For its 20th anniversary, October's Las Vegas Book Festival has announced an outstanding literary lineup.

After a fully virtual 2020 event, the festival returns with a hybrid format.

Author, humorist and speaker Fran Lebowitz headlines in person. You might know her from the Martin Scorses-directed 2021 Netflix show Pretend It’s a City.

“She has arrived in all her mouthy, pushy, opinionated way at exactly the right time: a forcefield of comic self-certainty in a world of anxious uncertainty,” Sean O’Hagan wrote of Lebowitz in The Guardian. “Much of this is down to her wit, which, to put it mildly, tends towards the acerbic, but also undercuts her grumpiness and cast-iron certitude.”

Children's book author Dr. Oriel Maria Siu will be the second keynote speaker. Siu is known for her thoughtful book series Rebeldita the Fearless and for teaching university courses on race and immigration.

Award-winning author Sandra Cisneros, best known for writing The House on Mango Street, will join the festival virtually. Her event will be presented thanks to a National Endowment for the Arts Big Read grant. Read the book in advance for a chance to discuss it with the author.

The free, 20th-anniversary event, produced by the City of Las Vegas and Nevada Humanities, will take place October 23 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Historic Fifth Street School (401 S. Fourth Street).

A week of pre-events will take place online starting on October 18. For more information, visit lasvegasbookfestival.com.