Jubilee JiBol stood in line, clutching an oversized book for author Mychal Threets to sign. At 9 years old, she was already a veteran of the Mississippi Book Festival, which returned Saturday to the state Capitol. “I’ve been coming since I was 1 years old, ever since I was a baby,” she sai d, as her mother, L.E. JiBol, nodded to confirm. Her brother Nile, 6, was a relative newcomer and has been working hard to improve his reading skills for future trips to the festival. They joined thousands of other book lovers who swarmed the grounds of the Capitol and nearby Galloway United Methodist Church in Jackson, streaming through large white tents lined with tables stacked with books. Jubilee JiBol, 9, and her brother Nile, 6, get help from a volunteer while waiting in line at the Mississippi Book Festival in Jackson on Sept. 26, 2026. Credit: Bobby Caina Calvan/Mississippi Today / Mississippi Today The annual festival, now in its 11th year, has become a gathering place for readers young and old to meet authors, discover books and celebrate Mississippi’s literary tradition. Threets, better known as Mychal the Librarian, has been an evangelist for reading. His mission is to teach kids what libraries can offer and that they belong there. ‘Just let them read’ He is now host of the revival of “Reading Rainbow,” a television program aimed at encouraging children to read and develop a love of books. The reboot debuted last year and has been renewed for a second season. “Just let them read and read because it’s so much fun. There’s so much joy in reading,” Threets said. “When I think about the future of libraries, that’s what I think of.”  In the spirit of sharing that joy, Threets handed out free copies of his book, “I’m So Happy You’re Here: A Celebration of Library Joy.” “A library is for every single person,” Threets said during a vulnerable, wide-ranging conversation in front of an audience at Galloway with author Margaret McMullan. Their conversation touched on Threets’ struggles with mental health and his thoughts about Black teenager Emmett Till, who was kidnapped and killed by white men in Mississippi in 1955. Threets also encouraged kids to read and talked about taking his cat to the library as a child. A long line of book-toting fans stretched for a block outside Galloway, which hosted some of the festival’s panels. In the minutes before former “Saturday Night Live” cast member Kate McKinnon took the stage, parents corralled young children onto their laps. One uncle was already making plans to dash out to McKinnon’s 11 a.m. book signing. Kate McKinnon, a former cast member of “Saturday Night Live,” asks an audience member a question during the Mississippi Book Festival in Jackson on Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today Traveling through time McKinnon first appeared as her alter ego, Dr. G. Edwina Candlestank, the eccentric narrator of McKinnon’s middle-grade series, “The Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science.” “I traveled throughout time,” Candlestank said, exaggerating each syllable, to the state of “Mye-sye-sye-pie.” She stalked onto the stage with a tuft of her short blond hair sticking up, wearing round black glasses and a lab coat. As the crowd laughed, Candlestank ditched the lab coat for a black suit jacket to transform into McKinnon, now a New York Times bestselling author. “That’s the biggest round of applause I ever got in a Methodist church,” she quipped after the crowd settled down. Her books follow three misfit sisters and their mentor, the mad scientist Millicent Quibb. The characters, McKinnon said, were built from the hair up. When inhabiting new roles on “Saturday Night Live,” her first questions were: What’s the hair? What’s the voice? She developed the characters in her books much the same way. Audience members laugh as Kate McKinnon, a former cast member of “Saturday Night Live,” talks about her book, “The Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science,” during the Mississippi Book Festival in Jackson on Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today Asked about the inspiration for her books, McKinnon pointed to her love of the natural world. She talked about crawdads making their homes in the mud, skunks and snapping turtles she sees every day on her farm. To her, they are “more magical than anything any author could ever conjure in their head.” McKinnon spent more time out of her seat than in it. She paced the stage as she recalled her childhood as a founding member of the “Honeysuckle Eaters Club” and slid through the church pews to ask young members of the audience what mad-scientist creatures they wished were real. “A frog mixed with Godzilla,” one audience member replied. “A chickibara,” said another, referring to a chicken mixed with a capybara – which McKinnon said happens to be her favorite animal. From whimsical to weighty The festival’s conversations went from the whimsical to the weighty, featuring writers whose work spans a multitude of genres.  In the marbled chamber of Mississippi’s Old Supreme Court Chamber, five writers recounted what it was like to be on the other side of the bench, hearing a judge read out the sentences that would put them behind bars for years. Cree Myles, left, and rapper and author Rick Ross discuss his new book, “Renaissance of a Boss: Notes from a Creative Reawakening,” during the Mississippi Book Festival in Jackson on Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today The paths that brought each of them to prison fill a chapter of the 2025 anthology, “Breaking Chains, Building Futures.” But at the center of the book is what came afterward: how education helped move them forward from their time behind bars, earn college degrees and lead organizations dedicated to helping others break the cycle of incarceration.  