The Brooklyn Book Festival announced the list of writers participating in this year’s festival, which includes cartoonist Roz Chast as recipient of the 2024 Best of Brooklyn (BoBi) Award.
The nine day festival kicks off with its online Virtual Festival Day on September 22, a tradition that started in response to the pandemic, but now allows the Festival to welcome authors and audiences from around the world who cannot travel for the event, according to a news release.
The centerpiece Festival Day on September 29 takes place in the parks and plazas surrounding Downtown Brooklyn’s Borough Hall and other venues with eight stages. Diverse authors of fiction, poetry, non-fiction, comics, graphic novels and young adult literature come together to converse, read and sign books throughout the day.
Hundreds of authors — from emerging voices to iconic writers — convene for the event. As Brooklyn Book Festival often pairs young and debut authors with legends, Festival Day is an opportunity for audiences to think through some of today’s most urgent and complex issues, be uplifted and entertained by their favorite authors and discover new favorites.
Festival Day also stages the largest book market in the Northeast. This year the Brooklyn Book Festival’s vibrant Literary Marketplace with 220 publishers offers readers the possibility to discover new authors, independent publishers and literary organizations in hundreds of tents set up in Columbus Park and Borough Hall Plaza, the press release said.
At Children’s Day on September 28 in Brooklyn Commons, families enjoy a full day of readings, workshops, performances, book signings and art projects with favorite children’s and middle-grade authors and illustrators.
"The Brooklyn Book Festival is the city’s book festival, welcoming audiences from all five boroughs," said Brooklyn Book Festival Producer Liz Koch. "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.”
BoBi Award
The BoBi Award, presented each year to an author from Brooklyn whose work best exemplifies or speaks to the spirit of Brooklyn, will go to New Yorker cartoonist and author Roz Chast.
Roz 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 over 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?, the winner of the inaugural Kirkus Prize and a finalist for the National Book Award in Non-Fiction. Chast has received numerous honors and accolades, including the National Cartoon Society’s Reuben Award, the Heinz Award for her lifelong work and induction into the Society of Illustrator’s Hall of Fame.
The full list of authors participating in Children’s Day, Festival Day, and/or Virtual Festival Day includes:
Virtual Festival Day Authors (September 22)
Kevin Barry / Chelsea Bieker / Christina Cooke / Lexi Freiman / Marcela Fuentes / Bhanu Kapil / Attica Locke / Sean Michaels / Julia Phillips / Kiley Reid
Children’s Day Authors (September 28)
Denise Rosario Adusei / Tracey Baptiste / Cece Bell / Alex Boniello / Hilda Eunice Burgos / Jorge Cham / Ruth Chan / Lian Cho / Rebecca Donnelly / Maris Pasquale Doran / Stacy Ebert / C.G. Esperanza / Gale Galligan / Tatiana Gardel / Raj Haldar / John Hendrix / Bess Kalb / Julie Kwon / April Lavalle / Lian-En Lin / Jason Logan / Carlos Matias / Cat Min / George O’Connor / Dave Roman / Aimee Sicuro / R.L. Stine / Sarvenaz Tash / Gabriel Valentin / Booki Vivat / Steven Weinberg / Brian Yanish / Deeba Zargarpur
Festival Day Authors (September 29)
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 / Armen Davoudian / Timothy Donnelly / Akwaeke Emezi / Álvaro Enrigue / Glynnis Fawkes / Alexene Farol Follmuth / Liana Finck / Nick Flynn / Tanisha Ford / Temim Fruchter / Christi Furnas / Kay Gabriel/ Camille Gomera-Tavarez / Chloe Gong / Rigoberto González / Lorna Goodison / Danny Goodman / Thomas Grattan / Jas Hammonds / Terrance Hayes / Marie Howe / Jordan Ifueko / Melissa Jacoby / Tania James / Kristopher Jansma / Barbara Jenkins / Frederick Joseph / Jonell Joshua / Chris Knapp / Lisa Ko / Gabrielle Korn / Amitava Kumar / Hari Kunzru / K’wan / R.O. Kwon / Claire Legrand / Kelly Link / Carlos Lozada / Jon Macy / Allyson McCabe / John Vasquez Mejias / Clyo Mendoza / Iman Mersal / Luke Messac / Petra Molnar / Yesenia Montilla / Lorrie Moore / Russell Muirhead / Samhita Mukhopadhyay / Jonah Newman / Diana Khoi Nguyen / Urayoán Noel / Hamilton Nolan / Ali Novak / Emily Nussbaum / Julie Otsuka / Chrystin Ondersma / Tracy O'Neill / Ed Park / Deborah Paredez / Daniel Saldaña Paris / George Pelecanos / Ross Perlin / Helen Phillips / Megan Pinto / Jive Poetic / Regina Porter / Ann Powers / Vijay Raghavan / Margaret Ray / Ava Reid / Devika Rege / Djamila Ribeiro / Ari Richter / Farah Naz Rishi / Nancy Rosenblum / Maurice Carlos Ruffin / Lucy Sante / Esmerelda Santiago / Lynn Schmeidler / Eliot Schrefer / Dash Shaw / John Schu / Nicole Sealey / Carrie Sun / Astra Taylor / Justin Taylor / Swati Teerdhala / Dustin Thao / Héctor Tobar/ Dorothy Tse / Lena Valencia / Laura van den Berg / Adelle Waldman / David Walsh / Amélie Wen Zhao / Andrew Joseph White / Crystal Wilkinson/ Olivia Worley / Jenny Xie / Andrew Yang / Yasmin Zaher / Ada Zhang
