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CNG Boro Politics

Boro lit luminaries shine on

By Gersh Kuntzman
The Brooklyn Paper
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The Brooklyn Paper / Tom Callan
Everyone had a great time at Borough President Markowitz’s kickoff last week for his annual Brooklyn Book Festival this fall. Here, Colson Whitehead greets fans.

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Park Slope may be battling Prospect Heights for the title of the most writer-friendly community in Brookyn, but the entire borough continues to stake its claim to national literary prominence.

Last week, Borough President Markowitz unveiled the lineup for his fourth annual “Brooklyn Book Festival,” and the event reads like the short list for the Nobel (and a very long short list at that).

Brooklyn-based writers Nelson George, Jonathan Ames, Russell Banks, Edwidge Danticat, Kathryn Harrison, Paul Auster, Jonathan Lethem, Colson Whitehead, Jennifer 8. Lee, Tom Vanderbilt, the great Robert Sullivan and Paula Fox are certainly headliners, but the Sept. 13 all-day event also features dozens of literary auslanders, including Dorothy Allison (“Bastard out of Carolina”), Walter Kirn (“Up in the Air”), Nicholson Baker (“Vox”), Brooklyn-born Francine Prose (“A Changed Man”) and A.M. Homes (“The Mistress’s Daughter”).

“Again this year, tens of thousands of book lovers of all ages will come together in Brooklyn — the creative capital of New York City and, I believe, America — to meet their favorite authors and celebrate the written word,” Markowitz said at the book festival’s kickoff last Thursday at Borough Hall. “The epicenter of literary America is right here in Brooklyn.”

In addition to readings, seminars, book vending and master classes, Markowitz give out his annual award for outstanding contribution to Brooklyn and literature. (Shh! It’s Danticat.)

All Car Rent-A-Car

Brooklyn Book Festival at Brooklyn Borough Hall and plaza [209 Joralemon St., between Court and Adams streets in Downtown, (718) 802-3846], Sunday, Sept. 13.

Go to www.visitbrooklyn.org for updates as additional authors are added.

©2009 The Brooklyn Paper

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