors and get some autographs.”
Niam Kathrotia: “This festival sounds like a welcome addition to the Carolinas’ cultural scene! I would love to attend and hear from prominent authors.”
Even parents of students at Weddington High School are excited about the opportunities it might host for their kids:
One mother claims, “Charleston sounds like a beautiful place to read and sit by the beach.”
Another parent states, “This event will truly open up avenues for children to meet and learn from new authors.”

So it sounds fun…but why truly go? YALLFest, or the Young Adult Literature Lovers Festival in Charleston, hosted in Charleston, South Carolina, and founded in 2011, is the largest young adult book festival in the world.
The festival was co-founded by bestselling authors Maragaret Stohl and Kami Garcia, who both wrote the acclaimed novel “Beautiful Creatures.” They created the festival along with Jonathan Sanchez, the owner of Blue Bicycle Books in downtown Charleston. There are three central reasons people attend YALLFest: panels, signings, and headliner
events. Panels are when several different authors discuss one topic, with one author as a moderator. Every one of the 25+ author panels are free and a Q & A session will be held at the end. On November 14th, signings will take place, and very few authors require tickets. Additionally, headliner events are when two to three authors chat on-stage. There are two of these: Opening Keynote and Smackdown! These events, however, require tickets.

In addition to some of these activities, there are numerous sponsor events hosting multiple activities for attendees, along with sponsor village, where many publishers will be doing free give-aways and chatting about titles—this is only available on Saturday. YAWLCRAWL is another event; it’s simply a bonus signing opportunity on Friday for a few select authors. And if you want to buy a book afterwards, there will be a large selection available at Blue Bicycle
Books at the heart of the festival with other merchandise!

Here’s some general information if you want to attend:
Admission cost: Completely free; no tickets required for entry or for over 25 author panels
Dates: November 13th-14th
Location: Downtown Charleston South Carolina, surrounding Blue Bicycle Books at 420 King Street

Here’s a list of my favorite authors, and a link will be provided if you want to see the full list
of participating authors:
– Allison Saft, author of Wings of Starlight, Immortal Game, and A Far Wilder Magic
– E. Lockhart, author of We Were Liars, The Pools, and We Fell Apart
– Kaylie Smith, author of Phantasma, Enchantra, and Deaemonica
– Lynn Painter, author of Fake Skating, Better Than the Movies, and Trust Fall
– Ransom Riggs, author of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children
– Sarah Beth Dust, author of The Spellshop, The Faraway Inn, and Sea of Charms
– Mary E. Pearson, author of The Kiss of Deception, The Courting of Bristol Keats
– Shannon J. Spann, author of A Stage Set for Villains
– Soman Chainani, author of A School for Good and Evil, Beast and Beauty
– Stephanie Garber, author of Once Upon A Broken Heart, Caraval
– Tahreah Mafi, author of Shatter Me, Release Me, Escape Me
– Veronica Roth, author of Divergent, The Sixth Faction, Seek the Traitor’s Son
List of all authors can be found here: YALLFest 2026 Author Lineup — YALLFest
I’ll be there at YALLFest on November 14th, and I hope to see some of you as well!