September 6, 2016 Stephen King to Open Main Stage at National Book Festival;

Stephen King will open the Main Stage of the 2016 Library of Congress National Book Festival with a presentation and recognition by the Library of his lifelong work promoting literacy. Tickets will be required for the King presentation. Tickets will be free and will be issued electronically beginning at 9 a.m. EDT Sept. 14.

Tickets are not required for other presentations or activities at the festival.

The National Book Festival will be held Sept. 24 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. The King presentation will be 11 a.m. – noon on the festival’s Main Stage, which will be located on the third floor, Ballrooms B and C. There will not be a book signing.

“Due to Stephen King’s popularity, we anticipate the volume of interest will exceed seating capacity,” said festival co-director Guy Lamolinara. “A ticketed process will make for the most orderly and fair opportunity for Mr. King’s fans to see this presentation.”

Seating will be first-come, first-served. Ticket holders must be seated by 10:30 a.m. Holding a ticket does not guarantee entry.

There is a limit of two tickets per person. Accessibility accommodations should be made no later than Sept. 19 by calling 202-707-6362 or ADA@loc.gov. ASL services are offered at all book festival presentations.

Other authors slated to appear on the Main Stage are Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (12:30-1:30 p.m.), Shonda Rhimes (2-3 p.m.), Bob Woodward (4-5 p.m.), Raina Telgemeier (5:30-6:30 p.m.) and Salman Rushdie (7-8 p.m.). Tickets are not required for these presentations.

Activities on the exhibition floor, including book sales, begin at 9 a.m. and other festival stages will begin presentations at 10 a.m. Doors will open at 8:30 a.m.

The National Book Festival is made possible by the generous support of private- and public-sector sponsors who share the Library’s commitment to reading and literacy, led by National Book Festival Co-Chairman David M. Rubenstein. 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 FedEx, The Junior League of Washington and Scholastic Inc.; and, in the Friends category, Centro Primo Levi, the Marshall B. Coyne Foundation Inc., GEICO, the Embassy of Italy, the Embassy of Latvia, the Embassy of Sweden and the Swedish Arts Council, the Embassy of Uruguay, the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction, The Hay-Adams, Mensa Education and Research Foundation, the Mexican Cultural Institute, Lissa Muscatine & Bradley Graham, the National Endowment for the Humanities, Small Press Expo, SPAIN arts & culture and Split This Rock. Media Partners are C-SPAN2’s Book TV, PBS Book View Now and NPR. Those interested in supporting the National Book Festival can contact the Library at devofc@loc.gov.

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