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Brooklyn Book Festival announces 2016 author lineup

Brooklyn BookBeat: Stars Slated For New York City’s Largest Free Literary Festival

June 20, 2016 By Katie Gray Special to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Margaret Atwood is one of hundreds of authors who will participate in this year’s Brooklyn Book Festival. AP Photo/Daniel Ochoa de Olza, File
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The Brooklyn Book Literary Council and the Brooklyn Book Festival hosted a literary mingle on June 16 at Issue Project Room in Downtown Brooklyn, where they shared the first 180 national and international authors for the 2016 festival, which is in its 11th year.

The author lineup for this September’s festival includes Margaret Atwood, Sherman Alexie, Ken Bruen, Margo Jefferson, Jessica Valenti, Alexander Chee, Faith Erin Hicks, Stephanie Danler, Pete Hamill and Jacqueline Woodson. The festival will run from Sept. 12-18; the main day of the festival, Sept. 18, will feature panels, readings and creative performances across 14 stages.  

Johnny Temple, publisher and editor-in-chief of Akashic Books and chair of the Brooklyn Literary Council, explained, “Every year we just keep getting better and better.” He feels the Brooklyn Book Festival is the best-curated festival around due to the organization of the programming, the book publishers who work on a voluntary basis and the wide range of authors from all across the globe. “I’m hearing rumors of an author ping pong tournament,” Temple shared with the Eagle.

New York City’s largest free literary festival for the past decade has been attracting tens of thousands from around the world to engage in discussions, meet iconic authors and experience a cultured literary marketplace. Attendees of the June 16 event spoke about the festivals of the decades past and discussed their excitement for this year’s festival, which will showcase 300 writers of fiction, nonfiction, poetry and graphic novels with panels, readings and creative performances.   

Carolyn Greer, president and co-prouder of the festival, announced that “For the first time ever with the Brooklyn Book Festival, we will have an art poster, and we chose an iconic graphic designer from New York City who is blessing us with doing our first art poster ever.” Famous book cover designer Chip Kidd is set to design the poster. Although he couldn’t attend the event, there was a recorded video in which he stated, “I’m thrilled to be doing the first art poster for the Brooklyn Book Festival.” He then shared an anecdote: “In case you think I don’t have any Brooklyn creds, when I first came to the city in the fall of 1986, I started out in Williamsburg.” Everyone in the room laughed as he said, “It was quite the Wild West.” The art poster will be revealed in July.

Book business is booming in Brooklyn for independent booksellers and retailers. Just around the corner from Issue Project Room is Barnes & Noble, the only location in the Brooklyn Heights area, which is one of the booksellers for the festival. The festival creates a positive image for the beloved borough of Brooklyn, which is something people hope to continue to do. Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams said, “In historic venues across Brooklyn, festival-goers will congregate to celebrate the written word and our borough’s role in facilitating the dynamic literary culture which the festival celebrates.”

Liz Koch, vice president and co-producer, touched on how the festival is empowering for book lovers as it creates “a real spirt of celebration of reading around books.”

Every year the festival sees more authors from overseas participating in events. This year, authors are coming from countries such as Cuba, South Africa, Australia, India, France, Mexico, Egypt, Denmark and Guyana in South America. Koch explained, “We keep our friends and then add new ones each year.”

In attendance was author and bookmaker Esther K. Smith, who has been a part of the festival every year since 2008. She discussed her love for the festival. “I like everything about it; I like how all kinds of people come together.” She enjoys her own events as well, where she is able to share her bookmaking knowledge. “I show people how to make simple books and then I feel like they have the power of magic of making a book very easily after that, so I enjoy seeing that.” Smith is currently writing her sixth book for Rizzoli New York and will be doing a children’s bookmaking event at the festival this year on Children’s Day (Sept. 17.)

Kathy Daneman, a publicist for the event, predicted the festival will have a big turnout. “There’s going to be a lot of great people,” she commented.

Greer spoke about “how great it is to come together with people who think and read and enjoy this vibrant life that we celebrate with the literary festival.”

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