The 2014 Twin Cities Book Festival is October 11, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds

If you’re a book lover, you are likely already familiar with Rain Taxi’s annual Twin Cities Book Festival. This one-day event at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds is the largest literary festival in the Upper Midwest – and this year, the offerings have grown still more plentiful. In addition to bringing in a number of internationally-known writers, the festival has designated “Author Hub” programs, featuring a larger-than-usual contingent of local poets and writers, as well as a variety of interactive meet-and-greet opportunities liberally scattered among the aisles-upon-aisles of booths – for area lit mags and literary organizations, booksellers, publishers and authors – that make up the exhibitors’ floor.

Novelists Ann Hood and Laird Hunt are just two of this year’s big-name featured authors.

National literary notables presenting at this year’s festival include novelists Ann Hood (“The Knitting Circle,” “The Italian Wife”) and Laird Hunt (“The Kind One,” “Neverhome”). Local favorites, Stephan Eirik Clark (“Sweetness #9”) and Julie Schumacher (“Dear Committee Members”) will talk shop about satire in a conversation moderated by novelist Dylan Hicks. British-Guyanese author Fred D’Aguiar (“Children of Paradise”) and Nigerian author Okey Ndibe (“Foreign Gods, Inc.”) will discuss cross-cultural currents in fiction. “Subject to Debate” columnist Katha Pollitt will present on the issues raised by her new book, “Pro: Reclaiming Abortion Rights,” about the debates surrounding women’s reproductive rights.

“Conversation Gardening” is a “little story about why you should care where you buy your books,” and will be created in response to readers questions and ideas, including those submitted to the authors at the festival, on-site this weekend.

Minnesota-based comic artists Zak Sally (“Sammy the Mouse,” “The Recidivist”) and Anders Nilsen (“Big Questions,” “Rage of Poseidon,” “The End”) will embark on an experiment done in partnership with readers, called “Conversation Gardening,” undertaken by way of response to the ongoing publishing dispute between Amazon and Hachette. According to the festival description: “The two cartoonists will draw responses to readers’ [and festival-goers’] questions and ideas  … and discuss what it means to be a part of the vital world of independent media at a time of Internet behemoths and monopoly consolidation in publishing.” Sally and Nilsen will also present an exhibition of the art in their new books – Sally’s fourth volume of “The Recidivist” and Nilsen’s latest, “God and the Devil at War in the Garden” – which will be on view in the Fine Arts Pavilion.

The book fest’s offerings will spill off the fairgrounds and into the evening this year: in a reading at Hennepin County’s Central Library, co-presented by the Twin Cities Book Festival and Talk of the Stacks, bestselling science writer Steven Pinker (“The Language Instinct,” “The Stuff of Thought”) will discuss his new book, “The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person’s Guide to Writing in the 21st Century.”

If you’ve kids and teenaged readers to consider, take note: the festival has also significantly expanded the assortment of bookish programming and author events geared toward youth. In addition to the popular Children’s Pavilion, the book fest will feature a Teen Tent and Middle-Grade HQ, all of which will play host to a variety of kid-friendly activities, live music, games and appearances by many of the region’s beloved children’s book and YA authors.

The 2014 Twin Cities Book Festival will be Saturday, October 11 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds, 1265 Snelling Ave., St. Paul. (The reading by Steven Pinker, presented in partnership with Talk of the Stacks, will be off-site, at 7 p.m. at the Hennepin County Library’s Central Library branch, 300 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis.)  Find the exhibit hall and book fair in the fairgrounds’ Progress Center; the readings stages will be in the Fine Arts Center. For a full list of featured authors and events related to the book fest, visit www.raintaxi.com/twin-cities-book-festival.