September 13th 2009!!! Marking my calendar. Anybody else planning to attend? Have you gone in past years? Any info to offer about the festival for first timers?
The Brooklyn Book Festival is a huge, free public event presenting an array of literary stars and emerging authors who represent the exciting world of literature today. One of America’s premier literary and literacy events, this hip, smart, diverse gathering attracts thousands of book lovers of all ages. The festival is organized around themed readings and devoted to timely and lively panel discussions. The inclusion of top national and international authors and new partners has expanded the festival’s reach while continuing to celebrate and enhance Brooklyn’s contemporary and historic literary reputation.
Brooklyn Borough President's Literary Council
Brooklyn Borough President, Marty Markowitz, Honorary Chair
Johnny Temple, Akashic Books, Council Chair
Carolyn Greer, Executive Director, Best of Brooklyn, Inc.
Director, Public Events, Special Projects & Tourism,
Office of the Brooklyn Borough President
Liz Koch, Arts and Culture Specialist,Office of the Brooklyn Borough President
Brooklyn Book Festival 2008 Programming
Fiction Johnny Temple, Chair
Non-Fiction Emily Takoudes, Chair
Poetry Mary Gannon, Chair
Youth Jennifer Carlson, Chair
Members
Harold Augenbraum - National Book Foundation
Stacey Barney - Putnam Book for Young Readers
Jennifer Carlson - Dunow, Carlson & Lerner Literary Agency
Colin Channer - Calabash Literary Festival
Eric Demby - The Brownstoner's Brooklyn Flea
Adriana Dominguez - Consultant
Mary Gannon - Poets & Writers Magazine
Brenda Greene - Center for Black Literature at Medgar Evers College
Theodore Hamm - The Brooklyn Rail
Andrea Jeyaveeran - Center for the Humanities at the Graduate Center, CUNY
Jay Kaplan - Brooklyn Public Library
Marcela Landres - Publisher, Latinidad
Jeffrey Lependorf - Council of Literary Magazines and Presses
Winfrida Mbewe - W.W. Norton & Company
Patricia Mulcahy - Tillie’s Café, Brooklyn Books
Greg Polvere - Global Talent Associates
Peter Rothberg - The Nation
Paul Slovak - Viking-Penguin
Rob Spillman - Tin House Press
Emily Takoudes - Ecco
Kate Travers - Literary Ventures Fund
Brooklyn Book Festival Honorary Committee
Paul Auster - author, Smoke, Mr Vertigo, Timbuktu, New York Trilogy, Book of Illusions.
Kyle Baker - graphic novelist, Nat Turner, King David, Why I Hate Saturn
Edwidge Danticat - author, The Dew Breaker, Vale of Tears: A Novel From Haiti
Jennifer Egan - author, Look at Me, The Invisible Circus, The Keep
Dave Eggers - author, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius; founder, McSweeney's
Jonathan Safran Foer - author, Everything is Illuminated, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Pete Hamill - author, The Gift, Downtown: My Manhattan, The Guns of Heaven
Siri Hustvedt - author, What I Loved, The Enchantment of Lily Dahl
Nicole Krauss - author, The History of Love
Jhumpa Lahiri - author, The Namesake, Interpreter of Maladies
Spike Lee - filmmaker, Inside Man, Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X, Bamboozled
Jonathan Lethem - author, The Fortress of Solitude, Motherless Brooklyn, Girl in Landscape
Rick Moody - author, Demonology, Purple America, The Ice Storm, Garden State
Rosie Perez - actress, Do the Right Thing, White Men Can't Jump, Fearless
Carl Hancock Rux - author, playwright, Asphalt, Talk
Maurice Sendak - author, Where the Wild Things Are; In the Night Kitchen
Russell Simmons - activist and entertainment mogul; founder, Def Jam, Hip Hop Action Summit
Colson Whitehead - author, The Intuitionist, John Henry Days, Apex Hides the Hurt
Festival Information
Directions:
By car from Manhattan: Coming over the Brooklyn Bridge, stay straight on Adams Street. Turn right on Joralemon Street.
By car from New Jersey and Staten Island: Verrazano Bridge to 278West. Take Exit 27/Atlantic Avenue and turn onto Atlantic Avenue. Turn left on Boerum Place. Turn left on Joralemon Street.
Public Transportation: 2, 3, 4, 5 to Borough Hall; R to Court Street; A, C, F to Jay Street/Borough Hall
For the latest information about subway service visit www.mta.info
Where to Stay and Eat:
For information about restaurants and accommodations in Brooklyn go to the borough’s official tourism website www.visitbrooklyn.org
