This is a guest post by Wendi A. Maloney, with contributions from Neely Tucker, writer-editors in the Library’s Office of Communications.
Bookworms in the tens of thousands set aside their sunscreen and beach reads on Saturday, Aug. 12th to head for the 23rd National Book Festival. As temperatures outside edged above a humid 90 degrees, within the cool confines of the Washington, D.C., convention center, readers of all ages took refuge—and delight—in a world of stories.
If you were missed any of the programs, we’ve got great news for you. Recorded author talks are now available on the Video on Demand page here!
By 8:45 a.m., 15 minutes after doors opened to the public, a quiet hum of voices started to fill corridors and halls. Blue-shirted festival volunteers greeted early birds with posters and programs, while staff members put finishing touches on Library of Congress displays. On the expo floor, bright yellow beanbags awaited children.
They and their families were the prime audience for beloved authors R.J. Palacio and Erica S. Perl. The pair spoke at 9:30 a.m. on the Creativity stage—one of six festival stages—about “White Bird,” the 2023 prose novel they co-authored. It grew out of a graphic novel by Palacio, her first, which builds on her spectacularly successful “Wonder” series.
“I so believe in the power of storytelling,” Palacio said.
Session moderator Meg Medina, the 2023–24 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, surprised the audience with a story of her own: She grew up with Palacio in Flushing, Queens. “I’ve known Raquel from sleepovers and Girls Scout troops and kickball games,” she said.
“Now, she’s the national children’s ambassador,” Palacio joked.
“And you’re R.J. Palacio,” Medina replied.
By 11 a.m., the festival itself was packed. Visitors posed for pictures in front of National Book Festival backdrops; picked up red-orange C-SPAN bags; and queued to buy books and have them signed on the expo floor.
Unlike in previous years, the expo floor was situated on the convention center’s second level within easy reach of author talks. As festivalgoers entered by the dozens, the Library of Congress pavilion greeted them, drawing standing-room-only audiences for presentations by Library staffers.
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Among them, Zach Klitzman and Susan Reyburn of the Publishing Office shared some of their favorite culinary treasures from “American Feast: Cookbooks and Cocktails from the Library of Congress.” And María Peña of the Communications Office presented an overview of the Library in Spanish.
Andres Salgado, an audiobook producer from Virginia and a first-time festivalgoer, stopped to listen, as did another first-timer, Irma Ugaz, a recent immigrant to Maryland from Peru. Both stayed afterward to speak with Peña.
Elsewhere on the expo floor, Alison Share of Washington, D.C., allowed her son, Emile, to pull her into line to get a picture with the Scholastic character Clifford the Big Red Dog. It was their second time attending. “It’s a fun D.C. event,” Share said.
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In other areas of the vast space, children and families played games, colored pictures, snacked and visited state Center for the Book tables. In a colorfully carpeted area dubbed Story District, they rested and listened to readings, including of Medina’s “Evelyn Del Rey Is Moving Away” in Spanish.
On the third level in the afternoon, crowds formed circuitous lines well in advance of talks by LGBTQ+ advocate Chasten Buttigieg and trans actor Elliot Page. A session about larger-than-life FBI director J. Edgar Hoover titled “Capital Secrets” filled the Creativity stage auditorium.
Beverly Gage won a 2023 Pulitzer Prize for her biography of him, and James Kirchick, who appeared with her, wrote about Hoover in the context of the capital city’s gay history. Both Gage and Kirchick researched their books at the Library, and Hoover himself had a personal tie: During his undergraduate studies at George Washington University, he worked at the Library.
“So, we really have the Library of Congress to thank for J. Edgar Hoover’s file-keeping skills and information organization,” Gage joked.
The festival’s theme was “Everyone Has a Story,” meaning the authors onstage as well as audience members. The Curiosity stage, with chairs encircling it on three sides, was set up especially to encourage conversations. There, The Atlantic’s John Hendrickson spoke with NPR’s Steve Inskeep about “Life on Delay: Making Peace with a Stutter,” a memoir Hendrickson wrote after receiving an enormous response to his 2020 Atlantic story touching on then-presidential candidate Joe Biden’s stutter.
Some of those who reached out to Hendrickson in 2020 came to see him on Saturday and shared their own stories of navigating an ableist world.
“It didn’t dawn on me as anything I could ever, ever, ever [do] in the first three decades of my life,” Hendrickson told them about public speaking. His first experience was a nerve-wracking on-camera MSNBC interview following the Biden story.
On other festival stages, Amor Towles (Inspiration) delighted fans with tales of writing practices and philosophies that produced mega-bestsellers such as “A Gentleman in Moscow” and “The Lincoln Highway.” Jesmyn Ward (Understanding), winner of the Library’s 2022 Prize for American Fiction, talked about the importance of bearing witness to the reality, pain and promise of America’s racist past. And Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Jericho Brown (Insight) discussed his anthology exploring how Black writers approach the creative process.
Over the course of 11 hours, more than 70 authors in total spoke. “They’re a reflection of the diversity of readers across our nation,” Hayden said. In other words, the festival truly had something for everyone.
Hayden closed the festivities by presenting the 2023 Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction to a beaming George Saunders. The pair exchanged a playful moment onstage, both briefly gripping the trophy, after which Saunders sat for an interview with Clay Smith, the festival’s literary director.
Hayden announced at the event that the 2024 National Book Festival will take place on Aug. 24 at the convention center.