The Twin Cities Book Festival welcomed eager readers on Saturday at Union Depot in St. Paul, uniting literature lovers from around the state for the 25th year in a row.

The literary organization Rain Taxi has hosted the festival every year since 2001, bringing the Twin Cities literary community together with authors, publishers and booksellers. This year’s festivities included a children’s corner, activity hub, author showcases and over 140 book fair exhibitors.

This quarter-century anniversary wasn’t without challenges.

Federal cuts to the National Endowment for the Arts have left Rain Taxi under-resourced, according to Rain Taxi editor and executive director Eric Lorberer. Despite that, the organization kept the entire festival free to the public.

“Some years are leaner than others,” Lorberer said. “But we’re going to use whatever we have to put on the best possible show and give back to the community, and hopefully inspire people to keep writing and keep reading and keep connecting with each other.”

Lorberer said their annual used book and record sale was one way the festival continued to prioritize the community this year.

“It’s a fundraiser for us since we’re a nonprofit,” Lorberer said. “But it’s also a chance to show and to share our love of books, and to keep these books in the hands of readers by putting them out at super low prices.”

Despite this section being tucked away at the back of the bookfair, attendees reliably found it and dug through buckets of secondhand books and $1 records.

Used and rare book exhibitors also had stands nearby, stocking novels whose genres spanned from folklore to cookbooks. Local names like Midway Used and Rare Books and the Book House in Dinkytown were among them.

Ryan Hinderacker, part-owner of the Book House, said he was excited to exhibit at the festival because of its high attendance every year.

“We’re always trying to get exposure,” Hinderacker said. “A lot of people who were students in the ‘80s, ‘90s and ‘00s are saying, ‘Oh, the Bookhouse is still around.’”

Authors, who ran booths to sell and sign their work throughout the fair, also shared this sentiment. 

M. Kevin Hayden, a novelist from the South Side of Chicago, said he was hoping to get more visibility and show readers he was there for them.

“To have something so high visibility centered around books and literature is more important today than it ever has been,” Hayden said.

His latest novel, “Willow Rose,” is set in Minnesota. The festival was a way for him to connect with the community his book focuses on.

The festival had non-literary activities too.

Cartoonist Ursula Murray Husted ran a community collage in the activity hub. She invited visitors to draw on small squares of colored paper that she pasted around her own drawing, creating one large, colorful image.

To Murray Husted, the festival was a gratifying experience of connecting with the people who read her books.

“Cartoonists spend 300 days a year alone in their rooms,” Murray Husted said. “So it’s nice to come out in the community and see people.”

The festival also presented Murray Husted with the opportunity to promote her newest graphic novel, “Botticelli’s Apprentice.”

The author events were also popular. During University professor Kathryn Nuernberger’s showcase, every seat in the room was filled. Audience members stood in back, trying to catch some of her talk about essays.

By and large, one idea echoed throughout the festival: books are unifying.

“No matter how much changes in the world, there’s something timeless and eternal about books,” said Mark Haber, director of marketing and acquisitions for Coffee House Press. “People love stories.”

Lorberer said he hopes both Rain Taxi and the festival will continue to evolve as the needs of the community change over time.

“This annual festival is like fireworks on the Fourth of July,” Lorberer said. “It’s this dramatic display of how strong the community really is.”