Library of Congress Invites Book Lovers Around the Country to Participate in the 2006 National Book Festival Online

The 2006 National Book Festival will feature same-day Webcasts from the event, online chats and downloadable podcasts with participating authors.

Washington, DC (PRWEB) September 19, 2006 -- The 2006 National Book Festival, an annual event organized and sponsored by the Library of Congress and hosted by Mrs. Laura Bush, will include a variety of ways for people around the country to participate online. New this year, the Library has produced a podcast series featuring interviews with popular participating authors that are downloadable for free at www.loc.gov/bookfest. Those featured in the series are best-selling novelist Khaled Hosseini, children’s author Judith Viorst, Poet Laureate Donald Hall, award-winning historian John Hope Franklin, well-known chef Marcus Samuelsson and best-selling mystery writer Lisa Scottoline.

Prior to the book festival, www.washingtonpost.com will host a series of online chats with participating authors during the weeks of Sept. 18 and Sept. 25. These live, text-based discussions will feature a variety of best-selling authors, including Nathaniel Philbrick (“Mayflower”), Andrew Clements (“Frindle”), Michael Connelly (“Crime Beat”), Geraldine Brooks (“March”), Kathy Reichs (“Break No Bones”), Martin Sherwin and Kai Bird (“American Prometheus”), Christopher Buckley (“”Thank You for Smoking”), Spider Robinson (“Variable Star”), Douglas Brinkley (“The Great Deluge”) and Deborah Tannen (“You’re Wearing That? Understanding Mothers and Daughters in Conversation”). The schedule of chats and authors’ names will be posted on www.washingtonpost.com and the Library’s site at www.loc.gov/bookfest. Participants can submit questions in advance or during the live discussion. Authors’ responses will post while the program is airing or at a later date on washingtonpost.com’s online discussion archives.

On September 30, the Library will present same-day Webcasts from the National Book Festival of selected authors’ presentations from the “Teens & Children,” “Mysteries & Thrillers” and “Fiction & Fantasy” pavilions. These Webcasts will be available on the Library’s Web site.

In addition to live Webcasts, the Library will again collaborate with Book TV on C-SPAN2 to televise the National Book Festival “History & Biography” pavilion events live on Sept. 30 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. (ET). The C-SPAN2 Book TV Bus, a mobile Book TV studio with a multimedia demonstration center for the public, will also be on the National Mall. Noted authors will take viewers’ calls from the Book TV bus. Festival coverage will be streamed live on C-SPAN’s Web site: www.booktv.org.

ABOUT THE NATIONAL BOOK FESTIVAL

The 2006 National Book Festival, organized and sponsored by the Library of Congress and hosted by Mrs. Laura Bush, will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, September 30, on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., between 7th and 14th streets (rain or shine). The festival is free and open to the public.

The 2006 National Book Festival is made possible with generous support from the following:
Distinguished Benefactor: Target
Charter Sponsors: AT&T, The Amend Group, The Washington Post
Patrons: AARP, James Madison Council, National Endowment for the Arts
Contributors: Barnes & Noble, Marshall and Dee Ann Payne, NBA/WNBA, PBS, Penguin Group (USA), Scholastic Inc.
Friends: Institute of Museum and Library Services, National Endowment for the Humanities

For more information about them and the festival, visit www.loc.gov/bookfest.

ATTENTION MEDIA

A media repository is available for press to download background materials, high-resolution images, video and audio sound bites, b-roll and other audiovisual resources, as well as to request interviews with participating authors. This information can be accessed via the Press Registration.

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