August 16, 2010 National Book Festival Website Features Favorite-Author Voting

The website for the 10th annual National Book Festival, organized and sponsored by the Library of Congress, features “vote for your favorite Book Festival author.” The website is at www.loc.gov/bookfest/.

Book-lovers will be able to select from among the roughly 500 authors who have appeared at the nine previous National Book Festivals, or will appear at this year’s festival, using an alphabetical listing or voting from the page that includes each author’s biography and photograph. The top 10 vote-getters will be displayed on the voting page, with daily updates.

"One of the ways we’re observing the 10th year of the festival, celebrating ‘A Decade of Words and Wonder,’ is to make our festival website more interactive and lively,” said Librarian of Congress James H. Billington. "We’ve had a wealth of authors at the festival, and this is one more way for their fans to show their allegiance.”

The website also has new multimedia offerings―including clips from interviews with past Book Festival authors―and a countdown clock ticking away the days, hours and minutes remaining until the festival opens.

More than 70 authors now are slated to appear at the event on Saturday, Sept. 25, 2010. The event, free and open to the public, will run from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., situated between 3rd and 7th streets on the National Mall.

President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama, the First Lady, are honorary chairs of the event.

To celebrate this touchstone anniversary, the festival will also feature several special events during the week preceding the festival day.

The 2010 National Book Festival poster, by renowned illustrator Peter Ferguson, can be downloaded from the festival website.

Authors and illustrators scheduled to participate in the National Book Festival will make their presentations in the History & Biography, Fiction & Mystery, Poetry & Prose, Contemporary Life, Children and Teens & Children pavilions.

• History & Biography: Adele Logan Alexander, Timothy Egan, Jules Feiffer, Wil Haygood, David E. Hoffman, Richard Holmes, James McGrath Morris, Nell Irvin Painter, David Remnick, Steven V. Roberts, Stacy Schiff, Evan Thomas and Gordon S. Wood
• Fiction & Mystery: Isabel Allende, Ken Follett, Diana Gabaldon, Julia Glass, Martha Grimes, Elizabeth Kostova, Anchee Min, Karin Slaughter, Scott Spencer, Peter Straub and Scott Turow
• Poetry & Prose: Elizabeth Alexander, Rae Armantrout, Jonathan Franzen, Gail Godwin, Allegra Goodman, Chang-rae Lee, Thomas Mallon, Orhan Pamuk, Jane Smiley and Natasha Trethewey
• Contemporary Life: Lidia Matticchio Bastianich, Gurcharan Das, Ree Drummond, Bruce Feiler, Jonathan Safran Foer, Spike Mendelsohn, Michele Norris, Richard Rhodes, Henry Petroski, Craig Robinson, Anita Silvey, Harold Varmus and Edward O. Wilson.
• Children: Mary Brigid Barrett, Timothy Basil Ering, Jules Feiffer, Mem Fox, Margaret Peterson Haddix, Norton Juster, Pat Mora, Marilyn Nelson, Linda Sue Park, Jerry Pinkney, James Ransome, Judith Viorst and Rosemary Wells
• Teens & Children: M.T. Anderson, Michael Buckley, Suzanne Collins, Margarita Engle, Peter Ferguson, Phillip M. Hoose, Brad Meltzer, Katherine Paterson, Jane Smiley, Jeff Smith and Rebecca Stead

Festival-goers can meet and hear firsthand from their favorite authors, purchase books, have books signed, take photos with PBS storybook characters and participate in a variety of learning activities.

The 2010 National Book Festival is made possible through the generous support of Co-Chairman, National Book Festival Board David M. Rubenstein; Charter Sponsors Target and The Washington Post; Patrons AT&T, Institute of Museum and Library Services, The James Madison Council, the National Endowment for the Arts and PBS KIDS Raising Readers; Contributors Borders, Digital Bookmobile powered by OverDrive, Penguin Group (USA), ReadAloud.org, Scholastic Inc., and the Library of Congress Federal Credit Union; and Friends The Hay-Adams and 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.