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Schedule

The 2021 Library of Congress National Book Festival is Sept. 17-26, with live author conversations every day. On Sept. 17 at 10 a.m. ET, 35 video-on-demand programs will become available to watch anytime. This year’s Festival also features interactive presentations with Library of Congress experts, a national television special and related events on PBS, NPR podcasts, and author interviews on Washington Post Live. Check out Festival Near You to discover related events from local organizations.

NOTE: Using the “Add to Calendar” tool places individual events in your personal calendar. It does not constitute a reservation or ticket to the event.

Tuesday August 24, 2021

Wednesday August 25, 2021

  • Event | courses and workshops Pre-National Book Festival Webinar for Educators
    • Wednesday, August 25, 2021 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm EDT
    • Online Only
    During the 2021 National Book Festival, educators and students have the opportunity to engage with authors like never before! This pre-National Book Festival webinar is the perfect opportunity for teachers and librarians to learn about this year’s Festival opportunities and share ideas about how the Festival events can be included in instructional planning.
    Watch the event recording
  • Event | lectures and symposia PBS Books Author Talk: Martha Wells
    • Wednesday, August 25, 2021 8:00 pm - 9:00 pm EDT
    • Online Only
    PBS Books, in partnership with South FL, PBS, will host Martha Wells to discuss "Fugitive Telemetry" (Tor) with Between The Covers host Ann Bocock.
    More information at pbsbooks.org.

Thursday August 26, 2021

  • Event | lectures and symposia PBS Books Author Talk: Kelli Jo Ford
    • Thursday, August 26, 2021 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm EDT
    • Online Only
    PBS Books, in partnership with WTTW, will host Kelli Jo Ford to discuss “Crooked Hallelujah” (Grove) with Melodi Serna, executive director of the American Indian Center of Chicago.
    More information at pbsbooks.org.

Monday August 30, 2021

Tuesday August 31, 2021

Thursday September 2, 2021

Wednesday September 8, 2021

  • Event | lectures and symposia PBS Books Author Talk: Christopher Paolini
    • Wednesday, September 08, 2021 8:00 pm - 9:00 pm EDT
    • Online Only
    PBS Books, in partnership with Kansas City PBS and Kansas City Public Library, will host Christopher Paolini to discuss “ To Sleep in a Sea of Stars” (Tor) with Kansas City Public Library Librarian Amanda Barnhart.
    More information at pbsbooks.org.

Sunday September 12, 2021

Monday September 13, 2021

Wednesday September 15, 2021

  • Event | lectures and symposia PBS Books Author Talk: Tana French
    • Wednesday, September 15, 2021 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm EDT
    • Online Only
    PBS Books, in partnership with WGBH, will host Tana French to discuss "The Searcher" (Viking) with Brian O'Donovan.
    More information at pbsbooks.org.

