This is a guest post by Literary Initiatives intern Kevin Lopez Cruz.
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 one adult book event and one children’s book event from that year. To see the other videos from the 2016 festival, please go here. We hope you enjoy scrolling through the past with us! Check out videos from the first 2001 festival here.
Kristin Hannah is a New York Times no. 1 bestselling novelist with more than 20 books to her name, including the international hit “The Nightingale.” Named Goodreads’ Best Historical Fiction Novel of 2015 and winner of the People’s Choice Award for best fiction that year, “The Nightingale” was also selected for Reese Witherspoon’s Book Club in 2023. Hannah grew up in California and is a former attorney.
In this presentation, Hannah offers insights into the emotional heart of “The Nightingale,” discussing her approach to character-driven storytelling and the importance of historical accuracy in bringing World War II France to life.
Hannah begins speaking at 4:26, and the video proceeds as follows:
7:26: Writing a book with her mother
11:17: Story about sending her book out to agents and publishers
13:35: Conference visit and critiquing
18:04: “The Nightingale”
23:17: Q&A begins
Kwame Alexander, a no. 1 New York Times bestselling author and Emmy Award-winning producer, has written 44 books. His notable books include the Newbery Medal-winning novel “The Crossover,” which was adapted into a Disney+ television series, and “The Undefeated,” a picture book illustrated by Kadir Nelson that received a Newbery Award and a Caldecott Medal. Other titles include “The Door of No Return,” which was a finalist for the Audie Award for middle grade in 2023, as well as “Why Fathers Cry at Night” and “How Sweet The Sound.”
In this presentation, Alexander explores the power of language, poetry and literacy—highlighting his novel “Booked,” which follows 12-year-old soccer player Nick Hall as he faces challenges at home and school. Joined by guitarist Randy Preston, Alexander combines live music with spoken word to captivate and inspire young audiences.
Alexander begins speaking at 4:03, and the video proceeds as follows:
5:00: On “silence”
9:33: Reading from“Booked”
14:45: Rapping librarian
18:27: Q&A begins
Come back next week for highlights from 2017!
Note: the previous version of the post did not feature the correct poster image and has now been updated.