Rain Taxi likes to tease us (in a good way), leaking out the names of some of the writers who will be in town for the annual Twin Cities Book Festival, leaking out a few more a little later...

The festival takes place over one busy, frenetic, inspiring, heady day in October --this year, it will Saturday Oct. 17, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the State Fairgrounds. More names will be released later, including Minnesota writers, but here's a partial list of guests, and it's a good one:

Jabari Asim: Poet, playwright, novelist, journalist, critic, editor, and more. Author of the story collection, "A Taste of Honey," and the novel, "Only the Strong," published earlier this year.

Christian Bok: Canadian poet and very experimental writer. He's known for "Eunoia," in which the five chapters each use only one vowel.

Susan Cheever: novelist, biographer, memoirist. Her new book is "Drinking in America."

Ales Debeljak, Slovenian poet, essayist and cultural critic.

Susan Cheever.

Brian Henry, poet, literary critic and translator. HE has received the Best Translated Book Award and the Alice Fay di Castagnola Award.

Laila Lalami: fiction and criticism. Her novel, "The Moor's Account," was a Pulitzer finalist.

Joe Meno: Fiction writer and comic book artist. His new novel, "Marvel and a Wonder," has been compared to the work of Cormac McCarthy.

Nina Revoyr: award-winning novelist; her latest book is "Lost Canyon."

Craig Thompson, graphic novelist.

Rupert Thomson, English writer, author of "Katherine Carlyle."

Joy Williams, short-story writer. Her new book of new and collected stories is "The Visiting Privilege," published by Alfred A. Knopf.

The festival is free and has events and readings for adults as well as children. This year marks Rain Taxi's 20th anniversary in the Twin Cities. Rain Taxi is a nonprofit literary organization; it publishes a quarterly review and sponsors readings and events through the Cities.