Thursday September 16, 2021

Friday September 17, 2021

  • Event | lectures and symposia Washington Post Live: Michael J. Fox
    • Friday, September 17, 2021 11:00 am - 11:25 am EDT
    • Online Only
    Washington Post Live, in partnership with the Library of Congress National Book Festival, will host Michael J. Fox, author of “No Time Like the Future: An Optimist Considers Mortality” (Flatiron), in conversation with Washington Post opinions writer Jonathan Capehart.
    More information at wapo.st.
  • Event | lectures and symposia Washington Post Live: Joy Harjo
    • Friday, September 17, 2021 11:25 am - 11:55 am EDT
    • Online Only
    Washington Post Live, in partnership with the Library of Congress National Book Festival, will host U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo, author of “Poet Warrior: A Memoir” (Norton), in conversation with Washington Post opinions writer Jonathan Capehart. Note: Event will immediately follow “Washington Post Live: Michael J. Fox.”
    More information at wapo.st.
  • Event | lectures and symposia NPR Podcast: Jason Reynolds on TED Radio Hour
    • Friday, September 17, 2021 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm EDT
    • Online Only
    As part of a special collaboration between NPR and the 2021 Library of Congress National Book Festival, the TED Radio Hour podcast will feature Library of Congress National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature Jason Reynolds, author of "Look Both Ways: A Tale Told in Ten Blocks” (Atheneum), in conversation with Manoush Zomorodi.
    More information at npr.org.
  • Event | lectures and symposia NPR Podcast: Ambreen Tariq on Short Wave
    • Friday, September 17, 2021 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm EDT
    • Online Only
    As part of a special collaboration between NPR and the 2021 Library of Congress National Book Festival, the Short Wave podcast will feature Ambreen Tariq, author of “Fatima's Great Outdoors” (Kokila), in conversation with Emily Kwong.
    More information at npr.org.
  • Event | lectures and symposia Live Conversation with Kelli Jo Ford and Toni Jensen
    • Friday, September 17, 2021 4:00 pm - 4:30 pm EDT
    • Online Only
    Kelli Jo Ford, author of “Crooked Hallelujah” (Grove), and Toni Jensen, author of “Carry: A Memoir of Survival on Stolen Land” (Ballantine), discuss their new books with Nick Martin, the Indigenous Affairs desk editor at High Country News and a contributing editor at The New Republic.
    Watch the event recording
  • Event | lectures and symposia Live Conversation with Eric Eyre and Patrick Radden Keefe
    • Friday, September 17, 2021 5:00 pm - 5:30 pm EDT
    • Online Only
    Eric Eyre, author of “Death in Mud Lick: A Coal Country Fight Against the Drug Companies That Delivered the Opioid Epidemic” (Scribner), and Patrick Radden Keefe, author of “Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty” (Doubleday), discuss their new books with Washington Post reporter Sari Horwitz.
    Watch the event recording
  • Event | lectures and symposia Live Conversation with Sarah Frier and Anna Wiener
    • Friday, September 17, 2021 6:00 pm - 6:30 pm EDT
    • Online Only
    Sarah Frier, author of “No Filter: The Inside Story of Instagram” (Simon & Schuster), and Anna Wiener, author of “Uncanny Valley” (MCD), discuss their new books with CBS News’ “60 Minutes+” correspondent Laurie Segall.
    Watch the event recording
  • Event | lectures and symposia Live Conversation with LeVar Burton
    • Friday, September 17, 2021 7:00 pm - 7:30 pm EDT
    • Online Only
    Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden talks with actor and children’s literacy advocate LeVar Burton, host of the television special “Open a Book, Open the World: The Library of Congress National Book Festival” on PBS, about the power of reading, story and connection.
    Watch the event recording

Saturday September 18, 2021

Sunday September 19, 2021

Monday September 20, 2021

Tuesday September 21, 2021

  • Event | lectures and symposia NPR Podcast: Brandon Taylor on It’s Been a Minute with Sam Sanders
    • Tuesday, September 21, 2021 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm EDT
    • Online Only
    As part of a special collaboration between NPR and the 2021 Library of Congress National Book Festival, the It’s Been a Minute podcast will feature Brandon Taylor, author of “Filthy Animals” (Riverhead), in conversation with Sam Sanders.
    More information at npr.org.
  • Event | lectures and symposia Copyright: The Engine of Free Expression
    • Tuesday, September 21, 2021 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm EDT
    • Online Only
    You are an owner of copyright-protected material. Learn how writing a story, creating a work of art, composing or recording music, or simply taking a picture engages with copyright. Find out more about how this automatic right affects your work and what it covers. Learn about the U.S. Copyright Office and the work it does to encourage creativity.
    Watch the event recording
  • Event | lectures and symposia Live Conversation with Kristin Hannah and Maggie Shipstead
    • Tuesday, September 21, 2021 4:00 pm - 4:30 pm EDT
    • Online Only
    Kristin Hannah, author of “The Four Winds” (St. Martin's), and Maggie Shipstead, author of “Great Circle” (Knopf), discuss their new books with Washington Post book critic Ron Charles.
    Watch the event recording
  • Event | lectures and symposia Live Conversation with Simon Winchester
    • Tuesday, September 21, 2021 5:00 pm - 5:30 pm EDT
    • Online Only
    Simon Winchester discusses “Land: How the Hunger for Ownership Shaped the Modern World” (Harper) with Osita Nwanevu, a contributing editor at The New Republic.
    Watch the event recording
  • Event | lectures and symposia Live Conversation with Danielle Evans and Charles Yu
    • Tuesday, September 21, 2021 6:00 pm - 6:30 pm EDT
    • Online Only
    Danielle Evans, author of “The Office of Historical Corrections” (Riverhead), and Charles Yu, author of “Interior Chinatown” (Pantheon), discuss their new books with Amy Stolls, director of Literary Arts at the National Endowment for the Arts.
    Watch the event recording
  • Event | lectures and symposia Live Conversation with Adrienne Raphel and Will Shortz
    • Tuesday, September 21, 2021 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm EDT
    • Thomas Jefferson Building, Coolidge Auditorium (LJ-G45A)
    Adrienne Raphel, author of “Thinking Inside the Box: Adventures with Crosswords and the Puzzling People Who Can't Live Without Them” (Penguin), and Will Shortz, author of “The New York Times Hardest Crosswords Volume 8” (St. Martin’s Griffin) and “The New York Times Super Sunday Crosswords Volume 10” (St. Martin’s Griffin), discuss crosswords with NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro.
    Watch the event recording

