Thousands of bookworms packed Borough Hall on Sunday, September 22 for the eighth annual Brooklyn Book Festival.
The day culminated a week of events, featuring the borough’s best loved authors and illustrators from all over the world in the borough that Borough President Marty Markowitz dubbed “the literary capital of the world with more writers per square inch than anywhere in America.”
This year’s Best of Brooklyn award (BoBi) went to Lois Lowry, beloved writer of children’s novels Number the Stars and The Giver.
“We are so proud to add Lois Lowry to the prestigious list of BoBi winners, which includes Edwidge Danticat, Pete Hamill, Jhumpa Lahiri, Walter Mosley, John Ashbery and Paul Auster,” said Johnny Temple, chair of the Brooklyn Literary Council. “Lowry is our first winner whose books are primarily geared toward young adults, and she combines so well with our other 2013 bookmark honorees Sapphire, Nick Flynn, the late great Harvey Shapiro, and Adrian Tomine to beautifully represent Brooklyn’s literary legacy.”
This year, the Brooklyn Book Festival teamed up with AT&T, which provided eight charging stations on Sunday and created an app so attendees could better plan their day. The app also allowed those who attended to vote for their “Fan Fave,” or favorite author. When tallied, the top three winners will receive a cash prize to be donated to a charity of their choice.
One of the festival’s spectacles was Kita St. Cur, stunningly dressed as a flapper representing the Dorothy Parker Society. That table was presenting books by Kevin C. Fitzpatrick, including Under the Table: A Dorothy Parker Cocktail Guide, and The Gin Lovers, by Jamie Brenner.
“The Gin Lovers is a series of burlesque stories and love triangles,” St. Cur explained. “Under the Table has prohibition-era cocktail recipes.”
Also enjoying the early autumn weather were the Katz-Rosenblatt family who came all the way from Queens. Four-year-old Jenna had a “fantastic” time getting one of her favorite books signed by the illustrator.
For more information on the festival, visit www.BrooklynBookFestival.org.
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