Authors! Authors!

Well, we promised you two days’ worth of writers for the 2011 Library of Congress National Book Festival – and here they come: an unprecedented 112 authors, poets and illustrators will speak and meet with their readers at the free public event on Saturday, Sept. 24 and Sunday, Sept. 25 on the National Mall!

What’s more, this year’s festival – the 11^th annual — will offer more authors and activities for young readers than ever before.

Saturday hours will be from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and Sunday hours will be from 1 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Find the speaking and book-signing schedules on the festival website.

Festival fans will find the usual array of author pavilions this year – History & Biography, Fiction & Mystery, Poetry & Prose and Contemporary Life, along with a pavilion aimed at Teens and another for Children. The Library of Congress Pavilion will be buzzing with great stuff you can do at the Library or using its powerful websites. But there will also be a new “Family Storytelling Stage,” Distinguished Corporate Benefactor Target’s offering this year, which will offer briefer presentations by more than 20 authors and musicians whose books and performances are devoted to very young readers.  There, kids and their parents will “Celebrate the Joy of Reading Aloud.”  Students and their teachers can get ready for the festival by checking out the online Kids and Teachers’ Guide.  Kids can also collect the online game pieces in the National Book Festival/Washington Post’s KidsPost Scavenger Hunt.  Collect the final game piece at the Washington Post’s KidsPost table at the festival and win a prize!
On Sunday, the National Book Festival will convert its spacious “Pavilion of the States” into three new genre pavilions: State Poets Laureate, “The Cutting Edge,” and Graphic Novels.        To see the full list of authors, go here; to hear this year’s National Book Festival author podcasts, go here.