Make Plans to Attend the National Book Festival

National Book Festival to be Held in 11 Days!

Podcasts Let You Hear Festival Authors
Before the Festival

The 12th annual Library of Congress National Book Festival will be held on the National Mall between 9th and 14th Streets on Saturday, September 22, 2012, from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and on Sunday, Sept. 23 from noon to 5:30 p.m., rain or shine. The event is free and open to the public. 

If you live in the area or will be traveling through, you will want to attend this glorious day celebrating the joy of books with readers of all ages who come from across America and other countries! Be sure to bring your kids!

More than 100 authors, illustrators and poets will make presentations on the National Mall throughout the weekend in the Children, Teens, Fiction & Mystery, History & Biography, Contemporary Life, Poetry & Prose, SciFi Fantasy & Graphic Novels and Special Programs pavilions, plus the Family Storytelling Stage featuring authors and musical acts popular with young children. For a complete list, click here.

To listen to one-on-one chats with festival authors, such as National Ambassador for Young People's Literature Walter Dean Myers and Newbery Medal author Lois Lowry, click here. From this page on the Library of Congress website, you can also watch videocasts from author and illustrator presentations at previous book festivals, including the NCBLA's dramatic reading of The Exquisite Corpse Adventure at last year's festival, which featured authors and illustrators Mary Brigid Barrett, Calef Brown, Susan Cooper, Jack Gantos, Gregory Maguire, Patricia McKissack, Katherine Paterson and Chris Van Dusen.

For more detailed information about this year's festival, including a map of the festival grounds, click here.