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National Book Festival on PBS Books

PBS Books Brings National Book Festival Author Interviews Across the Country

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The National Book Festival is excited to partner again with PBS Books to bring conversations with featured authors to communities across the country, including Claribel Ortega, S.A. Cosby, Matthew Desmond, Angeline Boulley and more.

Interviews with each of the 11 authors featured by PBS Books will be streamed between July 20 and the end of August on PBS Books. They will also be available on-demand on PBS Books and the National Book Festival website at loc.gov/bookfest.  

Highlights from the PBS Books series include:

July 20, 8 p.m. ET:  Claribel A. Ortega
PBS Books, in collaboration with WNET in New York, hosts Claribel A. Ortega, a New York Times bestselling and award-winning author who writes middle grade and young adult fantasy novels inspired by her Dominican heritage.

July 27, 8 p.m. ET: Shelby Van Pelt
PBS Books, in collaboration with WGBH in Boston, presents new author Shelby Van Pelt. “Remarkably Bright Creatures” is her first novel and will be featured at the 2023 National Book Festival.

Aug. 2, 8 p.m. ET: Tananarive Due
PBS Books, in collaboration with GPB in Atlanta, hosts Tananarive Due, an award-winning author who teaches Black horror and Afrofuturism at the University of California.

Aug. 3, 8 p.m. ET: S.A. Cosby
PBS Books, in collaboration with VPM and WHRO in Virginia, presents S.A. Cosby, an Anthony, Barry, and Macavity Award-winning writer from southeastern Virginia.

Aug. 9, 8 p.m. ET: Luis Alberto Urrea
PBS Books, in collaboration with MPT in Maryland, hosts Luis Alberto Urrea, bestselling author of works of nonfiction, poetry and fiction, including “The Hummingbird’s Daughter” and “The House of Broken Angels.”

Aug. 10, 8 p.m. ET: Beverly Gage
PBS Books, in collaboration with WETA in Washington D.C., interviews Beverly Gage, a professor of 20th-century American history at Yale University and author of “The Day Wall Street Exploded.”

Aug. 23, 8 p.m. ET: TJ Klune
PBS Books, in collaboration with South Florida PBS, presents TJ Klune, the bestselling author of “The House in the Cerulean Sea,” “Into This River I Drown” and “Under the Whispering Door.”

Aug. 24, 8 p.m. ET: Matthew Desmond
PBS Books, in collaboration with WTTW in Chicago, hosts Matthew Desmond, a professor of sociology at Princeton University to discuss his latest release “Poverty, by America.”

Aug. 30, 8 p.m. ET: Héctor Tobar
PBS Books, in collaboration with PBS SoCal, interviews Héctor Tobar, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and novelist. Tobar is the author of the critically-acclaimed bestseller “Deep Down Dark” as well as “The Barbarian Nurseries,” “Translation Nation” and “The Tattooed Soldier.”

Aug. 31, 8 p.m. ET: Angeline Boulley and Trang Thanh Tran
PBS Books, in collaboration with Kansas City PBS and KERA in Dallas, Texas, interviews Angeline Boulley followed by Trang Thanh Tran.

The 2023 National Book Festival will take place on Aug. 12, from 9 a.m. until 8 p.m. at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. Doors open at 8:30 a.m. and the festival is free and open to everyone. Attendees will hear conversations that reflect their lived experiences and stories, with presentations for every type of reader. The festival’s theme, “Everyone Has a Story,” celebrates the storyteller in us all. The complete author lineup for the for the festival can be found at loc.gov/bookfest.

Comments (3)

  1. I am especially interested in the history authors.

  2. I have attended nearly every book festival since it began, including when it was held on the Mall. I look forward to this event every year. And I have a collection of festival t-shirts! Thank you Library of Congress.

  3. Well done, and keep the interviews coming. I look forward to this year’s Festival and to your outreach programs with diverse writers and subjects available to all of US. Thank you!

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