Wednesday September 22, 2021

  • Event | lectures and symposia NPR Podcast: Kacen Callender on Code Switch
    • Wednesday, September 22, 2021 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm EDT
    • Online Only
    As part of a special collaboration between NPR and the 2021 Library of Congress National Book Festival, the Code Switch podcast will feature Kacen Callender, author of “King and the Dragonflies” (Scholastic), in conversation with Gene Demby.
    More information at npr.org.
  • Event | lectures and symposia Art, Literature and Poetry: Creative Collaborations at the Library of Congress
    • Wednesday, September 22, 2021 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm EDT
    • Online Only
    Beginning with early 20th-century livres d’artiste and concluding with contemporary graphic and book artists, Library curators discuss the many creative unions between art and the written word.
    Watch the event recording
  • Event | lectures and symposia Live Conversation with Olivia Campbell and Janice P. Nimura
    • Wednesday, September 22, 2021 4:00 pm - 4:30 pm EDT
    • Online Only
    Olivia Campbell, author of “Women in White Coats: How the First Women Doctors Changed the World of Medicine” (Park Row), and Janice P. Nimura, author of “The Doctors Blackwell: How Two Pioneering Sisters Brought Medicine to Women and Women to Medicine” (Norton), discuss their new books with journalist Melody Schreiber, editor of “What We Didn’t Expect: Personal Stories About Premature Birth.”
    Watch the event recording
  • Event | lectures and symposia Live Conversation with Brit Bennett and Robert Jones Jr.
    • Wednesday, September 22, 2021 5:00 pm - 5:30 pm EDT
    • Online Only
    Brit Bennett, author of “The Vanishing Half” (Riverhead), and Robert Jones Jr., author of “The Prophets” (Putnam’s), discuss their new books with Lauren Christensen, senior staff editor for The New York Times Book Review.
    Watch the event recording
  • Event | lectures and symposia Live Conversation with Kai Bird, James Oakes and David O. Stewart
    • Wednesday, September 22, 2021 6:00 pm - 6:30 pm EDT
    • Online Only
    Kai Bird, author of “The Outlier: The Unfinished Presidency of Jimmy Carter” (Crown); James Oakes, author of “The Crooked Path to Abolition: Abraham Lincoln and the Antislavery Constitution” (Norton); and David O. Stewart, author of “George Washington: The Political Rise of America's Founding Father” (Dutton), discuss their presidential biographies with Nancy Cordes, chief White House correspondent for CBS News.
    Watch the event recording
  • Event | lectures and symposia Live Conversation with Avi Loeb
    • Wednesday, September 22, 2021 7:00 pm - 7:30 pm EDT
    • Online Only
    Avi Loeb discusses “Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) with science journalist Sarah Scoles.
    Watch the event recording

