Top of page
Posted by: Neely Tucker
Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett headlined this year's National Book Festival, promoting her book "Listening to the Law: Reflections on the Court and the Constitution," in an onstage conversation with festival co-Chairman David Rubenstein.
Posted in: Books, Gazette, National Book Festival, News, Writers
Posted by: Neely Tucker
How well do you understand your dog? Probaly not quite as well as you think. Alexandra Horowitz is the author of "Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell and Know," which was No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list when it was published in 2009. An updated version of the book has just been released and she'll be at the National Book Festival on Sept. 6 to discuss her work. We caught up with her for a few questions beforehand.
Posted in: National Book Festival, Science, Writers
Posted by: Neely Tucker
Journalist, author and historian Clay Risen spent six years working on “Red Scare: Blacklists, McCarthyism and the Making of Modern America,” a narrative history of the anti-Communist panic that consumed the country in the decade after World War II. He'll be discussing the book at the National Book Festival on Sept. 6, but we caught up with him for a conversation beforehand.
Posted in: Civil Rights, Cold War, Congress, National Book Festival, Researcher Stories, Washington DC, World War II, Writers
Posted by: Neely Tucker
We're talking today with David Baron, author of “The Martians: The True Story of an Alien Craze that Captured Turn-of-the-Century America,” who will be at this year’s National Book Festival on Sept. 6. It’s about the public fascination between 1890-1910 with what looked to be the very real possibility of life of Mars. The main cultural artifact of this belief might be H.G. Wells’ 1898 novel, “The War of the Worlds,” which imagined hostile Martians invading Earth in spectacular fashion. But as Baron writes, most of the views were utopian, picturing Martians as a far advanced, heroic people.
Posted in: Gilded Age, Kluge Center, Library Work and Employees, National Book Festival, Researcher Stories, Science, Technology
Posted by: Neely Tucker
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 …
Posted in: Books, Library Work and Employees, National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, National Book Festival, News, Poetry, U.S. Poet Laureate, Washington DC, Writers
Posted by: Carla D. Hayden
"On Saturday, Jan. 4, Library of Congress James Madison Council chair David M. Rubenstein was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House. This is a crowning achievement for his passionate support of our nation’s history and culture and the arts." -- A special blog from Librarian Carla D. Hayden
Posted in: Collections, Library Work and Employees, Literacy Awards, National Book Festival, News, U.S. Presidents
Posted by: Neely Tucker
Author and academic Ned Blackhawk has been studying Native American history for a long time, and he thinks there are reasons to be optimistic about the future. He says that groundwork laid over the past several decades, particularly in the 1970s protest movements, has established a growing recognition of Native American influence on the foundations of U.S. culture and society, resulting in a cultural renaissance. His latest book, “The Rediscovery of America,” won the National Book Award for nonfiction this year, and his panel discussion at the National Book Festival was packed.
Posted in: American Revolution, Books, National Book Festival, Native Americans, Writers
Posted by: Maria Peña
Peruvian American author Marie Arana's new book "LatinoLand: A Portrait of America’s Largest and Least Understood Minority," offers a timely exploration of Latino culture during Hispanic Heritage Month. She, and her book, were featured during the 2024 National Book Festival.
Posted in: Hispanic American History, Hispanic and Latino, National Book Festival, Writers
Posted by: Neely Tucker
Viet Thanh Nguyen fled Vietnam as a child, escaping Saigon with his family the day before the capital city fell. They went to military bases in the Philippines and Guam, then lived in Pennsylvania for a few years before finally settling in San Jose, California, where he discovered the American dream was complicated. His literary work, most notably his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, "The Sympathizer," (now an HBO series) explores the duality that he feels as a refugee and as an American writer. He spoke about his work at the National Book Festival, sharing stories of how his local library was his "salvation" as a child.
Posted in: African American History, Asian American, LGBTQ, Library Work and Employees, National Book Festival, Writers