August 13, 2015 More Than 175 Authors to Participate in Library of Congress National Book Festival

The 2015 Library of Congress National Book Festival will be the most expansive one in its 15-year history, with more than 175 authors, poets and illustrators in its 18 pavilions and programs.

The festival is Saturday, Sept. 5, at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center from 10 a.m. until 10 p.m. (doors open at 9 a.m.). The event is free and open to the public.

The theme of the festival is “I cannot live without books,” which is a quote from a letter that Thomas Jefferson wrote to his friend John Adams in 1815 following the third president’s sale of his personal library to the Library of Congress. Jefferson sold his 6,487 books to replenish the Library that was burned by the British during the War of 1812.

The festival website is loc.gov/bookfest. Author schedules and other festival information can be found there.

Following are the pavilions and presenters in each of them:

Young People's Authors

Children
Buzz Aldrin, Mac Barnett, Cece Bell, Gennifer Choldenko, National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature Kate DiCamillo, U.S. Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera, Jennifer Holm, Jarrett J. Krosoczka, Naomi Shihab Nye, Lin Oliver, Lynne Rae Perkins, Trevor Pryce, Rachel Renee Russell, Jon Scieszka

Teens
Kwame Alexander, David Baldacci, Libba Bray, Michael Buckley, Jenny Han, Phillip Hoose, Cynthia Levinson, Sonia Manzano, Ellen Oh, Laura Amy Schlitz, Sabaa Tahir, Meg Wolitzer, “Letters About Literature” and the “A Book That Shaped Me” contest winners

Picture Books
Tom Angleberger, Cale Atkinson, Tad Hills, William Joyce, Tom Lichtenheld, Steve Light, Diane Muldrow, Elise Parsley, Jean Reagan, Amy Krouse Rosenthal, Dan Santat, Stephen Savage, Peter Sís, Hervé Tullet, Audrey Wood, Don Wood

Nonfiction Writers

Biography & Memoir
Maureen Corrigan, Harlyn Geronimo, Walter Isaacson, Mary Jordan, David McCullough, John Riordan, Bryan Stevenson, Kevin Sullivan, Jeanne Theoharis, Evan Thomas, Amy Wilentz, Richard Zoglin

Contemporary Life
Manuel Castells, Yochi Dreazen, Robin Givhan, Tom Gjelten, Morton Kondracke, Nicholas Kristof, Erika Lee, David Maraniss, Shelia P. Moses, Al Roker, Lisa Scottoline, Francesca Serritella, Ray Suarez, Barry Svrluga, Héctor Tobar, Sheryl WuDunn, Julia G. Young

Food
Najmieh Batmanglij, Bridget Lancaster, Patrick O’Connell, Nora Pouillon, Bryan Roof

History
Danielle Allen, Joseph Ellis, Elizabeth A. Fenn, Edward J. Larson, Anne-Marie O’Connor, Evan Osnos, Cokie Roberts, Jan Jarboe Russell, Jay Winik, Lawrence Wright

Science
Norman Doidge, Judy Foreman, Paul Halpern, Terrence Holt, David Quammen, Jeffrey D. Sachs, Casey Schwartz, Rachel Swaby, Edward O. Wilson, Andrea Wulf

Fiction Writers

Fiction
Stephen L. Carter, Library of Congress Fiction Prize winner Louise Erdrich, Ha Jin, Ward Just, Phil Klay, Thomas Mallon, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Marilynne Robinson, Jane Smiley, Lalita Tademy

Graphic Novels
Lalo Alcaraz, Keith Knight, Miss Lasko-Gross, Diane Noomin, Stephan Pastis, Trina Robbins, Scott Stantis

Mysteries, Thrillers & Science Fiction
David Baldacci, Jeffery Deaver, David Ignatius, Marlon James, Jane Lindskold, Laura Lippman, Walter Mosley, Lisa Scottoline, David Weber, Dan Wells

Poetry & Prose
Daniel Alarcón, Jerome Charyn, Marilyn Chin, Lynn Freed, Jane Hirshfield, Azar Nafisi, Eric Pankey, Claudia Rankine, Ishmael Reed, Kevin Young, Poetry Out Loud, Poetry Slam featuring young poets from Houston, Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, D.C.

Romance Fiction
Sarah MacLean, Beverly Jenkins, Paige Tyler

Special Programs

International
Homero Aridjis, Álvaro Enrigue, Cristina Rivera Garza, David Good, John Hemming, Donald S. Lopez Jr., Valeria Luiselli, Jane McAuliffe, Jack Miles, María José Navia, Andrés Neuman, Mark Plotkin, Santiago Roncagliolo, Juan Gabriel Vásquez, Alejandro Zambra

First Nations Authors of Australia
Tony Birch, Jeanine Leane, Dub Leffler, Melissa Lucashenko, Bruce Pascoe, Jared Thomas, Ellen van Neerven

The Human Side of War
Elliot Ackerman, Christian G. Appy, Rick Atkinson, Tom Brokaw, Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Joseph Ellis, Annette Gordon-Reed, Phil Klay, Jon Meacham, Roxana Robinson, Elizabeth D. Samet, Henry Wiencek

Books to Movies
A. Scott Berg, Anne-Marie O’Connor, Lawrence Wright

Eight authors will launch books at the festival: Tom Gjelten, “A Nation of Nations”; Erika Lee, “The Making of Asian America”; Thomas Mallon, “Finale”; David Maraniss, “Once in a Great City”; Stephen Pastis, “Pearls Get Sacrificed”; Casey Schwartz, “In the Mind Fields: Exploring the New Science of Neuropsychoanalysis”; Jay Winik, “1944: FDR and the Year That Changed History”; and Andrea Wulf, “The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt’s New World.”

The National Book Festival is funded by private donors and corporate sponsors who share the Library’s commitment to reading and literacy. Since 2010, National Book Festival Board Co-Chairman David M. Rubenstein has been the festival’s lead benefactor and has pledged funding for the festival for five more years. Charter Sponsors are AARP, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, The Washington Post and Wells Fargo; Patron sponsors, The James Madison Council and the National Endowment for the Arts; the Contributor-level sponsors are C-SPAN2 Book TV, The Junior League of Washington, Jacqueline B. Mars, National Geographic, Scholastic Inc. and WAMU 88.5 FM; and, in the Friends category, Australia Council for the Arts, the Marshall B. Coyne Foundation Inc., The Embassy of Peru in the United States of America, Georgetown University’s Department of Spanish and Portuguese, the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction, The Hay-Adams, the Inter-American Development Bank, The Jefferson Hotel, Susan Carmel Lehrman, the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute with support from board chair Roger A. Strauch, the Mensa Education & Research Foundation, the Mexican Cultural Institute, Lissa Muscatine and Bradley Graham, the National Endowment for the Humanities, NPR, Small Press Expo and Split This Rock. Those interested in supporting the National Book Festival can contact the Library at devofc@loc.gov.

Founded in 1800, the Library of Congress is the nation’s oldest federal cultural institution and the largest library in the world. The Library seeks to spark imagination and creativity and to further human understanding and wisdom by providing access to knowledge through its magnificent collections, programs, publications and exhibitions.