Does the smell of a new book make you happy? Grab your favorite public radio tote bag and join NPR journalists at the 17th annual Library of Congress National Book Festival on Saturday, September 2, 2017. More than 100 authors, illustrators and poets will be gathered at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center that weekend for a full day of Q&A sessions, special programs and family friendly activities. NPR hosts and journalists will lead book chats with writers in a wide range of genres and topics.
Additional details are available in the National Book Festival App (available in iOS and Android), where you can build your own custom, public radio-infused itinerary.
Learn more below about the writers and authors NPR journalists will be interviewing throughout the day made just for bibliophiles. The following entries are listed in chronological order.
Thomas Oliphant, Kathy McKeon and Steven Levingston with NPR's Mary Louise Kelly
10-10:45AM
Mary Louise Kelly sits down with a trio of writers each with their own works chronicling aspects of JFK's legacy. Thomas Oliphant was a Washington reporter and columnist for The Boston Globe. He has recently published "The Road to Camelot: Inside JFK's Five-Year Campaign" (Simon & Schuster), about President Kennedy's rise to the White House and how close he came to losing the election. Kathy McKeon spent 13 years as Jacqueline Kennedy's personal assistant and occasional nanny. Her book, "Jackie's Girl: My Life with the Kennedy Family" (Gallery), provides personal insight on one of the most famous people of the 20th century. The author of the book "Kennedy and King: The President, the Pastor and the Battle over Civil Rights" (Hachette) is Steven Levingston, who is the nonfiction editor of The Washington Post. His new book is about the contentious relationship between John Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights era.
Don Winslow with NPR's Maureen Corrigan
10-10:45AM
Don Winslow is a best-selling author of crime and mystery who has written 20 novels and numerous short stories. His latest book, "The Force" (William Morrow), is about a corrupt NYPD detective sergeant and comes from years of research within the NYPD.
Ernest Gaines with NPR's Michel Martin
11-11:45AM
Ernest Gaines is an award-winning author from Louisiana whose books have sold more than 4 million copies. His new novella, "The Tragedy of Brady Sims" (Knopf), tells a story of a man who shoots his own son in a courtroom in a small Louisiana town during the Great Migration.
Siddhartha Mukherjee with NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro
11-11:45AM
Siddhartha Mukherjee is a cancer physician and researcher. His latest book, "The Gene: An Intimate History" (Scribner), is a best-selling history of the human study of the gene.
Hari Kunzru and Katie Kitamura with NPR's Petra Mayer
11:15AM-12PM
London-born Hari Kunzru is the author of five novels. His newest work is "White Tears" (Knopf), about music, male friendship and race. Katie Kitamura is a Japanese-American writer who was born in California. Her most recent work is "A Separation" (Riverhead).
Margot Lee Shetterly with NPR's Eric Deggans
12-12:45PM
While growing up in Hampton, Virigina, Margot Lee Shetterly came to know many of the women who worked there with her father, who was a research assistant. These women included those who would later become the subject of her best-selling debut book, "Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race" (William Morrow), which was adapted into a critically acclaimed motion picture.
Alice McDermott with NPR's Lynn Neary
12:10-12:55PM
Writer and university professor Alice McDermott won the National Book Award for her 1998 novel, "Charming Billy." Her latest novel, "The Ninth Hour" (Farrar, Straus & Giroux), is set in early 20th century Brooklyn.
Megan Abbott with NPR's Elizabeth Blair
2:35-3:20
Megan Abbott is an award-winning crime fiction novelist. Her most recent novel, "You Will Know Me" (Black Bay), is a murder mystery involving teenaged gymnasts with Olympic ambitions.
Juan Gabriel Vásquez with NPR's Scott Simon
4-4:45PM
Juan Gabriel Vásquez is the author of the best-selling "The Sound of Things Falling" as well as the award-winning "The Informers" and "The Secret History of Costaguana." His most recent book is "Reputations" (Riverhead).
Roxane Gay with NPR's Linda Holmes
4-4:45PM
Professor and writer Roxane Gay is best known for her feminist works, such as "Bad Feminist." Gay's latest collection of stories is "Difficult Women" (Grove) and her most recent book is "Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body" (HarperCollins).
Michael Eric Dyson and Ibram X. Kendi with NPR's Steve Inskeep
5:50-6:35PM
Michael Eric Dyson is a professor of sociology at Georgetown University, an ordained minister, a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times and a contributing editor for The New Republic and ESPN's "The Undefeated." His most recent book, "Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America" (St. Martin's), expands upon his July 2016 New York Times op-ed on whiteness in America and the grief and rage that engulfed black America after the police killings of black Americans. Ibram X. Kendi is an award-winning historian, a best-selling author, a professor of history and international relations and the founding director of the Anti-Racist Research and Policy Center at American University. His best-selling book, "Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America" (Nation), was the winner of the 2016 National Book Award for nonfiction.
John A. Farrell with NPR's Ron Elving
6:45-7:30PM
John A. Farrell has served as a congressional correspondent for National Journal magazine and has also worked for The Denver Post and The Boston Globe. Farrell's latest biography is "Richard Nixon: The Life" (Doubleday).
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