The 15th Anniversary Brooklyn Book Festival is virtual this year, with an international roster of top authors, including Pulitzer Prize winners, sharing their work. The annual Children’s Day includes virtual readings for little ones and YA, from authors also logging in from around the world.
The first-ever online book festival is Monday, Sept. 28 to Saturday, Oct. 5. If you love to read, this event if for you.
Participating literary stars include Sigrid Nunez, Lee Child, Salman Rushdie, Mia Couto, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, Joyce Carol Oates, Adrian Tomine, Emily St. John Mandel, Claudia Rankine, Edmund White, Marie Lu, Colson Whitehead.
Children’s Day programming will include a spirited illustrator draw-off competition (virtual of course), workshops, discussions, readings and performances giving young readers, families and educators a robust schedule of choices to enjoy throughout the day.
Children’s book authors include: Max Brallier, Tami Charles, Ben Clanton, Chris Grabenstein, Carlos Hernandez, Oliver Jeffers, Varian Johnson, Meg Medina, R.L. Stine.
The virtual Brooklyn Book Festival is a combination of livestream, pre-recorded, and Zoom events from around the globe.
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Special Events Days at the Brooklyn Book Festival
The week includes a full slate of Bookend events, Festival Day (Oct. 4), Children’s Day (Oct. 3) and a new Y.A. Out Loud (Oct. 3)
“For children, parents, and educators, Children’s Day is a literary celebration like no other and one that reflects the diverse and international spirit of the city,” said Liz Koch, Festival co-producer. “We are excited to offer families and children this free and welcoming cultural experience to meet authors virtually, hear discussions and enjoy literary performances.”
You can also purchase books online, of course.
BKBF has named Lynn Nottage as this year’s recipient of the Best of Brooklyn (BoBi) Award.
The annual award is presented to an author whose work exemplifies or speaks to the spirit of Brooklyn. Past honorees have included John Ashbery, Edwidge Danticat, Pete Hamill, who passed away recently, N.K. Jemisin, Jonathan Lethem, Lois Lowry, James McBride, Colson Whitehead, Mo Willems, and Jacqueline Woodson.
Lynn Nottage was born and raised in Brooklyn and is the first and only woman to win two Pulitzer Prizes for Drama. Nottage is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, Pen/Laura Pels Master Playwright Award, the Merit and Literature Award from The Academy of Arts and Letters, and many, many more. Her work has been produced widely throughout the world and has been awarded dozens of prestigious awards.
“The Brooklyn Book Festival has become an integral part of my Fall schedule, as an important forum for writers to share and celebrate each other’s work. I am beyond thrilled to be an honoree at this year’s festival, and join a community of writers that I greatly admire,” Lynn Nottage said.
Additional authors participating include:
- novelists Andrés Neuman (attending from Granada, Spain), Tracy O’Neill, Donna Hill, Emma Straub, Ayad Akhtar and Marie-Helene Bertino;
- children’s book authors Tami Charles and Kevin Noble Maillard,
- poet Diannely Antigua, and
- cookbook author Bill Buford.
They collectively announced a literary star-studded roster of authors including Libba Bray, Lee Child, Brandy Colbert, Cathy Park Hong, N.K. Jemisin, Tayari Jones, Deborah Madison, Fernanda Melchor, Adrienne Miller, Marcus Moore, Carey Pietsch, Jerry Saltz, R.L. Stine, Adrian Tomine, Laura Van Den Berg, Juan Pablo Villalobos, Alexis Wright, Gene Luen Yang
The Festival is known for diverse and inclusive programming, fostering unique dialogues among authors, presenting new literary voices as well as established authors, and crafting unique conversations and discussions.
This year’s new virtual format allows for an even more international approach with authors, moderators, and attendees joining in from across the globe including Australia, Cuba, Mozambique, South Africa, and Spain.
Festival Day will have four events per hour throughout the day featuring fiction, poetry, non-fiction, comics and international programming.
How to Participate in the Brooklyn Book Festival
Visit www.old.brooklynbookfestival.org for schedules
Check out the official Facebook page,
Collow the Festival on Instagram (@bkbookfest), on Twitter (@BKBF)
Find past Festival photos on Flickr.
About the Brooklyn Book Festival
The Brooklyn Book Festival was launched in 2006 to address the need for a major literary event that embraced the diverse constituencies of New York City.
The Festival’s mission is to celebrate published literature and support the literary community through programming that connects New York City readers with local, national, and international authors, publishers, and booksellers. To this end the festival develops original programs that are hip, smart, and diverse and collaborates to present free and low-cost programming including the Festival Day, Bookend Events, YA Outloud, and the BKBF Children’s Day. BKBF is presented by the non-profit Brooklyn Book Festival, Inc. and the Brooklyn Book Festival Literary Council.
The Festival is proud of its roster of supporters including the Amazon Literary Partnership, the Baillie Gifford Non Fiction Prize, the Brooklyn Borough President’s Office, Brookfield Properties and J.P. Morgan Chase, Con Edison, Disney, Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, Kirby Family Foundation, Little A, the Mayor’s Office of Media & Entertainment, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson and Council Members Brad Lander, Stephen Levin and Carlos Menchaca, NYC COVID-19 Response and Impact Fund in New York Community Trust, New York State Council on the Arts, Lit Tap, NYU. The Festival’s media sponsors include C-SPAN, Book TV, the New York Review of Books, and WNYC.
What do you think about this? We welcome your comments.