Brooklyn Book Festival announces star-studded lineup for 10th anniversary
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At a lively evening event in the heart of Downtown Brooklyn on Tuesday, the Brooklyn Book Festival (BKBF) and Brooklyn Book Festival Literary Council announced the initial line-up of the first 150 national and international authors slated to take part in the 10th Anniversary BKBF — one of the nation’s largest events celebrating the written word. The festival is welcoming back AT&T as its major sponsor.
The popular weeklong September festival kicks off Sept. 14, with five weeknights of literature themed “Bookend” programs presented all over New York City. The weekend, which will start with a new BKBF Children’s Day on Sept. 19, will culminate with the flagship, fourteen-stage BKBF on Sept. 20, when 300 authors of beloved works of fiction and non-fiction (including Mona Eltahawy, Lauren Groff, Marlon James, Phil Klay, Dennis Lehane and Jon Ronson), poetry (including Nick Flynn, Saeed Jones and Tracy K. Smith), and graphic novels participate in panels, readings and other creative performances of their work.
The city’s largest free literary festival, the BKBF began as a start-up festival in 2006 presenting local authors, and has grown exponentially over ten years into one of the country’s premier international book festivals, drawing tens of thousands each year to the global creative capital of Brooklyn.
“A decade in, the Brooklyn Book Festival has transformed the literary landscape of New York City in ways that we never imagined at the outset,” said Johnny Temple, publisher of Akashic Books and chair of the Brooklyn Literary Council. “What started as a homegrown affair with a local flavor has blossomed into one of the world’s most prestigious international gatherings of writers and book lovers.”