Attention readers! The 2022 Library of Congress National Book Festivalreturns to the Walter E. Washington Convention Center on Saturday, Sept. 3. This year's theme is 'Books Bring us Together'.
NPR's Eric Deggans, Neda Ulaby, B.A. Parker, Sidney Madden, and Danielle Kurtzleben will be in conversation with a slate of beloved authors. Several of the programs will be livestreamed, and all of the discussions will be available on video after the Festival.
Follow the National Book Festival blog for updates.
Live Festival Events
Free and open to the public
9:30-10:15am ET, Ballroom B (Level 3, South Building), available via livestream on loc.gov or afterward in the Library's Event Videos collection
NPR TV Critic Eric Deggans moderates "How Racism Happens with Robert Samuels and Linda Villarosa"
What is systemic racism? In "Under the Skin," Linda Villarosa exposes forces in our healthcare system that cause Black people to "live sicker and die quicker." In "His Name is George Floyd," Robert Samuels draws upon hundreds of interviews to illustrate how inequalities in housing, education, health care, criminal justice, and policing affected Floyd's life and legacy.
11:05-11:50am ET, Ballroom C (Level 3, South Building), available afterward in the Library's Event Videos collection
NPR Arts Desk Reporter Neda Ulaby moderates "The Pioneers: Women Leaders of the Civil Rights Movement with Tomiko Brown-Nagin and Kate Clifford Larson"
Constance Baker Motley and Fannie Lou Hamer were two crucial figures in the civil rights movement. Tomiko Brown-Nagin's book "Civil Rights Queen" tells Motley's story as an activist lawyer who became the first Black woman appointed to the federal judiciary. Larson's book "Walk with Me" covers the life of Hamer, containing new interviews and materials about her life.
1:45-2:45pm ET, West Salon GHI (Street Level, South Building), available afterward in the Library's Event Videos collection
Code Switch host B.A. Parker moderates "Come Into My World: Vivid Places and People in Fiction with Tochi Onyebuchi and Leslye Penelope"
Sometimes the characters and places in a novel can feel more vivid, more real than our everyday realities. Tochi Onyebuchi's sci-fi novel "Goliath," set in the 2050s, imagines what happens as the wealthy have fled Earth for space colonies. In Leslye Penelope's fantasy "The Monsters We Defy," it's 1925 in Washington, D.C. — and Clara Johnson must ensure her community doesn't disappear.
4:55-5:40pm ET, East Salon ABC (Street Level, South Building), available afterward in the Library's Event Videos collection
NPR Political Correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben moderates a conversation with Rebecca Miller on her new story collection, "Total"
Rebecca Miller returns to short fiction for the first time since her prodigious collection of stories, "Personal Velocity," with the arresting, darkly prescient "Total." Each of the seven stories in "Total" is a world of its own, painted with vivid strokes, whose people and questions stay with the reader long after the story has ended.
5:30-6:20pm ET, Ballroom C (Level 3, South Building), available afterward in the Library's Event Videos collection
Louder than a Riot host and NPR music reporter Sidney Madden moderates "Shine Bright: A Very Personal History of Black Women in Pop with Danyel Smith"
With a career in media and journalism spanning nearly three decades, Danyel Smith — host of the music podcast Black Girl Songbook — masterfully chronicles formerly unrecognized stories of Black women who shaped America's music scene.
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