The Brooklyn Book Festival is one of America’s premier literary and literacy events—a hip, smart, diverse gathering attracting 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.

Participating authors included Joan Didion, Richard Price, Jonathan Lethem, Dorothy Allison, Russell Banks, A.M. Homes, George Pelecanos, Terry McMillan, Jonathan Franzen, Susan Choi, Esmeralda Santiago, Thurston Moore, Paul Beatty, Jacqueline Woodson, Chuck Klosterman, Jimmy Breslin, Pete Hamill, Ed Park, Pico Iyer, Gail Carson Levine, Cecily von Ziegesar, Chris Myers, Jane O’Connor, Jon Scieszka, Mo Willems and many more.

The 2008 Brooklyn Book Festival Best of Brooklyn Inc. (BoBi) award recipient was Brooklynite Walter Mosley, one of the most versatile and admired writers in America today. Widely recognized for his crime and detective fiction, he is the author of more than 29 books, including his bestselling series featuring the hard-boiled detective, Easy Rawlins. His work has been translated into 21 languages and includes literary fiction, science fiction, political monographs, and a young adult novel.

“These days, Brooklyn is indeed the Creative Capital of America. We’re home to many of the world’s renowned writers and a thriving reading audience—as well as a destination for culture-seeking tourists worldwide,” says BP Markowitz. “The Brooklyn Book Festival is as diverse as our borough itself, and it’s only fitting that it’s now become a must on the national and international literary circuit. How sweet it is!”

The Festival boasted five outdoor stages in Borough Hall Plaza and Columbus Park, as well as “Reading Rooms” inside beautiful, historic Borough Hall and nearby at the Brooklyn Historical Society and St. Francis College auditorium. An outdoor literary marketplace included more than 150 booksellers, publishers and literary organizations.

Young adults and young adults at heart were in for a special treat. The Brooklyn Book Festival catered to the facebook set with hip panels on topics from graphic novels to fantasy and wildly popular teen “glamour fiction” at the “Youth Stoop” stage. Children of all ages were also entertained at the Target “Children’s Area,” where kingpins of children’s lit, such as Mo Willems and Jane O’Connor, read from their work.

Again this year, beautiful, collectable Brooklyn Book Festival bookmarks were available at all branches of the Brooklyn Public Library and most independent bookstores.

The 2008 Brooklyn Book Festival is an initiative of Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz presented by Brooklyn Tourism and the Brooklyn Literary Council. Target was a major sponsor of this year’s Festival, and Time Out New York once again served as the event’s media sponsor, and WNYC was the radio sponsor.

Cultural partners included BAM, Brooklyn Historical Society, Brooklyn Public Library, Housing Works Bookstore Café, PEN American Center, National Book Foundation, and Words Without Borders. Programming partners are The Nation and The New York Review of Books.

2008 Press Coverage

The New York Times, by Monica Drake, September 12, 2008. Around Town: Brooklyn Book Festival. “Tucked within the list of events planned for the more than 140 authors appearing at this Sunday’s book festival is a little reading called “Brooklyn’s Own,” featuring three authors who call the borough home. It is a testament to the vitality of the Brooklyn literary scene that the reading is not the signature event of the day. The festival is not just a breeding ground for local authors, it has also become a destination for those who arrive via plane rather than subway. And that’s no accident. “There are authors all over the world that reflect the ethnic background of New York City,” said Borough President Marty Markowitz, who organizes the annual festival. “We always say Brooklyn is home to everyone from everywhere.” In the heart of the festival is a stage devoted to international themes, featuring authors from Cameroon (Patrice Nganang) to Norway (Linn Ullmann) as well as Brooklyn-based talents like Adrian Tomine and John Wray, who found their literary voice abroad. But even writers who are not from far-flung places are placed outside their comfort zones. Joan Didion leaves grief behind to talk politics, and Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth appears not as a musician but as a participant in a thoughtful discussion with the hard-core punk rocker Ian MacKaye about independent music and independent publishing. And A. M. Homes shares the stage with Richard Price to talk about writing for television. In truth, though, all writers are forced to be foreigners even on their home turf, using an outsider’s view to newly examine what seems familiar. So whether authors are from Flatbush or Stockholm, the chance to meet them and talk about their craft will make you want to buy a souvenir from your excursion. It may as well be a book. (10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Borough Hall Plaza and nearby Brooklyn Heights locations, 718-802-3852, brooklynbookfestival.org; free.)

