National Book Festival
The National Book Festival is a literary event organized every fall by the Library of Congress in Washington, DC on the National Mall since 2001 . The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMSL) is also significantly involved. The patron and co-founder was the former First Lady of the United States, Laura Bush , who already had experience through the Texas Book Festival , which she co-founded in 1995 , and since 2009 the First Lady Michelle Obama .
Themed pavilions
The festival, which is not a book fair, aims to bring readers and authors together. It is divided into theme pavilions, each sponsored by the private sector, in 2010 with the themes: Children (children's books), Fiction & Mystery, Contemporary Life, History & Biography, Poetry and Prose, Teens & Children. An exception is the poetry sector, which has been funded by the National Endowment for the Arts since 2005 .
In addition to author readings via Festival Video Webcasts and Festival Audio Podcasts, the festival also offers voting on the best American writers and poets via the Internet. In 2010 the best ten selected were:
- Diana Gabaldon
- John Grisham
- Karin Slaughter
- David Baldacci
- David McCullough
- Suzanne Collins
- Dana Stabenow
- Neil Gaiman
- Lois Bujold
- George Martin
International authors' participation
Only in the last few years have internationally controversial writers such as Salman Rushdie (2008) or Orhan Pamuk (2010) been invited in addition to the roughly 70 American authors . On September 25, 2010, the 10th Festival, Isabel Allende , Linda Sue Park , Katherine Paterson , Jane Smiley , Scott Turow and Gordon S. Wood were also represented.
Visitor numbers
The festival started in 2001 with around 30,000 visitors. In 2010 the number of visitors was around 150,000.
Web links
- Official Site (Engl.)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Website for 2010 ( Memento of the original from November 25, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved October 5, 2010.
- ^ Voting results ( Memento of August 21, 2010 in the Internet Archive ).
