Bookmarks will welcome John Green, one of the most celebrated and influential authors of his generation, as the Opening Keynote Speaker for its 21st annual Bookmarks Festival of Books & Authors. Green will kick off the Festival on Friday, Sept. 25, 2026, at Wait Chapel on the campus of Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem. The Winston-Salem event marks Green's much-anticipated return to fiction with “Hollywood, Ending,” his first novel in nearly a decade and his adult fiction debut. Hollywood, Ending is a deeply observed novel about the tension between a public and a private life, and finding your safe someone to hold onto. Tender, heartbreaking, and shrewdly funny, this is a story as only John Green can tell it.

Tickets are $40 (plus taxes and fees) and include admission to the event and a presigned copy of “Hollywood, Ending.”