July 24, 2005 Library of Congress Announces Award-Winning Authors To Participate in Fifth Annual National Book Festival

The 2005 National Book Festival, organized and sponsored by the Library of Congress and hosted by Mrs. Laura Bush, will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 24, on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., between 7th and 14th streets (rain or shine). The festival is free and open to the public. “Each year, thousands upon thousands of book lovers attend this national event to explore and celebrate American creativity,” said Librarian of Congress James H. Billington. “Now in its fifth year, the National Book Festival offers a wonderful opportunity to highlight the rich resources in our nation’s libraries and bring those resources directly to the American public.” “The National Book Festival is a great way for families and friends to share the creative works of some of America’s most-loved authors,” Mrs. Bush said. “Readers of all ages can listen to favorite writers speaking about their books, have books autographed, meet many storybook characters and enjoy a day on the National Mall.” The 2005 festival features more than 80 award-winning authors, illustrators and poets, who will discuss their work in various pavilions such as “Fiction & Fantasy,” “Mysteries & Thrillers,” “History & Biography,” “Children,” “Teens & Children,” “Poetry” and “Home & Family.” Participants include novelists John Irving, Tom Wolfe, E.L. Doctorow and Sue Monk Kidd; mystery and thriller writers Sandra Brown and Jeffery Deaver; nonfiction writers David McCullough, Robert L. Carter and Thomas Friedman; veteran journalists Andrea Mitchell and Robert MacNeil; children’s author Pat Mora, pioneer astronaut and children’s author Buzz Aldrin; teen authors Meg Cabot and R.L. Stine; science fiction writer Neil Gaiman; and poet Dana Gioia. In addition to some of our nation’s most celebrated authors, the event will feature a number of special guests. Popular personalities in the “Home and Family” pavilion include television news journalist and host Leeza Gibbons, whose techniques for preserving memories are discussed in her new book, “Scrapbooking Traditions”; Univision television host Myrka Dellanos; and celebrity home designer and television host Chris Madden. During the week leading up to the festival on Saturday, Sept. 24, washingtonpost.com will host a series of online chats with authors appearing at the National Book Festival. These text-based discussions can be viewed daily starting on Monday, Sept. 19, on the site at www.washingtonpost.com/nationalbookfestival/. The schedule of chats and authors’ names will be posted on washingtonpost.com’s site and the Library’s site at www.loc.gov/today. Viewers can submit questions in advance or during the live discussion. They can view authors’ responses while the program is airing live or at a later date on washingtonpost.com’s online discussion archive. Festival goers can have books signed by their favorite authors, and children can meet some of their favorite storybook and television characters, such as Arthur, Maya and Miguel, and Clifford the Big Red Dog, who will appear on the festival grounds throughout the day. Beyond meeting their favorite authors, attendees will have the opportunity to learn about the reading programs and resources in libraries across the country. Representatives from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and American trusts and territories will discuss and distribute materials about their reading and literacy promotion programs in the “Pavilion of the States.” In addition, the “Let’s Read America” pavilion will feature reading activities that are fun for the whole family. Star players from the National Basketball Association’s “Read to Achieve” program will be among the presenters in the Children’s pavilion, and the national student winners of the Library’s “Letters About Literature” reading and writing program will read their letters in the “Teens & Children” pavilion. The “Letters About Literature” program, sponsored by Target Stores, invites young readers in grades 4-12 to write a personal letter to an author, past or present, who has changed their view of the world or themselves. Winners are selected at the state and national levels. Target, corporate sponsor of the “Letters About Literature” program, awarded the national winners with a trip to the National Book Festival along with a $500 Target GiftCard. “It is inspiring to see the number of young people whose lives have been positively affected by a particular author or book,” said Laysha Ward, vice president, community relations, Target. “Through its support of the ‘Letters About Literature’ program and the National Book Festival, Target is able to further spread the reading message and help instill a love of reading early in life.” On touch-screen computers in the Library of Congress Pavilion, festival goers can explore the Library’s acclaimed Web site at www.loc.gov. The Library’s myriad online resources contain examples of American creativity in all formats such as music, poetry, films, photographs and sound recordings. Children can have fun with history through interactive games on a site created just for them at www.americaslibrary.gov. The Library’s pavilion will also feature the Veterans History Project, a grassroots effort to document the stories of veterans from World War I through the current conflicts and those who supported the war effort on the home front. The Library will present same-day webcasts of selected authors’ presentations from the “Teens & Children,” “Mysteries & Thrillers” and “Fiction & Fantasy” pavilions, available on the Library’s Web site at www.loc.gov. Once again the Library has cooperated with Book TV on C-SPAN2 to televise the National Book Festival “History & Biography” pavilion events live on Sept. 24, 10 am. to 5 p.m. EDT. The entire program will be shown again at 8 p.m. that evening. Visit www.booktv.org for details. At the National Book Festival, C-SPAN will launch the Book TV Bus—a mobile Book TV studio with a multimedia demonstration center for the public. In the fall, the Book TV Bus will begin touring the country, educating the public about Book TV on C-SPAN2 and visiting libraries, bookstores, book festivals, and other places and events where book lovers go. The artist for this year’s festival is award-winning illustrator Jerry Pinkney, whose imaginative painting appears on the 2005 National Book Festival poster. Pinkney has illustrated more than 100 books for children since 1964. His work has also been featured on the U.S. Postal Service’s Black Heritage stamps. Posters featuring Pinkney’s painting will be available free of charge at the festival. The 2005 National Book Festival is made possible with generous support from Distinguished Benefactor Target; Charter Sponsors AT&T, The Amend Group and The Washington Post; Patrons AARP, Freddie Mac, the James Madison Council and the National Endowment for the Arts; Contributors Barnes & Noble, Educate Inc., Half Price Books, NBA/WNBA, PBS, Penguin Group (USA) and Scholastic Inc. The Junior League of Washington will again contribute hundreds of volunteers this year to help with the National Book Festival. A preliminary list of participating authors, illustrators and poets as of July 25 follows. For more information about them and the festival, visit www.loc.gov/bookfest. 2005 NATIONAL BOOK FESTIVAL AUTHORS BY PAVILION [as of July 25, 2005] Children

