Authors

The 20th Library of Congress National Book Festival once again features the nation's best authors, poets and illustrators discussing their work.

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  • Biography
    Jared Diamond
  • Biography
    Kate DiCamillo Kate DiCamillo, 2014-2015 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, was the fourth writer to hold this position. During her two-year term, DiCamillo traveled across America to promote her platform, “Stories Connect Us.”
  • Biography
    Angela Dominguez
  • Biography
    Mark Doty Mark Doty was born in Maryville, Tennessee in 1953. He is the author of eight poetry collections, including My Alexandria (1993), winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and Britain’s T. S Eliot Award; Atlantis (1995), winner of the Ambassador Book Award, the Bingham Prize, and the Lambda Literary Award; and Fire to Fire: … Continue reading Mark Doty →
  • Biography
    Jesse Dougherty
  • Biography
    Rita Dove Rita Dove was born in Akron, Ohio, in 1952. She is the author of 11 collections of poetry, most recently “Playlist from the Apocalypse: Poems” (2021). Since 1989, Dove has taught at the University of Virginia, where she is currently the Henry Hoyns Professor of Creative Writing.
  • Biography
    Ann Druyan
  • Biography
    Erica Armstrong Dunbar

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  • Biography
    Richard Haass
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    Jenna Bush Hager
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    Joy Harjo Joy Harjo served as the 23rd Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry. The first Native American poet to serve in the position, Harjo is an enrolled member of the Muscogee Creek Nation. She was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on May 9, 1951, and is the author of nine books of poetry.
  • Biography
    Juan Felipe Herrera Juan Felipe Herrera was born in Fowler, California, in 1948. He is the author of 30 books of poetry, novels for young adults, and collections for children. Herrera held the Tomás Rivera Endowed Chair in the Creative Writing Department at the University of California, Riverside, where he taught until retiring in 2015.
  • Biography
    K.A. Holt
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    Harold Holzer
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    Deborah Hopkinson

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  • Biography
    George Packer
  • Biography
    Ann Patchett
  • Biography
    Rick Perlstein
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    Robert Pinsky Robert Pinsky was born in Long Branch, New Jersey, in 1940. He is the author of nine poetry collections. In addition to editing five anthologies, Pinsky has published several books of prose. Pinsky has taught writing at Wellesley College, the University of California, Berkeley, and is currently a professor in the graduate writing program at Boston University. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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  • Biography
    Aisha Saeed
  • Biography
    Connie Schofield-Morrison
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    Jon Scieszka Jon Scieszka, 2008-2009 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, was the first writer to hold this position. During his two-year term, Scieszka created a platform with the mission to “get kids excited about reading.”
  • Biography
    Sarah Scoles
  • Biography
    Jenn Shapland
  • Biography
    Danez Smith
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    Tracy K. Smith Tracy K. Smith was born in Falmouth, Massachusetts, in 1972, and raised in Fairfield, California. She is the author of four books of poetry. She is currently the Roger S. Berlind ’52 Professor in the Humanities, and Director of the Creative Writing Program, at Princeton University.
  • Biography
    Nic Stone

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  • Biography
    Gene Luen Yang Gene Luen Yang, 2016-2017 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, was the fifth writer to hold this position. During his two-year term as National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, Gene Luen Yang traveled across American to promote his platform, “READING WITHOUT WALLS.”
  • Biography
    Kelly Yang