Save the Dates! National Book Festival Scheduled for September 24-25, 2011

Authors Announced! Event Expands to Two Days on National Mall!

World-renowned authors David McCullough, Russell Banks, Dave Eggers, Terry McMillan, Pulitzer Prize-winners Siddhartha Mukherjee and Jennifer Egan, Garrison Keillor, Amy Chua and Nobel- and Pulitzer Prize-winner Toni Morrison will be among more than 80 writers speaking at the 11th annual National Book Festival, organized and sponsored by the Library of Congress, on Saturday, Sept. 24 and Sunday, Sept. 25, 2011, between 9th and 14th streets on the National Mall. The event, free and open to the public, will run from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Saturday and from 1 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, rain or shine. 

Over Two Dozen Authors and Illustrators for Young People Participating

The authors for young people who will be participating in this year's book festival include: National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature Katherine Paterson, Sherman Alexie, Mary Brigid Barrett, Harry Bliss, Calef Brown, Cassandra Clare, Susan Cooper, Tomi dePaola, Sarah Dessen, Jack Gantos, Margaret George, Joe Hayes, William Joyce, Gordon Korman, Uma Krishnaswami, Gregory  Maguire, Sam McBratney, Patricia McKissack, John Bemelmans Marciano,  Shelia P. Moses, Kadir Nelson, Allen Say, Gary Schmidt, Brian Selznick, Chris Van Dusen, and Rita Williams-Garcia.

Pavilions Added for Urban Fiction and Graphic Novels

The 2011 National Book Festival will feature authors, poets and illustrators in several pavilions, including two new genre pavilions: Urban Fiction and Graphic Novels. Festival-goers can meet and hear firsthand from their favorite authors, get books signed, have photos taken with PBS storybook characters and participate in a variety of activities. Some 150,000 book fans attended the 10th-anniversary festival in 2010.

Festival to Celebrate the Joys of Reading Aloud

Celebrating the joys of reading aloud will be the theme of this 11th National Book Festival. Details will come soon to the website at www.loc.gov/bookfest. The website offers a variety of features, and new material will be added to the website as authors continue to join this year’s lineup.

Click here to read the complete press release from the Library of Congress.

Click here to check out videos from the 2010 National Book Festival, including the The Exquisite Corpse Adventure Readers' Theatre Production, featuring Mary Brigid Barrett, M.T. Anderson, Linda Sue Park, Katherine Paterson, James Ransome, and Timothy Basil Ering.