Amy Tan speaks with National Book Festival Literary Director Marie Arana on the Main Stage, September 1, 2018. Photo by Shawn Miller, Library of Congress.
The 2019 Library of Congress National Book Festival will offer an outstanding lineup of authors for readers of all ages for the festival's 19
th year, with more than 140 nationally recognized authors, poets and illustrators, as well as the addition of stages devoted to science and international subjects.
On
Saturday, Aug. 31, at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, doors will open at
8:30 a.m., with programs beginning at 9 a.m. and running until 8 p.m.
The stellar lineup includes U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, eminent historians David McCullough and Michael Beschloss, celebrity D.C. chef and humanitarian José Andrés,
graphic novel superstar Raina Telgemeier and Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction recipient Richard Ford.
The 2019 festival also will invite visitors to Explore America's Changemakers, part of a yearlong initiative coinciding with a series of exhibitions, events and programs at the Library. Among numerous festival programs dedicated to the theme of Changemakers, a special panel will feature new books on Winston Churchill by Andrew Roberts, Frederick Douglass by David Blight and visionary women including Rachel Carson, Jane Jacobs, Jane Goodall and Alice Waters, by Andrea Barnet
.
Here are a few festival highlights:
- U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will participate in a conversation with NPR correspondent Nina Totenberg; Ginsburg will discuss her career and her book "My Own Words."
- David McCullough, one of America's most-read historians, will talk about "The Pioneers: The Heroic Stories of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West."
- José Andrés will review his humanitarian work, especially when he helped feed the people of Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. Diane Rehm, whose radio show on NPR aired for nearly 40 years, will interview Andrés, who will also discuss his new vegetable cookbook.
- Raina Telgemeier will greet thousands of her fans and introduce them to "Share Your Smile: Raina's Guide to Telling Your Own Story."
- American historian Henry Louis Gates Jr. will offer two presentations, one for children on his new book "Dark Sky Rising" and one for adults on Race in America.
- Presidential historian Michael Beschloss will talk about "Presidents of War."
- Matthew Gray Gubler, one of the stars of CBS' "Criminal Minds," will present his children's book "Rumple Buttercup."
- Graphic novelist Ngozi Ukazu, who has rewritten the rules of publishing, will discuss "Check, Please!"
- Award-winning novelist Laila Lalami will talk about "The Other Americans."
- Julia Álvarez will look back on her novel "In the Time of the Butterflies," an international sensation when it was published 25 years ago.
- Susan Choi will discuss her highly acclaimed novel "Trust Exercise."
Authors participating in this year's festival will make their presentations on the following stages:
Stages for Adults
Main Stage: José Andrés, Michael Beschloss, David Brooks, Richard Ford, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, David McCullough and
Raina Telgemeier
Fiction: Louis Bayard, Ann Beattie, Susan Choi, Barbara Kingsolver, Laila Lalami, Rebecca Makkai, Thomas Mallon, Sigrid Nunez, Joyce Carol Oates, Richard Powers and Roxana Robinson
Genre Fiction: Charlie Jane Anders, Johnny D. Boggs, James Ellroy, Margaret George, Philippa Gregory, Anne Hillerman, Paul Andrew Hutton, Joe Ide, Craig Johnson, Brianna Labuskes, Seanan McGuire, Sara Paretsky, John Scalzi and Victoria Schwab
History & Biography: Rick Atkinson, Douglas Brinkley, Colin G. Calloway, Joanne B. Freeman, Casey Gerald, David Maraniss, Andrew Roberts, Evan Thomas, David Treuer, Elaine Weiss and Brenda Wineapple
International: Liliana Colanzi, María Dueñas, Melba Escobar, Inga Gaile, Cristina Rivera Garza, Amitav Ghosh, Olga Grjasnowa, Caoilinn Hughes, Claudia Salazar Jiménez, Jeanine Leane, Brenton McKenna, Kim Scott and Kim Thúy
Poetry & Prose: Julia Álvarez, Sheila Black, Jericho Brown, Nathan Englander, Aminatta Forna, Ilya Kaminsky, R.O. Kwon, Dorianne Laux, Valeria Luiselli, Alberto Manguel, Madeline Miller, Brendan Mathews, Lydia Millet, Pamela Paul, Linda Sue Park, Maria Russo, Jon Scieszka, Natasha Trethewey, Renée Watson, Emily Wilson, and Jenny Xie
Science: Peter Brannen, Alexandra Horowitz, Beth Macy, Thomas W. Malone, Lisa Margonelli,
Jim Ottaviani, David Quammen, Douglas Rushkoff, Daniel Stone, Frans de Waal and David Sloan Wilson
Understanding Our World: Andrea Barnet, David Blight, David Epstein, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Judge Richard Gergel, Reyna Grande, David Grann, Amy Gutmann, Joshua Hammer, Aleksandar Hemon, Parag Khanna, Steve Luxenberg, Alberto Manguel, Suketu Mehta, Jonathan Moreno, Elaine Pagels, Steven Pearlstein and Andrew Roberts
Stages for Young People
Children: Mac Barnett,
Cece Bell, Sophie Blackall, Tonya Bolden, Fred Bowen, Max Brallier, Molly Brooks, Pablo Cartaya, Fabien Cousteau, Lucy Ruth Cummins, Gale Galligan, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Brian Floca, Matthew Gray Gubler,
Shannon Hale, Jennifer Holm, Matthew Holm, Jon Klassen, Ann M. Martin,
Juana Medina, R.J. Palacio, Linda Sue Park, LeUyen Pham,
Matt Phelan, Greg Pizzoli, Sherri Duskey Rinker, Sharon Robinson, Adam Rubin, Victoria Schwab, Jon Scieszka, Ronald L. Smith, Jennifer Swanson and Steven Weinberg
Teens: Holly Black, Monica Hesse, Kathleen Glasgow, Ellen Hagan,
Faith Erin Hicks, Linda Holmes,
Jarrett J. Krosoczka, Mitali Perkins, Rainbow Rowell, Misa Sugiura,
Ngozi Ukazu, Renée Watson, Scott Westerfeld and Markus Zusak
Poetry Slam: The National Book Festival Youth Poetry Slam will include some of the nation's top youth slam groups from the nation's capital. Champion delegates from these groups will compete to be named the festival's top youth slammer by performing new works.
