This is a guest post by Literary Initiatives intern Jacob Sharp.
The Library of Congress National Book Festival will celebrate its 25th year on September 6, 2025. For this year’s festival information, visit the 2025 National Book Festival website.
To honor the occasion, we are taking the 24 weeks leading up to this year’s festival at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center to highlight two videos each week from past National Book Festivals, from the festival’s first year in 2001 to 2024. Each week, we’ll highlight a past festival year with a video from an adult writer and one from a children’s writer. We hope you enjoy scrolling through the past with us! Check out videos from the first 2001 festival here.
Salman Rushdie is the author of 22 books, including “Midnight’s Children” (for which he won the Booker Prize and the Best of the Booker), “Shame,” “The Satanic Verses,” “The Moor’s Last Sigh” and “Quichotte,” all of which have been shortlisted for the Booker Prize; a collection of stories, “East, West;” a memoir, “Joseph Anton;” a work of reportage, “The Jaguar Smile” and three collections of essays, including “Languages of Truth.” His most recent book, “Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder,” was a finalist for the 2024 National Book Award for Nonfiction. His many awards include two Whitbread Prizes for Best Novel, the PEN/Allen Foundation Literary Service Award, the National Arts Award, the French Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger, the European Union’s Aristeion Prize for Literature, the Budapest Grand Prize for Literature and the Italian Premio Grinzane Cavour.
Watch Rushdie as he speaks broadly about his life, writing, and the events that have influenced both. Throughout, he offers reflections on creativity, identity and the role of the writer.
Salman Rushdie starts speaking at 3:40, and the video proceeds as follows:
- 4:54: Rushdie speaks on existing/working in hiding following the death threats from the leader of Iran
- 9:27: Rushdie discusses his research for the book “The Enchantress of Florence” and what inspired him to write it
- 14:40: Rushdie explains the plot of “The Enchantress of Florence”
- 20:45: Rushdie discusses the playfulness of language and cultural significance of his novels
- 25:55: Q&A period begins
Andrea Davis Pinkney is the New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of more than 40 books. Her work has garnered multiple Coretta Scott King Book Awards, the Boston Globe/Horn Book Honor and the Parenting Publications gold medal, among other citations. She is a four-time NAACP Image Award nominee, recipient of the Regina Medal and the Arbuthnot Honor Award for her singular body of work and distinguished contribution to the field of literature. Additionally, Pinkney has been inducted into the New York State Writers Hall of Fame. She and her work are the subject of the Emmy nominated short film, “Andrea Davis Pinkney: National Author Engagement.”
Listen to Pinkney speak as she shares insights into her creative process and the stories that have shaped her career as an author. She is well-known for her engaging style of speaking, so enjoy her captivating voice as she gives her talk, in which she weaves together personal reflections, artistic influences and the power of storytelling.
Pinkney begins speaking at 1:10, and the video proceeds as follows:
- 3:38: Pinkney describes her meditative writing process
- 8:25: Pinkney discusses and reads from her book, “Ella Fitzgerald: The Tale of a Vocal Virtuosa”
- 13:28: Pinkney explains the beginnings of scat music and teaches the audience how to scat
- 16:05: Pinkney describes the “scratch-board” process her illustrator uses to create the artwork in their books
- 18:36: Pinkney showcases her latest book at the time, “Boycott Blues: How Rosa Parks Inspired a Nation,” and talks about the inspiration behind writing it
- 21:18: Q&A period begins
Come back next week for highlights from 2009!