100 Authors At LOC's National Book Festival

An unprecedented 112 authors, poets and illustrators will speak and meet with their readers at the 2011 National Book Festival, sponsored by the Library of Congress. The event, to be held Saturday, Sept. 24 and Sunday, Sept. 25 on the National Mall - rain or shine - also will offer more authors and activities for young readers than ever before.

The event is free and open to the public. Saturday hours will be from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and Sunday hours will be from 1 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Authors’ speaking and book-signing schedules are available on the festival website, www.loc.gov/bookfest.

President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama, the first lady, are the honorary chairs of the event. The distinguished benefactor of the event is David M. Rubenstein, who co-chairs the National Book Festival Board with Dr. James H. Billington, the Librarian of Congress.

"Following on the great success of the 2010 National Book Festival, our 10th anniversary, the National Book Festival Board decided last January to make this a two-day event," Billington said. "We expect book-lovers to be delighted with the number of poets, authors and illustrators we’ve assembled this year, including several winners of major literary awards.

"The authors’ talks will be a bit longer, and we believe festival-goers’ access to authors in the book-signing area will be made a bit easier."

Festival fans will find the usual array of author pavilions this year - History & Biography, Fiction & Mystery, Poetry & Prose and Contemporary Life, along with a pavilion aimed at Teens and another for Children.

Target -- the distinguished corporate benefactor of the National Book Festival -- will sponsor the "Family Storytelling Stage," a pavilion offering briefer presentations by more than 20 authors and musicians whose books and performances are devoted to very young readers. The sponsorship is part of Target’s commitment to helping more children read proficiently by the end of grade 3.

"We are delighted that Target has helped us take our already very family-friendly event to a whole new, very young audience of book-lovers," said Deanna Marcum, associate librarian for Library Services at the Library of Congress and executive director of the National Book Festival. "The Family Storytelling Stage will carry the banner for this year’s National Book Festival theme, ‘Celebrate the Joy of Reading Aloud.’"

On Sunday, the National Book Festival will convert its spacious "Pavilion of the States" into three new genre pavilions: State Poets Laureate, "The Cutting Edge," and Graphic Novels.

Author lineups in all pavilions include:

• Children: Mary Brigid Barrett, Harry Bliss, Calef Brown, Susan Cooper, Carmen Agra Deedy and John McCutcheon, Tomie dePaola, Jack Gantos, Joe Hayes, William Joyce, John Bemelmans Marciano, Patricia McKissack, Dorie McCullough Lawson, Sam McBratney, Julianne Moore, Jon J Muth and Chris Van Dusen
• Family Storytelling Stage: Wally Amos, Tom Angleberger, Mac Barnett, Michael Buckley, Angela Farris, Daniel Kirk, Jarrett J. Krosoczka, Josh Lewis, Tom Lichtenheld, Loren Long, Cedelia Marley, Julianne Moore, Lauren Myracle, Jane O’Connor, Matthew Reinhart, John Rocco, Mark Pett and Gary Rubenstein, Ellen Sabin, Bob Shea and Lisa Yee
• Teens: Cassandra Clare, Susan Cooper, Sarah Dessen, Jack Gantos, Gordon Korman, Uma Krishaswami, Patricia McKissack, Shelia P. Moses, Kadir Nelson, Katherine Paterson, Gary D. Schmidt, Brian Selznick and Rita Williams-Garcia
• Fiction & Mystery: Sherman Alexie, Russell Banks, Louis Bayard, Steve Berry, Jennifer Egan, Margaret George, Laura Lippman, Gregory Maguire, Terry McMillan, Toni Morrison, Sara Paretsky, Esmeralda Santiago and Neal Stephenson
• Poetry & Prose: Michael Cunningham, Rita Dove, Dave Eggers, Claudia Emerson, Mary Gordon, Kimiko Hahn, Terrance Hayes, Garrison Keillor, Yusef Komunyakaa, Linda Pastan, John Milliken Thompson, Poetry Out Loud and Jonathan Yardley
• History & Biography: Eric Foner, Adam Goodheart, Maya Jasanoff, David McCullough, Justin Martin, Candice Millard, Kristie Miller, Edmund Morris, Carla L. Peterson, Eugene Robinson, James Swanson, Douglas Waller and Isabel Wilkerson
• Contemporary Life: Joel Achenbach, Amy Chua, Bob Edwards, Leon Fleisher (with Anne Midgette), Joshua Foer, Jessica Harris, Marc Kaufman, Hoda Kotb, Jim Lehrer, Siddhartha Mukherjee, Sylvia Nasar and Sarah Vowell
• State Poets Laureate (Sunday only): Dolores Kendrick (District of Columbia), Kelly Cherry (Virginia), Stanley Plumly (Maryland), Wes McNair (Maine) and Carol Muske-Dukes (California)
• Graphic Novels: Kazu Kibuishi, Rachel Renee Russell, Richard Thompson, Allen Say and Eric Wight
• "The Cutting Edge": Eric Dezenhall, Eric Jerome Dickey, Kia DuPree, Amanda Houck and Kimberla Lawson Roby

Barnes & Noble is the official bookseller for the 2011 National Book Festival. Festival-goers can visit the book sales pavilion conveniently located on the festival grounds to purchase selected books by 2011 National Book Festival authors, 52 great reads chosen by State Centers for the Book, and selections from the Library of Congress. Festival attendees can pick up books by featured authors before going to the book-signing areas.

The 2011 National Book Festival is made possible through the generous support of National Book Festival Board Co-Chair David M. Rubenstein; Distinguished Corporate Benefactor Target; Charter Sponsors The Washington Post and Wells Fargo; Patrons AT&T, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, The James Madison Council, the National Endowment for the Arts and PBS KIDS; Contributors Barnes & Noble, Digital Bookmobile powered by OverDrive, Penguin Group (USA), ReadAloud.org and Scholastic Inc.; and--in the Friends category--the Marshall B. Coyne Foundation Inc; the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction; The Hay-Adams and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Thanks also to C-SPAN2’s Book TV and The Junior League of Washington.

The Library of Congress, the nation’s oldest federal cultural institution, is the world’s preeminent reservoir of knowledge, providing unparalleled collections and integrated resources to Congress and the American people. Many of the Library’s rich resources can be accessed through its website at www.loc.gov and via interactive exhibitions on a personalized website at myLOC.gov.

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Contact: Jennifer Gavin (202) 707-1940
Complete National Book Festival website