June 13, 2011 (REVISED June 28, 2011) Website Launched for 2011 National Book Festival

Information on scores of authors, video clips of authors and book-lovers, and a “countdown clock” will be among the features of the website supporting the 2011 Library of Congress National Book Festival, which is now live at www.loc.gov/bookfest/.

The site also features a downloadable file of the 2011 National Book Festival poster by renowned illustrator Jon J Muth, who will appear at the festival – a two-day event this year, Saturday, Sept. 24 and Sunday, Sept. 25, between 9th and 14th streets on the National Mall. The event, free and open to the public, will run from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Saturday and from 1 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, rain or shine.

“We urge fans of the festival to check in on the website frequently to see what new authors have been added, sign up for our RSS feeds and enjoy this year’s special features, including video clips of authors from our 2010 festival, video of lead-up events and interviews with people who have attended earlier festivals,” said Deanna Marcum, the Library’s associate librarian for Library Services and executive director of the National Book Festival. “It’s the place to go to get festival news.”

Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David McCullough, authors Russell Banks, Dave Eggers and Terry McMillan, Pulitzer Prize-winners Siddhartha Mukherjee, Jennifer Egan, and Eric Foner, authors Garrison Keillor and Amy Chua and Nobel- and Pulitzer-Prize winner Toni Morrison will be among more than 80 writers slated to attend this year’s festival, organized and sponsored by the Library of Congress. Other authors scheduled to appear at the festival include Edmund Morris, Louis Bayard, Isabel Wilkerson, pianist Leon Fleischer, poet Rita Dove, Hoda Kotb, Gregory Maguire, Esmeralda Santiago, National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature Katherine Paterson, television newsman Jim Lehrer and actress/children’s book author Julianne Moore.

The 2011 National Book Festival will feature authors, poets and illustrators in several pavilions, including two new genre pavilions: “The Cutting Edge” and “Graphic Novels.” Festival-goers can meet and hear firsthand from their favorite authors, get books signed, have photos taken with PBS storybook characters and participate in a variety of activities. Some 150,000 book fans attended the 10th-anniversary festival in 2010.

Also new this year, in addition to the two-day duration and new genre pavilions, will be the largest lineup of authors for children and teens in festival history. A special pavilion will be set up, celebrating the joys of reading aloud and featuring authors for very young children. Also featured will be celebrities and musical acts appealing to kids.

Other authors and illustrators slated to participate in the National Book Festival include Joel Aschenbach, Sherman Alexie, Mary Brigid Barrett, Steve Berry, Harry Bliss, Calef Brown, Cassandra Clare, Susan Cooper, Michael Cunningham, Tomi dePaola, Sarah Dessen, Leon Fleisher (with Anne Midgette), Joshua Foer, Jack Gantos, Margaret George, Mary Gordon, Jessica Harris, Joe Hayes, Terrance Hayes, Maya Jasanoff, William Joyce, Marc Kaufman, Yusef Komunyakaa, Gordon Korman, Uma Krishnaswami, Laura Lippman, Sam McBratney, Patricia McKissack, John Bemelmans Marciano, Candice Millard, Kristie Miller, Sheila P. Moses, Sylvia Nasar, Kadir Nelson, Sara Paretsky, Linda Pastan, Katherine Paterson, Carla L. Peterson, Allen Say, Gary Schmidt, Elizabeth Hun Schmidt, Brian Selznick, Maya Soetoro-Ng, Neal Stephenson, James Swanson, Sarah Vowell, Douglas Waller, Chris Van Dusen, Rita Williams-Garcia and Jonathan Yardley.

The Library’s “Gateway to Knowledge” truck-based traveling exhibition will return to the National Book Festival after a year of visiting scores of small towns.

The 2011 National Book Festival is made possible through the generous support of Co-Chairman, National Book Festival Board David M. Rubenstein; Distinguished Corporate Benefactor Target; Charter Sponsors The Washington Post and Wells Fargo; Patrons AT&T, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, The James Madison Council and PBS KIDS; Contributors Barnes & Noble, Digital Bookmobile powered by OverDrive, Penguin Group (USA), ReadAloud.org, and Scholastic Inc.; and Friends the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction; The Hay-Adams and the 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.