The Brooklyn Book Festival, NYC's largest free literary event, returns on the weekend of September 15!
The Brooklyn Book Festival Literary Council celebrated the annual launch of the Brooklyn Book Festival (BKBF) Wednesday night with the announcement of the 150-plus authors attending this year's festival, the recipient of the annual Best of Brooklyn (BoBi) Award, and the selected bookmark authors.
NYC's largest free literary event, the Brooklyn Book Festival will take place this year on the weekend of September 15, at Brooklyn Borough Hall. The festival is known for fostering dialogues among authors, presenting new literary voices, as well as established authors, and crafting unique conversations and discussions for a total of nearly 100 programs on 13 stages on Festival Day. As in previous years, a full week of "Bookend" events, literary special events held throughout the city, will lead up to the festival weekend.
These year's international roster of authors include Hector Abad (Colombia), Hernán Diaz (Argentina), Marcia Douglas (Jamaica), Akwaeke Emezi (Nigeria) Nuruddin Farah (Somalia), Lorna Goodison (Jamaica), Helon Habila (Nigeria), Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi (Uganda), Léonora Miano (Cameroon), Dunya Mikhail (Iraq), Ondjaki (Angola), Preti Taneja (India) and Dubravka Ugresic (Croatia).
The evening also included the announcement that Brooklyn author N.K. Jemisin has been named the recipient of the Brooklyn Book Festival's annual Best of Brooklyn (or BoBi) Award. The annual award is presented at the September Gala Mingle to an author whose work exemplifies or speaks to the spirit of Brooklyn. The honoree, N. K. Jemisin, is a science fiction and fantasy reviewer for The New York Times, won the Hugo Award for Best Novel for both The Obelisk Gate and The Fifth Season, which was also a New York Times Notable Book of 2015.
"I am excited to welcome back another year of the Brooklyn Book Festival, which is always a wonderful event that brings together book lovers from all across the borough," said Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams. "I congratulate N.K. Jemisin for receiving the Best of Brooklyn Award, whose works in fantasy and science fiction are breaking new ground in the literary world by tackling complex cultural themes. It is critical that we continue to empower Brooklynites of all ages with the incredibly inspirational power of reading, especially our next generation of leaders."
In addition to Jemisin, the festival is recognizing four more of Brooklyn's own—Tad Hills, Jennifer Egan, Tayari Jones and Pulitzer Price winner Gregory Pardlo—on collectible bookmarks that will be available in all Brooklyn and New York library branches and select bookstores, starting in August.
This year's art poster will be drawn by Brooklyn illustrator and cartoonist Julia Wertz, who won the 2018 Brendan Gill Prize for her most recent book, Tenements, Towers & Trash: An Unconventional, Illustrated History of New York City.
To see a complete list of participating authors and a detailed schedule of events, visit the Brooklyn Book Festival website.