The National Book Festival is made possible by the generous support of private- and public-sector sponsors who share the Library's commitment to reading and literacy, led by National Book Festival Co-Chairman David M. Rubenstein. Charter sponsors are the Institute of Museum and Library Services, The Washington Post and Wells Fargo; Patron sponsors are the James Madison Council, the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities; the Champions are Thomas V. Girardi, the John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress, PBS and Pizza Hut BOOK IT! Program; and, in the Friends category, Booklovers Circle Members, Bookshare - a Benetech initiative, Buffy Cafritz, Embassy of Australia, Embassy of Canada, Embassy of Germany, Embassy of Ireland, Embassy of Latvia, Embassy of Peru, Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction administered by The University of Alabama School of Law, The Hay-Adams, Inter-American Development Bank, The Junior League of Washington, Andy King, Leon Levy Center for Biography (CUNY), Library of Congress Federal Credit Union, Mexican Cultural Institute, Timothy and Diane Naughton, Planet Word, Scholastic Inc, Small Press Expo (SPX), Spain Arts & Culture and Western Writers of America; Media Partners are C-SPAN2's Book TV, The New York Times and NPR. Those interested in supporting the National Book Festival can contact the Library at
devofc@loc.gov.
Later this summer, the National Book Festival app for iOS and Android smartphones will be updated with complete presenter, schedule and wayfinding information. Follow the festival on Twitter
@librarycongress with hashtag #NatBookFest, and subscribe to the National Book Festival Blog at
loc.gov/bookfest/.
The Library of Congress is the world's largest library, offering access to the creative record of the United States — and extensive materials from around the world — both on-site and online. It is the main research arm of the U.S. Congress and the home of the U.S. Copyright Office. Explore collections, reference services and other programs and plan a visit at
loc.gov, access the official site for U.S. federal legislative information at
congress.gov and register creative works of authorship at
copyright.gov.
by Mike Rhode (more photographs here)
"It is really an honor to donate this collection because quite frankly it belongs here," noted Geppi as began his remarks. He continued, "Going forward this is not a matter of me donating my collection, dropping it off and saying goodbye. I have plans to be involved going forward because who knows what evolves from this one event?" Geppi continually invoked nostalgia and childhood memories as the reason he collected, and that people visited his museum. "We don't know what triggers our memories. And yes, these comic books are valuable, but what the Library of Congress represents is the recognition and acceptance of them as fine art."
Obviously the entire GEM display, a full museum with multiple galleries, couldn't be replicated in the Library. Initially, five small cases of material are on display in the historic Jefferson building, although Geppi repeatedly mentioned that a room would be forthcoming, presumably similar to the Bob Hope or Gershwin galleries. The cases are organized thematically by Patriotism, Early Comics Materials and Marketing, Mickey Mouse, Exploration, and About the Geppi Entertainment Museum. Early Comics features an 1818 comic magazine, The Idiot, or, Invisible Rambler as well as other nineteenth-century material including a printing block for the Yellow Kid, and oddly enough, boxes for Quick Mother's Oats and 
Kellogg's Rice Krispies which have no characters on them (and seem more appropriate for the National Museum of American History's food exhibit). Exploration has science fiction themes including a Superman Krypto-Raygun. About GEM ranges all over including a Captain Marvel Club code letter, a ticket to Woodstock, Pac-Man cereal, the packaging for McDonald's Star Trek Meal (1979), and a toy Beatles guitar.