Thursday September 23, 2021

Friday September 24, 2021

  • Event | lectures and symposia Family Secrets: Navigating Unexpected Genealogical Finds
    • Friday, September 24, 2021 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm EDT
    • Online Only
    Almost everyone who engages in genealogical research eventually comes across unexpected facts and details. The staff at the Library of Congress have collected resources to help researchers adjust to their new reality, decide whom to share their discoveries with and figure out the next step in their research. Join us in exploring the discoveries made possible by both traditional research and DNA.
    Watch the event recording
  • Event | lectures and symposia Live Conversation with Julia Sweig and Karen Tumulty
    • Friday, September 24, 2021 4:00 pm - 4:30 pm EDT
    • Online Only
    Julia Sweig, author of “Lady Bird Johnson: Hiding in Plain Sight” (Random House), and Karen Tumulty, author of “The Triumph of Nancy Reagan” (Simon & Schuster), discuss their new books with Colleen Shogan, a senior vice president and the director of the David Rubenstein Center for White House History at the White House Historical Association.
    Watch the event recording
  • Event | lectures and symposia Live Conversation with David Nasaw and Sonia Shah
    • Friday, September 24, 2021 5:00 pm - 5:30 pm EDT
    • Online Only
    David Nasaw, author of “The Last Million: Europe's Displaced Persons from World War to Cold War” (Penguin), and Sonia Shah, author of “The Next Great Migration: The Beauty and Terror of Life on the Move” (Bloomsbury), discuss their new books with CBS News’ “60 Minutes+” correspondent Enrique Acevedo.
    Watch the event recording
  • Event | lectures and symposia Live Conversation with Alice McDermott and George Saunders
    • Friday, September 24, 2021 6:00 pm - 6:30 pm EDT
    • Online Only
    Alice McDermott, author of “What About the Baby?: Some Thoughts on the Art of Fiction” (Farrar, Straus & Giroux), and George Saunders, author of “A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading and Life” (Random House), discuss their new books with Washington Post book critic Ron Charles.
    Watch the event recording
  • Event | lectures and symposia Live Conversation with francine j. harris and Patrick Rosal
    • Friday, September 24, 2021 7:00 pm - 7:30 pm EDT
    • Online Only
    francine j. harris, author of “Here Is the Sweet Hand” (Farrar, Straus & Giroux), and Patrick Rosal, author of “The Last Thing: New & Selected Poems” (Persea), discuss their new works with Ydalmi Noriega, director of programs and community engagement at the Poetry Foundation.
    Watch the event recording

Saturday September 25, 2021

Sunday September 26, 2021

  • Event | lectures and symposia NPR Podcast: Isabel Allende on Alt.Latino
    • Sunday, September 26, 2021 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm EDT
    • Online Only
    As part of a special collaboration between NPR and the 2021 Library of Congress National Book Festival, the Alt.Latino podcast will feature Isabel Allende, author of “The Soul of a Woman” (Ballantine), in conversation with Felix Contreras.
    More information at npr.org.
  • Event | lectures and symposia Live Q&A with Derrick Barnes
    • Sunday, September 26, 2021 1:00 pm - 1:30 pm EDT
    • Online Only
    Derrick Barnes, author of “I Am Every Good Thing” (Nancy Paulsen), answers your questions. Don’t forget to check out Derrick Barnes’ video where he discusses his book.
    Watch the event recording
  • Event | lectures and symposia Live Q&A with Rep. Sharice Davids
    • Sunday, September 26, 2021 2:00 pm - 2:30 pm EDT
    • Online Only
    Rep. Sharice Davids, author of “Sharice’s Big Voice: A Native Kid Becomes a Congresswoman” (HarperCollins Kids), answers your questions. Don’t forget to check out Rep. Sharice Davids’ video where she discusses her book.
    Watch the event recording
  • Event | lectures and symposia Live Q&A with Jerry Pinkney
    • Sunday, September 26, 2021 3:00 pm - 3:30 pm EDT
    • Online Only
    Jerry Pinkney, author of “The Little Mermaid” (Little, Brown), answers your questions. Don’t forget to check out Jerry Pinkney’s video where he discusses his book in conversation with Meg Medina.
    Watch the event recording
  • Event | lectures and symposia Live Q&A with Mindy Thomas
    • Sunday, September 26, 2021 4:00 pm - 4:30 pm EDT
    • Online Only
    Mindy Thomas, co-author of “Wow in the World: The How and Wow of the Human Body: From Your Tongue to Your Toes and All the Guts in Between” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), answers your questions. Don’t forget to check out Mindy Thomas’ video where she discusses her book with co-author Guy Raz.
    Watch the event recording
  • Event | lectures and symposia Live Q&A with Dan Gutman
    • Sunday, September 26, 2021 5:00 pm - 5:30 pm EDT
    • Online Only
    Dan Gutman, author of “Houdini and Me” (Holiday House), answers your questions. Don’t forget to check out Dan Gutman’s video where he discusses his book.
    Watch the event recording
  • Event | lectures and symposia Live Conversation with Claudia Rankine, Phillip B. Williams and Kevin Young
    • Sunday, September 26, 2021 6:00 pm - 6:30 pm EDT
    • Online Only
    Claudia Rankine, author of “Just Us: An American Conversation” (Graywolf), and Phillip B. Williams, author of “Mutiny” (Penguin), discuss their new books with Kevin Young, editor of “African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle & Song” (Library of America). Young is director of the National Museum of African American History & Culture.
    Watch the event recording