More Than 175 Authors to Participate
in Library of Congress National Book Festival
The 2015 Library of Congress National Book Festival will be the most
expansive one in its 15-year history, with more than 175 authors, poets
and illustrators in its 18 pavilions and programs.
The festival is
Saturday, Sept. 5, at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center from 10 a.m. until 10 p.m. (doors open at 9). The event is free and open to the public.
The theme of the festival is “I cannot live without books,” which is a
quote from a letter that Thomas Jefferson wrote to his friend John
Adams in 1815 following the third president’s sale of his personal
library to the Library of Congress. Jefferson sold his 6,487 books to
replenish the Library that was burned by the British during the War of
1812.
The festival website is
www.loc.gov/bookfest. Author schedules and other information can be found there.
Following are the pavilions and presenters in each of them:
YOUNG PEOPLE’S AUTHORS:
Children
Buzz Aldrin, Mac Barnett, Cece Bell, Gennifer Choldenko, National
Ambassador for Young People’s Literature Kate DiCamillo, U.S. Poet
Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera, Jennifer Holm, Jarrett J. Krosoczka, Naomi
Shihab Nye, Lin Oliver, Lynne Rae Perkins, Trevor Pryce, Rachel Renee
Russell, Jon Scieszka
Teens
Kwame Alexander, David Baldacci, Libba Bray, Michael Buckley, Jenny Han,
Phillip Hoose, Cynthia Levinson, Sonia Manzano, Ellen Oh, Laura Amy
Schlitz, Sabaa Tahir, Meg Wolitzer, “Letters About Literature” and the
“A Book That Shaped Me” contest winners
Picture Books
Tom Angleberger, Cale Atkinson, Tad Hills, William Joyce, Tom
Lichtenheld, Steve Light, Diane Muldrow, Elise Parsley, Jean Reagan,
Amy Krouse Rosenthal, Dan Santat, Stephen Savage, Peter Sís, Hervé
Tullet, Audrey Wood, Don Wood
NONFICTION WRITERS
Biography & Memoir
Maureen Corrigan, Harlyn Geronimo, Walter Isaacson, Mary Jordan, David
McCullough, John Riordan, Bryan Stevenson, Kevin Sullivan, Jeanne
Theoharis, Evan Thomas, Amy Wilentz, Richard Zoglin
Contemporary Life
Manuel Castells, Yochi Dreazen, Robin Givhan, Tom Gjelten, Morton
Kondracke, Nicholas Kristof, Erika Lee, David Maraniss, Shelia P.
Moses, Al Roker, Lisa Scottoline, Francesca Serritella, Ray Suarez,
Barry Svrluga, Héctor Tobar, Sheryl WuDunn, Julia G. Young
Food
Najmieh Batmanglij, Bridget Lancaster, Patrick O’Connell, Nora Pouillon, Bryan Roof
History
Danielle Allen, Joseph Ellis, Elizabeth A. Fenn, Edward J. Larson,
Anne-Marie O’Connor, Evan Osnos, Cokie Roberts, Jan Jarboe Russell, Jay
Winik, Lawrence Wright
Science
Norman Doidge, Judy Foreman, Paul Halpern, Terrence Holt, David Quammen,
Jeffrey D. Sachs, Casey Schwartz, Rachel Swaby, Edward O. Wilson,
Andrea Wulf
FICTION WRITERS
Fiction
Stephen L. Carter, Library of Congress Fiction Prize winner Louise
Erdrich, Ha Jin, Ward Just, Phil Klay, Thomas Mallon, Viet Thanh Nguyen,
Marilynne Robinson, Jane Smiley, Lalita Tademy
Graphic Novels
Lalo Alcaraz, Keith Knight, Miss Lasko-Gross, Diane Noomin, Stephan Pastis, Trina Robbins, Scott Stantis
Mysteries, Thrillers & Science Fiction
David Baldacci, Jeffery Deaver, David Ignatius, Marlon James, Jane
Lindskold, Laura Lippman, Walter Mosley, Lisa Scottoline, David Weber,
Dan Wells
Poetry & Prose
Daniel Alarcón, Jerome Charyn, Marilyn Chin, Lynn Freed, Jane
Hirshfield, Azar Nafisi, Eric Pankey, Claudia Rankine, Ishmael Reed,
Kevin Young, Poetry Out Loud
Poetry Slam featuring young poets from Houston, Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, D.C.
Romance Fiction
Sarah MacLean, Beverly Jenkins, Paige Tyler
SPECIAL PROGRAMS
International
Homero Aridjis, Álvaro Enrigue, Cristina Rivera Garza, David Good, John
Hemming, Donald S. Lopez Jr., Valeria Luiselli, Jane McAuliffe, Jack
Miles, María José Navia, Andrés Neuman, Mark Plotkin, Santiago
Roncagliolo, Juan Gabriel Vásquez, Alejandro Zambra
First Nations Authors of Australia
Tony Birch, Jeanine Leane, Dub Leffler, Melissa Lucashenko, Bruce Pascoe, Jared Thomas, Ellen van Neerven
The Human Side of War
Elliot Ackerman, Christian G. Appy, Rick Atkinson, Tom Brokaw, Rajiv
Chandrasekaran, Joseph Ellis, Annette Gordon-Reed, Phil Klay, Jon
Meacham, Roxana Robinson, Elizabeth D. Samet, Henry Wiencek
Books to Movies
A. Scott Berg, Anne-Marie O’Connor, Lawrence Wright
Eight authors will launch books at the festival: Tom Gjelten, “A Nation
of Nations”; Erika Lee, “The Making of Asian America”; Thomas Mallon,
“Finale”; David Maraniss, “Once in a Great City”; Stephen Pastis,
“Pearls Get Sacrificed”; Casey Schwartz, “In the Mind Fields: Exploring
the New Science of Neuropsychoanalysis”; Jay Winik, “1944: FDR and the
Year That Changed History”; and Andrea Wulf, “The Invention of Nature:
Alexander von Humboldt’s New World.”
The National Book Festival (www.loc.gov/bookfest) is
funded by private donors and corporate sponsors who share the Library’s
commitment to reading and literacy. Since 2010, National Book Festival
Board Co-Chairman David M. Rubenstein has been the festival’s lead
benefactor and has pledged funding for the festival for five more years.
Charter Sponsors are AARP, the Institute of Museum and Library
Services, The Washington Post and Wells Fargo; Patron sponsors, The
James Madison Council and the National Endowment for the Arts; the
Contributor-level sponsors are C-SPAN2 Book TV, The Junior League of
Washington, Jacqueline B. Mars, National Geographic, Scholastic Inc. and
WAMU 88.5 FM; and, in the Friends category, Australia Council for the
Arts, the Marshall B. Coyne Foundation Inc., The Embassy of Peru in the
United States of America, Georgetown University’s Department of Spanish
and Portuguese, the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction, The Hay-Adams,
the Inter-American Development Bank, The Jefferson Hotel, Susan Carmel
Lehrman, the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute with support from
board chair Roger A. Strauch, the Mensa Education & Research
Foundation, the Mexican Cultural Institute, Lissa Muscatine and Bradley
Graham, the National Endowment for the Humanities, NPR, Small Press Expo
and Split This Rock. Those interested in supporting the National Book
Festival can contact the Library at devofc@loc.gov.
Founded in 1800, the Library of Congress (
www.loc.gov)
is the nation’s oldest federal cultural institution and the largest
library in the world. The Library seeks to spark imagination and
creativity and to further human understanding and wisdom by providing
access to knowledge through its magnificent collections, programs,
publications and exhibitions.
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