Exclusive: Second Believer Festival lineup announced

Nick Hornby, John Hodgman and Meg Wolitzer will be among the writers featured at the second Believer Festival in Las Vegas.

The Believer, the bimonthly magazine that’s been a favorite of the literary set since its founding nearly 15 years ago, revealed its 2018 lineup exclusively to The Times.

Other featured authors at the festival, which is set for April 13 and 14, include Tayari Jones, whose “An American Marriage” was named the latest selection for Oprah Winfrey’s book club on Tuesday. Jones is a writing fellow at the Black Mountain Institute at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, which is hosting the Believer Festival.

Other writers and comedians on the bill include Jean Grae, Wajahat Ali, Dave Eggers, Rachel Kushner, Javon Johnson, Ayelet Waldman, Vogue Robinson, Jericho Brown, Thi Bui, Nima Abkenar, José Orduña and Leslie Jamison.

The 2018 festival will take place in five locations across Las Vegas, with a “literary variety show” hosted by Hodgman and Grae closing the event on April 14.

This is the second year the Believer has hosted a festival in Las Vegas, the home of its owner, the Beverly Rogers, Carol C. Harter Black Mountain Institute at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The institute acquired the Believer magazine from McSweeney’s last year, which had published it from 2003 to 2017.

Last year’s festival featured Eggers, Miranda July, Ben Marcus, Luis Alberto Urrea, Carrie Brownstein and musician Jim James of My Morning Jacket.

Additional names are expected to be added to the 2018 festival, which also includes the Los Angeles art collective the Metabolic Studio.