The 22nd annual Library of Congress National Book Festival will be held at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, Sept. 3.
The event is free and open to the public.
This year's theme is "Books Bring Us Together." A selection of programs will be livestreamed online and videos of all programs will be available shortly after the Festival. Attendees may expect enhanced safety and security measures when entering the Convention Center.
The Library of Congress National Book Festival is an annual literary event that brings together best-selling authors, poets and illustrators with thousands of readers for book talks, panel discussions, book signings and other engaging activities. Over the course of its 20-year history, the Festival has become one of the most prominent literary events in the nation.
The National Book Festival was founded in 2001 by Laura Bush and then-Librarian of Congress James H. Billington. The first Festival was held Sept. 8, 2001, with Mrs. Bush serving as its honorary chair, a position she held through 2008. Over the years, the Festival has evolved immensely, becoming the nation’s premier literary event.
It began on the Library of Congress grounds and in its buildings on Capitol Hill, expanding soon thereafter to the lawn of the Capitol and then to the National Mall.
The Washington Convention Center has hosted the event in recent years, and now, in 2020, the Festival is going virtual. Attendance has skyrocketed from 25,000 in 2001 to more than 200,000 in 2019.
Author involvement in the festival has also increased dramatically: While roughly 40 authors participated in the first festival, the 2015 National Book Festival featured more than 175 authors. The number has skyrocketed since then.
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| President Biden with David M. Rubenstein |
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