The Brooklyn Book Festival, New York’s largest free literary festival, is returning later this year with a strong lineup of local and national authors.
The nine-day festival will span from From Sept. 25 through Oct. 3, and feature events throughout Brooklyn, as well as a Virtual Festival Day on Sept. 25. This is the festival’s second hybrid iteration since going fully virtual in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
During a virtual prologue on July 28, Brooklyn Book Festival organizers announced Esmeralda Santiago as the recipient of this year’s Best of Brooklyn “BoBi” award.
“Brooklyn has long held the dreams of generations,” said Santiago in a statement. “My own ambitions grew in its hard streets, fueled by the miles of books in its public libraries. To return to Brooklyn is to find myself as a girl and young woman searching for a future in these United States. Hunched over a book borrowed from the library, I sought clues for how to be here without losing myself in a new culture and foreign tongue. Books helped me to navigate those challenges. Brooklyn’s long history inspiring writers gave me the confidence to persevere.”
Authors Tiphanie Yanique, Ryan La Sala, Ada Calhoun and Wo Chan, among others, have also been named as part of a robust list of writers participating in the festival’s main event — Festival Day and Literary Marketplace — taking place Oct. 2 in Downtown Brooklyn’s Columbus Park.
Organizers also announced a tentative selection of authors for the festival’s hugely popular “Bookend” events, with the full lineup to be announced in the weeks leading up to Brooklyn Book Fest.
Also part of the July 28 event was the unveiling of the 2022 Brooklyn Book Festival poster, designed and created by famed graphic novelist and New York Times best seller Johnnie Christmas.
For more information on this year’s Brooklyn Book Festival, visit brooklynbookfestival.org.