• Buzz Aldrin & Wendell Minor
• David Baldacci
• Doreen Cronin & Harry Bliss
• Hilary Knight
• Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
• Laura Numeroff
• Mary Pope Osborne & Will Osborne
• Linda Sue Park
• Gloria Jean Pinkney
• Jerry Pinkney
• Sandra Pinkney
• NBA & WNBA players

Teens & Children

• Meg Cabot
• Lynne Cheney
• Sharon Creech
• John Feinstein
• Jack Gantos
• Patricia Reilly Giff
• Pat Mora
• Walter Dean Myers
• Dave Pelzer
• René Saldaña
• R.L. Stine
• Letters About Literature

Fiction & Fantasy

• E.L. Doctorow
• Richard Paul Evans
• Jonathan Safran Foer
• Diana Gabaldon
• Neil Gaiman
• John Irving
• Gish Jen
• Sue Monk Kidd
• George R.R. Martin
• Bobbie Ann Mason
• Tom Wolfe

Mysteries & Thrillers

• Nevada Barr
• Sandra Brown
• Jeffery Deaver
• Martha Grimes
• Rupert Holmes
• Laura Lipmman
• Marcia Muller
• John Sandford
• Karin Slaughter

History & Biography

• David Brooks
• Andrew Carroll
• Robert L. Carter
• Joseph Ellis
• Thomas Friedman
• Kay B. Hutchison
• Robert MacNeil
• David McCullough
• Andrea Mitchell
• Steven V. Roberts

Home & Family

• Giada De Laurentiis
• Myrka Dellanos
• Fernando & Marlene
• Divina
• Leeza Gibbons
• Jon Kabat-Zinn
• Bob Kinkead
• Chris Madden
• Laurie Smith
• Julie Sussman & Stephanie Glakas-Tenet
• David Tutera
• Judith Warner

Poetry

• Kim Addonizio
• Marisa de los Santos
• Alice Fulton
• Donald Hall
• Andrew Hudgins
• Dana Gioia
• Dolores Kendrick
• David Kirby
• Samuel Menashe
• Mary Jo Salter
• A.E. Stallings
• Christian Wiman
• Al Young