Weaving their stories together is author Stanley Andrisse, a self-described former “career criminal” who would have spent life in prison for a drug trafficking conviction if the prosecutor had gotten her way. Instead, Andrisse was sentenced to a decade behind bars. After his release, he went to college. He later earned a master’s degree, then a doctorate. He is now a tenured professor and scientist at Howard University. “I clearly didn’t live up to those expectations that that prosecutor had on this young Black boy those many years ago,” Andrisse said. Though his story took place around St. Louis, it deeply resonates in Mississippi, a state with one of the nation’s highest incarceration rates. Mississippi’s past revisited During another panel in the state Capitol, more of the past became the talk of the present, when another five authors shared stories drawn from Mississippi’s history – real-life tales spanning the state from the Delta to Hattiesburg. W. Ralph Eubanks, from left, Eddie S. Glaude Jr., and Robert P. Jones speak during the Mississippi Book Festival in Jackson on Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today The stories took place during the civil rights era — an inflection point for Mississippi and the nation. “They’re not just a Mississippi story,” said native Mississippian and novelist Steve Yarbrough. “All of these books, to one extent or another, they’re dealing with questions of race, inequity, inclusivity and basically, the question of whether or not some people are better or more qualified to live a good life than others.” Through their words, the triumphs and traumas of pioneers both renowned and little known saw the light of day. Among them was Clyde Kennard, the first Black person to apply to the University of Southern Mississippi. While his friend and fellow activist, Medgar Evers, is better known for challenging school segregation, Kennard’s story took center stage in the 2026 book “Mixing,” which chronicles his fight to desegregate USM and how officials framed and imprisoned him. In veteran Delta newspaper editor Jim Abbott’s memoir, “Paper Man,” Mississippi’s civil-rights history is told by a man who witnessed it. At the festival, the Greenwood native recounted how he went from a young, white Mississippian “angered” by the “negative publicity” that the civil rights movement brought his home state to a dogged newspaperman committed to exposing injustice and including Black voices in his stories. Back outside, Jubilee mused about someday becoming a writer – maybe more stories about mad scientists. Something fictional, she said. She knows the challenges of creating art. “Sometimes, I think about it,” she said. “But sometimes I’m just too tired and want to flop on the couch.” People gather for the Mississippi Book Festival in Jackson on Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026.Rapper and author Rick Ross is welcomed onstage during the Mississippi Book Festival in Jackson on Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026.W. Ralph Eubanks, from left, Eddie S. Glaude Jr., and Robert P. Jones speak during the Mississippi Book Festival in Jackson on Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026.People gather for the Mississippi Book Festival in Jackson on Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026.Author Deesha Philyaw signs a book for a fan during the Mississippi Book Festival in Jackson on Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026.Terry Williamson shops during the Mississippi Book Festival in Jackson on Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026.People shop during the Mississippi Book Festival in Jackson on Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026.Audience members listen as Kate McKinnon, a former cast member of “Saturday Night Live,” talks about her book, “The Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science,” during the Mississippi Book Festival in Jackson on Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026.Customers search for books during the Mississippi Book Festival in Jackson on Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026.Zelda F. Hill, author of the children’s book “Duck and Bubba: The Secret Fist Bump,” sells his book to Trey and LaWanda Parks during the Mississippi Book Festival in Jackson on Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026.Items on display during the Mississippi Book Festival in Jackson on Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026.W. Ralph Eubanks, Eddie S. Glaude Jr., and Robert P. Jones speak during the Mississippi Book Festival in Jackson on Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026.People gather for the Mississippi Book Festival in Jackson on Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026.People visit booths during the Mississippi Book Festival in Jackson on Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026.Kate McKinnon, a former cast member of “Saturday Night Live,” talks about her book, “The Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science,” during the Mississippi Book Festival in Jackson on Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026.Kate McKinnon, a former cast member of “Saturday Night Live,” asks an audience member a question during the Mississippi Book Festival in Jackson on Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026.Kate McKinnon, a former cast member of “Saturday Night Live,” asks a child a question during the Mississippi Book Festival in Jackson on Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026.Houston Smith, left, and Lexington Bush shop during the Mississippi Book Festival in Jackson on Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026.Books for sale at the Mississippi Book Festival in Jackson on Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026.Cree Myles, left, and rapper and author Rick Ross discuss his book, “Renaissance of a Boss: Notes from a Creative Reawakening,” during the Mississippi Book Festival in Jackson on Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026.Rapper and author Rick Ross discusses his new book, “Renaissance of a Boss: Notes from a Creative Reawakening,” during the Mississippi Book Festival in Jackson on Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026.Customers search for books during the Mississippi Book Festival in Jackson on Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026.People wait in line for a book signing during the Mississippi Book Festival in Jackson on Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026. ...read more read less