The New York Times, by Julie Bloom, August 19, 2008. Arts, Briefly; Footnotes. “Joan Didion, Richard Price, Terry McMillan and many more literary stars are scheduled to appear at the Brooklyn Book Festival on Sept. 14. The free event will also feature Jonathan Lethem, Dorothy Allison, Russell Banks, A. M. Homes, George Pelecanos, Jonathan Franzen, Susan Choi, Esmeralda Santiago and Chuck Klosterman.”

USA Today, August 28, 2008. Literary Festivals Are in the Air This Fall. “Fall is the busiest season for literary festivals where writers meet readers and vice versa. Many are free and include events for readers of all ages. Coast-to-coast highlights: New York: Brooklyn Book Festival, Borough Hall Plaza, Sept. 14, with Terry McMillan, Richard Price, Joan Didion and George Pelecanos. Visitbrooklyn.org.”

Los Angeles Times, September 11, 2008. Book News. “The Brooklyn Book Festival will be the center of the literary universe this Sunday, Sept. 14: Joan Didion, Richard Price, Jonathan Lethem, Dorothy Allison, Russell Banks, A.M. Homes, George Pelecanos, Terry McMillan, Jonathan Franzen, Susan Choi, Esmeralda Santiago, Thurston Moore, Paul Beatty, Jacqueline Woodson, Chuck Klosterman, Jimmy Breslin, Pete Hamill, Nikki Turner, Elizabeth Nunez, Ed Park, Pico Iyer, Gail Carson Levine, Cecily von Ziegesar, Chris Myers, Jane O’Connor, Jon Scieszka and Mo Willems are among the authors scheduled to appear. Why would any reader be anywhere else?”

WB11 Morning Show, September 12, 2008. Brooklyn To Be A Literary Mecca On Sunday



Friend of the show Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz stopped by to tell us about an upcoming literary festival.

Authors from around the world and down the hall are converging on Brooklyn this Sunday for the Anuual Brooklyn Book Festival 2008. It's all happening from 10am to 6pm at Borough Hall Plaza (209 Joralemon Street, Brooklyn).

New York Daily News, by Joyce Shelby, September 9, 2008. 140 Authors Expected at Annual Brooklyn Book Festival. “In a world where e-books are being read on iPhones, and novels are downloaded to laptops, is there still room for those ancient volumes made of paper and held together with thread or glue? You know, the ones called hardcovers and paperbacks. You betcha! You’ll find proof positive at Borough Hall on Sunday, when the 2008 Brooklyn Book Festival gets underway. More than 150 vendors will be there selling books. And 140 authors will be on hand to talk about everything from politics and social change to spicy fiction.”

New York Daily News, by Joyce Shelby, September 9, 2008. New Poet Eric Watts Opens ‘Cellar Door’ of His Past. “If ever there was a young Brooklyn author who has learned how to make lemonade from life’s lemons, it’s likely to be Eric Watts. The 31-year-old poet will be a vendor at Sunday’s Brooklyn Book Festival. His “Cellar Door: Volume One Secrets,” was released in February by iUniverse-Indigo books, a supported self-publishing company.”

The Village Voice, September 3, 2008. Thurston Moore, Ian MacKaye, Jonathan Lethem Head Up Brooklyn Book Festival. “Hard to figure out who’s missing from the Brooklyn Book Festival’s superlative lineup—Pynchon? DeLillo? The event, which takes place over the improbable course of one day—Sunday, September 14—around Brooklyn's Borough Hall, is if nothing else a humiliatingly accurate diagnosis of the neighborhood’s literary tastes: Thurston Moore and Ian MacKaye discussing the “parallel worlds of independent music and book publishing”; local geographer Jonathan Lethem reading fiction with George Pelecanos; Richard Price, rounding out the ex-Wire-writer group, teaming with A.M. Holmes to talk about going the F. Scott Fitzgerald route and writing for the screen. Joan Didion is there, talking politics no less, representing the New York Review of Books on a panel about the next administration (is she for Obama, hopefully?). Local fiction writers Rivka Galchen and Ed Park (who's already threatening to tell some sort of first-name–based joke, given that he’s on a panel with both Chuck—ne Charles—Klosterman and Charles Bock) prove someone over there is still reading books in 2008. Top-shelf dudes Jonathan Franzen and Russell Banks provide gravitas; Jimmy Breslin and John Manbeck hold it down for old New York.”

