Preview the National Book Festival on PBS Books

Can’t wait until September 3rd to experience the 2022 National Book Festival? Fortunately, you don’t have to! Book lovers across the nation can enjoy an early literary taste of the festival on PBS Books, which will host a series of virtual interviews with some of the festival’s featured authors, including Mitch Albom, Rachel Aviv, Geraldine Brooks, Dhonielle Clayton, Katie Gutierrez, Kelly Lytle Hernández, Kate Clifford Larson, Juliet Menéndez, Leslye Penelope, Lucinda Roy and Clint Smith.

Full interviews with each of the 11 authors featured by PBS Books will be streamed between Aug. 15 and Aug. 31 on PBS Books. They will also be available on-demand on PBS Books and our National Book Festival website at loc.gov/bookfest

Highlights from the PBS Books series include:

Aug. 15, 8 p.m. ET: Lucinda Roy and Leslye Penelope
PBS Books, in collaboration with Virginia Public Media, will host this virtual event with two trailblazing authors, who create empowered female heroines and champion diverse voices. Leslye Penelope is an award-winning author of fantasy and paranormal romance. Her debut novel “Song of Blood and Stone,” was chosen as one of TIME Magazine’s 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time. Her latest novel is “The Monsters We Defy.” Lucinda Roy is a novelist, poet and memoirist. Roy’s latest book is the novel “Flying the Coop,” book two of “The Dreambird Chronicles” trilogy. Previous books include the memoir “No Right to Remain Silent: What We’ve Learned from the Tragedy at Virginia Tech,” the novel “Lady Moses” and the poetry collection “The Hummingbirds,” winner of the Eighth Mountain Poetry Prize.

Aug. 16, 8 p.m. ET: Juliet Menéndez  
In collaboration with South Florida PBS and their initiative Between the Covers, PBS Books welcomes multicultural author, illustrator and teacher Juliet Menéndez, who divides her time between Guatemala City, New York and Paris. She worked as a bilingual teacher in New York and studied design and illustration in Paris. Her most recent book is “Latinitas: Celebrating 40 Big Dreamers.”

Aug. 17, 8 p.m. ET: Kate Clifford Larson
PBS Books, in collaboration with WTTW in Chicago, presents Kate Clifford Larson, the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of three critically acclaimed biographies: “Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman,” “Portrait of an American Hero; Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter,” and “The Assassin’s Accomplice: Mary Surratt and the Plot to Kill Abraham Lincoln.” She earned a doctorate in American History at the University of New Hampshire, specializing in 19th and 20th century U.S. women’s and African American history. Kate will discuss her latest book “Walk with Me: A Biography of Fannie Lou Hamer,” her writing process, and involvement in the festival.

Aug. 30, 8 p.m. ET: Katie Gutierrez
PBS Books, in collaboration with GBH in Boston, interviews author Katie Gutierrez, who penned the national bestselling debut novel, “More Than You’ll Ever Know,” which was the “Good Morning America” Book Club pick for June 2022. She is a National Magazine Award finalist, whose writing has appeared in TIME, Harper’s Bazaar, the Washington Post, Longreads and other publications.

For a complete lineup of authors interviewed virtually on PBS Books, visit: PBSBooks.org/LOCBookfest22.