See you (and Marlon James and Susan Choi) at the Brooklyn Book Festival.
If you’re going to be in Brooklyn on September 22nd, I highly recommend you make your way to the Brooklyn Book Festival. If you’re not going to be in Brooklyn on September 22nd, I highly recommend you change your plans. Lauded as the largest free literary event in New York City (300 authors! 250 booksellers!), the Brooklyn Book Festival is celebrating its fourteenth year this fall.
This year’s lineup includes: Christopher Bonanos, Karina Sainz Borgo, Jericho Brown, Nick Bruel, Tina Chang, Ted Chiang, Susan Choi, Dave Cullen, Edwidge Danticat, Sarah Dessen, Benjamin Dryer, Jonathan Safran Foer, Ted Fox, Amitav Ghosh, Rigoberto González, Aleksandar Hemon, Mira Jacob, Marlon James, N.K. Jemisin, Ilya Kaminsky, Lucy Knisley, Laila Lalami, Grace Lin, Sally Wen Mao, Courtney Maum, Bill McKibben, Maaza Mengiste, Sarah Mlynowski, Mary Norris, Joyce Carol Oates, Téa Obreht, Maxim Osipov, Ben Passmore, Namwali Serpell, Paco Ignacio Taibo II, Rebecca Traister, Magdalene Visaggio, Raúl The Third, Scott Westerfeld, Mo Willems, Damon Young, Nell Zink, Ibi Zoboi, and hundreds more.
The Brooklyn Book Festival Literary Council also announced that award-winning author Mo Willems will be receiving the annual Best of Brooklyn Award. The BoBi, as it is apparently called, is given to a writer whose work exemplifies or speaks to the spirit of Brooklyn. Past honorees include N. K. Jemisin, Colson Whitehead, and Lois Lowry. Willems is the first author of children’s picture books (most notably the Elephant & Piggie series and Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!) to receive this award.
If you want a bookmark with Mo Willems’ face on it, hot tip: during the week of the festival, you can get one at the New York Public Library! Bookmarks of Brooklyn authors Susan Choi and Marlon James will also be available. Collect ’em all.