The Village Voice, by Angela Ashman, September 8, 2008. Read Here Often? The Perfect Place to Meet that Special Bibliophile. “Date/Time: Sun., September 14, 10:00am. Price: free. Forget Match.com—if you’re a proud bookworm (or simply want to date one), the long lines to get into the many scintillating panel discussions at the Brooklyn Book Festival are full of romantic potential (“Who’s your optometrist, baby?”). And with nearly 20,000 people expected to attend, the odds are definitely in your favor. Want a soulmate with a sense of humor? Try the “Writing Funny: Humor Writers on the Not-So-Funny Craft of Writing for Laughs” panel, with humorist Simon Rich and moderator Ben Greenman of The New Yorker at noon. Looking for someone with a DIY attitude? Meet him or her at the Ian MacKaye and Thurston Moore conversation at 3 p.m. Need someone to hide under the covers with should McCain get elected? Check out “The Consequences to Come,” a discussion on the challenges and opportunities facing our next president with New York Review of Books contributors Joan Didion, Mark Danner, Ronald Dworkin, and Darryl Pinckney at 5 p.m. Other panels include the likes of Naomi Wolf, A.M. Homes, Joseph O’Neill, Adrian Tomine, and Rivka Galchen. And with vendors selling books and food throughout the day, if you don’t find that special someone, at least you won’t go home empty-handed.”

The Village Voice, by Matthew Shaer, September 10, 2008. Youse Got Literature at the Brooklyn Book Festival: Back for its Third Year, the Ever-growing Book Fest Aims for Some International Flair. “On September 14, if the weather is good, the novelist John Wray (The Right Hand of Sleep and the forthcoming Lowboy) will pilot his shiny new BMX bike (“you know, like the kids have”) north from his Prospect Park home, across the avenues of Park Slope, and straight downhill toward Brooklyn’s Borough Hall. “I don't know what kind of entrance any of the other authors are planning, but for me, the whole thing feels like a big, international block party,” he laughs. “And I want to do it right.” Like a sizable chunk of the native population, Wray has his sights set on Sunday’s Brooklyn Book Festival, that annual celebration of local literary life, now coasting into its third and biggest year. “I know the Brooklyn pride thing is a little played out,”says Wray, who’s slated to discuss graphic novels with his friend, the Brooklyn artist and writer Adrian Tomine. “But the festival has outgrown that concept in a lot of ways. It’s no longer so provincial.” Three years in, the Brooklyn Book Festival is still a rigorously local event. Big names like Jonathan Lethem and Colson Whitehead dot the 140-plus author lineup; there are discussions like “Brooklyn’s Place in History” and “Close-Up Brooklyn.” But organizers say that the success of the first two festivals has given them an opportunity to expand the scope of the third—to make it, in the words of Carolyn Greer of the borough president’s office, a “destination” event.”

Time Out New York, by Michael Wilson. September 11-17, 2008. Borough Without Borders: The Brooklyn Book Festival Continues to Evolve. “The organizers of the Brooklyn Book Festival have always cast a broad geographical net when selecting authors to participate, but when they put together the first event in 2005, it made sense to draw on the borough’s strong literary presence. Spearheaded by the office of Borough President Marty Markowitz, the all-day event featured roundtables and readings by eminent locals such as Colson Whitehead, Jonathan Lethem and Paula Fox. “A lot of the ingredients our first year were homegrown,” Carolyn Greer, Brooklyn’s director of public events, tells TONY at her office at Borough Hall. “Any time you do something new, you almost always rely on your friends, and that year they all came out for us.” Although the first and second Brooklyn Book Festivals turned out to be world-class literary happenings, the dynamic schedule for the third installment, which takes place Sunday 14, reveals that the programmers aren’t resting on their laurels. There’s still local flavor, and the roster includes scribes who won’t have to cross any rivers to get to Borough Hall (Lethem, Susan Choi, Kathryn Harrison). But with a new stage devoted to international topics—which will feature writers such as Paco I. Taibo from Mexico, Linn Ullman from Norway, Jose Eduardo Agualusa from Angola—the BBF is clearly realizing its goal of becoming as diverse as the area where it takes place. “The festival represents what Brooklyn is,” says Liz Koch, another organizer. “We have a huge international community, and our programming is responding to that.” Despite its brand name, the event is now so far-reaching that it could just as easily be called the New York Book Festival. It’s also a must-see for anyone who’s remotely interested in books and knows how to take the subway (or lives close enough to walk).”

