Tens of Thousands Join 2023 Library of Congress National Book Festival
Videos of Festival Presentations to Launch Online Soon; 2024 Festival Announced for Aug. 24, 2024, at Washington Convention Center
Tens of thousands of book lovers joined the Library of Congress National Book Festival in person on Aug. 12 at the Washington Convention Center, including capacity crowds on numerous stages. Videos of select stages are now available, and individual presentations will be made available on demand on the festival’s website beginning the week of Aug. 21.
This year’s festival theme, “Everyone Has a Story,” celebrates the storyteller in us all. Presentations on two stages were livestreamed for audiences beyond the festival walls and are available on the Library’s YouTube channel, along with coverage by C-SPAN’s Book TV and PBS Books. Videos now available include:
- The Creativity Stage, the festival’s largest venue, featuring conversations with R.J. Palacio and Erica S. Perl, David Grann, TJ Klune, Beverly Gage and James Kirchick, Elliot Page, and Mary Louise Kelly.
- The Inspiration Stage featuring conversations with Amor Towles, Tananarive Due and Grady Hendrix, Matthew Desmond, Chasten Buttigieg, Camille T. Dungy and Joy Harjo, Esmeralda Santiago and Luis Alberto Urrea, Siddhartha Mukherjee, and George Saunders.
- C-SPAN’s Book TV provided live coverage of the festival and features author interviews now available online.
- PBS Books and PBS stations across the country is hosting 10 virtual talks with National Book Festival authors.
At this year’s festival, Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden announced the 2024 Library of Congress National Book Festival will be held Aug. 24, 2024, and will return to the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.
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-Chair David M. Rubenstein. Sponsors include: Institute of Museum and Library Services, The Washington Post, General Motors, James Madison Council, National Endowment for the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Humanities; additional support provided by the CoStar Group, the John W. Kluge Center, the For The People Fund, with seed funding provided by the Ford Foundation, Friends of the Library of Congress, The Hay-Adams, Library of Congress Federal Credit Union and Sharjah Book Authority.
Media partners of the National Book Festival include C-SPAN2’s Book TV, NPR, El Tiempo Latino and the Washington Nationals.
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.
###
Media Contacts: Brett Zongker, bzongker@loc.gov | Leah Knobel, lknobel@loc.gov
Press Photos: newsroom.loc.gov
Website: loc.gov/bookfest
PR 23-072
08-17-2023
ISSN 0731-3527