Brooklyn Book Festival coming in September

From Brooklyn Eagle

The Brooklyn Book Festival and Brooklyn Literary Council has announced its programs for this year’s Festival Day and Literary Marketplace (Sunday, Sept. 29), Children’s Day (Saturday, Sept. 28), and Virtual Festival Day (Sunday, Sept. 22).

The Festival returns from Sept. 22–30, with a lineup of international and local authors for adult and young readers. Fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and graphic novels are all represented at New York City’s largest free literary festival.

It was launched in 2006 to address the need for a major literary event that embraced the diverse constituencies of New York City. Its mission is to celebrate published literature and support the literary community through free and low-cost programs that connect New York City readers with authors, publisher and booksellers.

Festival management also announced renowned cartoonist Roz Chast as recipient of the 2024 Best of Brooklyn (BoBi) Award, to be presented at the annual award ceremony in September; and unveiled this year’s poster, designed by digital artist and illustrator Bria Benjamin.

Chast is a celebrated cartoonist and illustrator with work focusing on the mundane moments of life, from midday anxiety to parenting to the agony of waiting for the subway. She is a staff cartoonist for The New Yorker, with which she has published more than 800 cartoons. Chast is the author and illustrator of several books including “What I Hate From A to Z,” “Going Into Town: A Love Letter to New York” and “Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?”

Benjamin is a multidisciplinary artist, organizer and cultural worker. Through prose and illustration she interrogates Black culture, gender, labor, love, and the politics of all these subjects mixed together. While a Texan at heart, she currently resides in Brooklyn.

Of her poster, she says, “As a reader, writer, illustrator, life-long student of history and just overall lover of books, I was so excited to create the artwork for a festival celebrating books, readers and writers. In the artwork, I wanted to show characters who reminded me of the people I see walking around Brooklyn: those deep in a novel on the subway, pulling out a pen to save a resonating line at the cafe or at home in the sun.”

The nine-day festival kicks off with its online Virtual Festival Day (Sunday, Sept. 22), a tradition that started in response to the pandemic. It now allows the Festival to welcome authors and audiences from around the world who cannot travel for the event.

The centerpiece Festival Day (Sunday, Sept. 29) takes place in the parks and plazas surrounding Borough Hall and other ven-ues with eight stages overflowing with conversation. Authors of fiction, poetry, non-fiction, comics, graphic novels, and young adult literature come together to converse, read and sign books throughout the day.

At Children’s Day (Saturday, Sept. 28) in Brooklyn Com-mons, families enjoy a full day of readings, workshops, performances, book signings and art projects with favorite children’s and middle-grade authors and illustrators.

Among the authors taking part in Festival Day are Hala Alyan, Mateo Askaripour, Ben Austen, Diego Báez, Catherine Barnett, Clare Beams, Billy-Ray Belcourt, Marie-Helene Bertino, Olivie Blake, Jonathan Blitzer, Tara Booth, Solomon Brager, Dionne Brand, Kate Brody, Mircea Cărtărescu, Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, Vanessa Chan, K-Ming Chang, Ryan Chapman, Roz Chast, Kyle Chayka, Ava Chin, Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig, Gina Chung, Garrard Conley, Leela Corman, Jennifer Croft, DéLana, R.A. Dameron, Edwidge Danticat and dozens more.

Brooklyn Book Festival Producer Liz Koch says, “The Brooklyn Book Festival is the city’s book festival, welcoming audiences from all five boroughs. This year we have authors coming from as far away as Taiwan and Brazil, but also authors who live right down the street in Brooklyn and other boroughs. Everyone is welcome to join our free celebration of authors and books.”

Among the festival’s many supporters are the Academy of American Poets, Amazon Literary Partnership, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Brookfield Properties, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, CityPoint, Con Edison, the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, the Mayor’s Office of Media & Entertainment, Councilmember Lincoln Restler, the New York Review of Books and State Sen. Andrew Gounardes.