Time Out New York, by John Sellers, September 11-17, 2008. The Hot Seat: Chuck Klosterman. “Chuck Klosterman grew a beard a few years ago and his world will never be the same. “I listen to the Grateful Dead now,” he says. “I guess I just relate to it more. You grow a beard and things change.” The uptick in facial hair might also explain why, after four highly personal books about pop culture, the 36-year-old decided to take a stab at writing fiction; his debut novel, Downtown Owl, follows three verbose characters in rural North Dakota in 1983. We spoke to Klosterman shortly after he’d returned from a five-month professorial stint at the University of Leipzig. Downtown Owl is out Tue 16; Klosterman reads Sun 14 (Brooklyn Book Festival) and Tue 16.”

Time Out New York. Books: Brooklyn Book Festival. “Tickets: Free. There are so many literary notables attending this event that we wouldn’t be surprised if Faulkner’s zombie showed up and read from Light in August. Confirmed attendees include Joan Didion, Colson Whitehead and Jonathan Lethem. The list, though, goes on for miles. When: Sun 10am.”

New York Magazine, by Alexandra Zissu. Brooklyn Book Festival. “September is festival season. First up, the literary mecca of the Brooklyn Book Festival. There will be five outdoor stages on the Plaza and Columbus Park, plus indoor spots at Borough Hall, the Brooklyn Historical Society, and St. Francis College. Catch readings with all-star kids’ authors like Jon Scieszka, Mo Willems, Gail Carson Levine, Chris Raschka, and Jane O’Connor. Then go home and read.”

The New Yorker, September 15, 2008. Readings and Talks: Brooklyn Book Festival. “Joan Didion, Richard Price, Russell Banks, Dorothy Allison, and many others are expected to take part in readings and discussions in and around Borough Hall. Some hundred and fifty booksellers and publishers, who will offer their wares, will also be on hand. (Sept. 14, from 10 to 6. For more information, visit www.brooklynbookfestival.org.)”

Brooklyn Daily Eagle, August 20, 2008. Brooklyn Book Festival Coming to Borough Hall. “On Sunday, September 14, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, the Brooklyn Literary Council and Brooklyn Tourism will host the annual Brooklyn Book Festival, a huge, free event presenting an array of literary stars and emerging authors who represent the world of literature today. The Brooklyn Book Festival is one of America’s premier literary and literacy events, attracting thousands of book lovers of all ages. The festival is organized around themed readings and is devoted to timely and lively panel discussions. The inclusion of top national and international authors has expanded the festival’s reach while continuing to celebrate and enhance Brooklyn’s contemporary and historic literary reputation.”

Brooklyn Daily Eagle, August 29, 2008. Howe’s Brooklyn: Brooklyn’s Extraordinary Writer Of Things Historical Publishes Two Odes to Beloved Borough. “When your knowledge of a subject is so prodigious that you can expound extemporaneously for hours, there is probably a book in there somewhere. Such is the case of former borough historian John Manbeck, a professor, an activist in public television and, of course, a writer with many books and articles to his credit. What Brooklynites should know is that Professor Manbeck has just finished two (yes, two) books about his beloved Brooklyn. They will be two of the many highlights of the upcoming Brooklyn Book Festival, on Sept. 14.”

Gowanus Lounge Blog, August 23, 2008. Brooklyn Book Festival is Coming. “Wow. It’s only a few weeks until the Brooklyn Book Festival comes around again. This year’s event is scheduled on Sunday, September 14 from 10AM-6PM. It will take place at Borough Hall.”

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Brooklyn Book Festival 2007 Press Room