The National Book Festival’s 25th Edition!

The National Book Festival’s 25th edition returns to D.C. on September 6 with a stellar list of novelists, historians, poets, young-adult and childrens authors, more than 90 in all.

You’ll see novelists such as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Scott Turow and Jess Walter; non-fiction authors such as Ron Chernow, Jill Lepore and Geraldine Brooks; and Academy Award-winning actress Geena Davis with her picture book for children. Associate Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett will be on stage to discuss her book, “Listening to the Law: Reflections on the Court and Constitution.”

Founded by first lady Laura Bush in 2001, the National Book Festival has always sought to feature some of the most thoughtful American writers talking about their latest books and engaging with readers.

The festival has changed over the years, moving from  a small festival on Library of Congress grounds and in its buildings on Capitol Hill, to a sprawling one on the National Mall to the air conditioned one (phew!) that occupies the Washington Convention Center.

Claiborne Smith, the Library’s literary director, summarizes the NBF as a unique distillation of what’s happening in American book culture each year. It’s always a good time — and a very busy day for book lovers.

If you can’t make it to D.C., no worries. Main Stage events will be livestreamed and C-SPAN’s Book TV will be interviewing authors and broadcasting some presentations. Videos of some presentations will be made available on the Library’s YouTube channel (and all will be on our website) a few days after the festival.

Meanwhile, here’s the complete list.

Fiction

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – “Dream Count”

Kashana Cauley – “The Payback”

Susan Choi – “Flashlight”

Ron Currie – “The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne”

Alison Espach – “The Wedding People”

Elizabeth Harris – “How to Sleep at Night”

Cristina Henríquez – “The Great Divide: A Historical Novel of the Panama Canal”

Katie Kitamura – “Audition”

Laila Lalami – “The Dream Hotel”

Liz Moore – “The God of the Woods”

Nnedi Okorafor – “Death of the Author”

Helen Phillips – “Hum”

V.E. Schwab – “Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil”

Maggie Su – “Blob: A Love Story”

Scott Turow – “Presumed Guilty”

Willy Vlautin – “The Horse”

Jess Walter – “So Far Gone”

Chris Whitaker – “All the Colors of the Dark”

Genre Fiction

Joe Abercrombie – “The Devils”

Agustina Bazterrica – “The Unworthy”

Shannon Chakraborty – “The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi”

Alexis Daria – “Along Came Amor”

Fiona Davis – “The Stolen Queen”

Stephen Graham Jones – “The Buffalo Hunter Hunter”

Tochi Onyebuchi – “Harmattan Season”

Kennedy Ryan – “Can’t Get Enough”

Biography, History and Memoir

Rick Atkinson – “The Fate of the Day: The War for America, Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777-1780”

Geraldine Brooks – “Memorial Days: A Memoir”

Ron Chernow – “Mark Twain”

Paul Elie – “The Last Supper: Art, Faith, Sex and Controversy in the 1980s”

Garrett M. Graff – “The Devil Reached Toward the Sky: An Oral History of the Making and Unleashing of the Atomic Bomb”

Jill Lepore – “We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution”

Yuval Levin – “American Covenant: How the Constitution Unified Our Nation – And Could Again”

Clay Risen – “Red Scare: Blacklists, McCarthyism and the Making of Modern America”

General Nonfiction

David Baron – “The Martians: The True Story of an Alien Craze That Captured Turn-of-the-Century America”

Justice Amy Coney Barrett – “Listening to the Law: Reflections on the Court and Constitution”

Elias Weiss Friedman – “This Dog Will Change Your Life”

Brian Goldstone – “There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America”

John Green – “Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection”

Alexandra Horowitz – “Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell and Know”

Honorée Fanonne Jeffers – “Misbehaving at the Crossroads: Essays & Writings”

Ian Kumekawa – “Empty Vessel: The Story of the Global Economy in One Barge”

Peter Kuper – “Insectopolis: A Natural History” and “Coloring Insectopolis”

Kate Marvel – “Human Nature: Nine Ways to Feel About Our Changing Planet”

Patrick McGee – “Apple in China: The Capture of the World’s Greatest Company”

Imani Perry – “Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People”

Mark Rowlands – “The Word of Dog: What Our Canine Companions Can Teach Us About Living a Good Life”

Jenny Slate – “Lifeform”

Leah Sottile – “Blazing Eye Sees All: Love Has Won, False Prophets and the Fever Dream of the American New Age”

Gianna Toboni – “The Volunteer: The Failure of the Death Penalty in America and One Inmate’s Quest to Die with Dignity”

Alan Weisman – “Hope Dies Last: Visionary People Across the World, Fighting to Find Us a Future”

Poetry and Translation

Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellows

Joy Harjo – “Washing My Mother’s Body: A Ceremony for Grief”

Ada Limón – “Startlement: New and Selected Poems”

Daniel Mendelsohn – “The Odyssey”

Tracy K. Smith – “To Free the Captives: A Plea for the American Soul”

Young Adult

Kelly Andrew – “I Am Made of Death”

Susan Dennard – “The Executioners Three”

Tracy Deonn – “Oathbound”

Channelle Desamours – “Needy Little Things”

Erin Entrada Kelly and Kwame Mbalia – “On Again, Awkward Again”

Tahereh Mafi – “Watch Me”

Maika Moulite and Maritza Moulite – “The Summer I Ate the Rich”

Caroline O’Donoghue – “Skipshock”

Marisha Pessl – “Darkly”

Ransom Riggs – “Sunderworld, Vol. I: The Extraordinary Disappointments of Leopold Berry”

Elle Gonzalez Rose – “The Girl You Know”

Mariko Tamaki – “This Place Kills Me”

Middle Grade

Kwame Alexander and Jerry Craft – “J vs. K”

Katherine Applegate – “Pocket Bear”

Andrea Beatriz Arango – “It’s All or Nothing, Vale”

Mac Barnett – “The First Cat in Space and the Wrath of the Paperclip”

Jorge Cham – “Oliver’s Great Big Universe: Volcanoes Are Hot!”

Gale Galligan – “Fresh Start”

Tiffany D. Jackson – “Blood in the Water”

Leah Johnson – “Bree Boyd Is a Legend”

Kate Messner – “The Trouble with Heroes”

Chris Raschka – “Peachaloo in Bloom”

Raúl the Third – “The Snips: A Bad Buzz Day”

Eleanor Spicer Rice – “The Deadliest: Spider”

R.L. Stine – “Stinetinglers 4: 3 Chilling Tales by the Master of Scary Stories” and “The Last Sleepover”

J.E. Thomas – “The AI Incident”

Paul Tremblay – “Another”

Renée Watson – “All the Blues in the Sky”

Picture Books

Leigh Bardugo and John Picacio – “The Invisible Parade”

Geena Davis – “The Girl Who Was Too Big for the Page”

Devin Elle Kurtz – “The Bakery Dragon”

Kiese Laymon – “City Summer, Country Summer”

Debbie Levy – “The Friendship Train: A True Story of Helping and Healing After World War II”

Christy Mandin – “Millie Fleur Saves the Night”

Subscribe to the blog— it’s free!