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Brooklyn Book Festival
Paul Auster and John Ashbery discuss their work at the 2010 festival.
GenreBook Fair
Location(s)Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
CountryUnited States
FoundedSeptember 16, 2006
FounderMarty Markowitz
Attendance55,000 - 65,000
Websitehttp://brooklynbookfestival.org/

The Brooklyn Book Festival is the largest free literature festival in New York City. It has the goal of nurturing a culture of literature and celebrating published literature through the events held every year at the festival. It also hopes to connect readers with authors, publishers, and booksellers from around the city to around the world.[1][2] Launched in 2006, the Brooklyn Book Festival was originally a one-day literature event meant to be accessible to the public so that everybody could embrace the diversity of their city.[3] Today, it has grown to be an eight-day event spread throughout the entire city, using the creed of "hip, smart, and diverse."[2] The festival, hosts many authors from around the world, with many book readings, booths from book publishers and authors, distinguished panels, and many workshops relating to every topic you can think of.[4]

Development

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Inception

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On September 16, 2006, the then Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz with the help of co-founders Liz Coch and Carolyn Greer started the Brooklyn Book Festival “as a way to exhibit literature’s ‘Brooklyn voice.’”[1] The festival was first born after the then borough president asked the co-founders for a way for Brooklyn to have its own literature festival, where all the publishers, writers, and editors calling Brooklyn their home could come together as a community, something they all felt overdue.[5]

Growth

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Audience during a panel in the 2007 festival.

The festival has grown a lot since its creation, and those participating have grown too. In the first three years of its inception, the festival reached an attendance of over 30,000 people.[6] As the festival organizers saw the attendance reaching 40,000 in 2011, the festival shifted its focus from being a one-day event to spreading out many different events over an entire week.[7][4] It is not just planned events that make up the festival as many different things are going on throughout the participating city, “Bookend events alone constitute a formidable lineup.”[4] With the festival attracting almost 60,000 people, the now eight-day event has tons and tons of different things one can see and do, from book readings to “even a canoe trip on the heavily polluted Gowanus Canal.”[8][2] There is even a Children's Day hosted where children can meet the authors they like and go to the many book vendors at the signature outdoor market.

Signature Days

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Festival Day is the main day when planned events occur, and it is held on a Sunday. It is when most large events take place, and most hosted authors participate.[9] It is also the day that the outdoor Marketplace is held, where everybody can find books they enjoy, but not only that, many authors there will sign books for their fans too.[10]

In 2016, the Saturdays during the festival turned into Children’s Day where “children can get creative with their favorite authors,”[11] and even get their books signed.[12] It is held on the Saturday before the main festival day and has many authors participating, most of whom have written children's books. There is also a children's market where you can purchase their favorite books.[11] Children's Day is also the day that The Best of Brooklyn (BoBi) award is presented to an author.[9]

Walking Away, After The Storm

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For the first time in its long run of 17 years, the festival was in a real pickle because, in 2022, Hurricane Ian was still terrorizing the northeast of the U.S., right around the time the festival was happening.[13] While the festival was not canceled, many of the different venues and outdoor events had to be quickly moved to the indoor venues that were available, with the ones not making it getting canceled.[13] As everyone knows, books and rain do not mix. The marketplace was canceled as it was held entirely outdoors, which heavily disappointed many organizations, organizers, and authors who hoped to sell to the attending public. To make matters worse, this happened the last year that co-founder Carolyn Greer was part of the festival planning. After 17 years, Ms. Greer stepped back from the festival, and it seems to be for the foreseeable future.[13]

Aspects of the Festival

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Hosted Authors

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Kirsten Miller, Jenny Han, Sara Shepard, and Lauren Oliver reading their books for fans at the 2010 festival.

This festival has hosted many different authors over its long run, almost 300 hundred each year from over 20 different countries.[12] Almost every year, half of the hosted authors are announced before the festival begins in anticipation, with the other half getting revealed later as the festival plays out.[14] Some participating authors are there for the full week, others for just a day, and some for a single event.[14][15] The authors come from all over, so it's expected that there will be some well-known ones from around the world and some who live in Brooklyn.[14][16] Two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage[17] is an example of a well-known writer born in the city who participated, while Erna Brodber would be one from outside the country, specifically Jamaica.[14][16] Other examples of participating writers from within the city would be Maira Kalman, Sean Qualls, and Selina Alko, and some more from around the world would be Karl Ove Knausgård of Norway, Ali Cobby Eckermann of Australia, Peter Kimani of Kenya, and Young-ha Kim - South Korea.[14][16] Of course, the authors that were listed are just examples from the long list that has been racked up over the past 17 years. If one wishes, one can go to the Festival's official website and look at the long lists of authors they have. For 2023, they have planned 105 authors for the main festival day, 26 for their children's day, and 11 for the virtual festival that will be hosted.[18]

Hosted Events

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There are a plethora of events hosted every year leading up to and during the festival, such as book readings, panels, and workshops.[12] These events are hosted throughout the city like in “Borough Hall, and other venues including St. Francis College, Brooklyn Historical Society, St. Ann and the Holy Trinity Church and Columbus Park.”[19] Throughout the week that the festival is held, you will see many events that are hosted by the festival organizers, and you will also find many that aren’t. Maybe a business is hosting something inside a coffee shop, or maybe a bookstore, you will find many bookend events as a lot of the city participates.[12] One of the main reasons that make all these ongoing bookend events so great is that they tend to be free, or dirt cheap.[4]

Event Examples:

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Workshops - There are many workshops throughout the city relating to a mult

itude of genres. One such workshop that has taken place in the past would be “Morningside Lights,” which was held by founders of the Processional Arts Workshop Alex Kahn and Sophia Michahelles, and took place at the Miller Theater at Columbia University. The goal of this workshop was to make an Imaginary city out of puppets, lanterns, and other things that could glow. The public was invited so that they could help in the process and creation of the imaginary city.[4]

Readings - In the Center for Brooklyn History, many authors, such as Tina Chang, Paolo Javier, and Yusef Komunyakaa, have read aloud sections of their poetry for the audience.[12]

Panels - Banned but Translated, hosted by members of the PEN America Translation Committee, was a panel that through a discussion with translators and the audience, highlighted different forms of censorship and how translating different things to and from different languages can be very difficult because each language comes from different cultures which all have different restrictions and obstacles that one needs to get around.[12] - Occupy and Resist was a panel where authors talked about how the culture and politics they create inside their writing shape and affect the characters in their novels.[12] - Carousel: Comics Performances was a panel with a presentation that showed graphic novels, gag cartoons, and comics performed by the writers and artists, which then held a book signing with the participating writers and artists.[20]

Contests/Awards

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The Best of Brooklyn (BoBi) Award is an award that since 2007 has been presented to "an author whose work best exemplifies or speaks to the spirit of Brooklyn."[21] It is presented on the Saturday before the main festival day, also known as Children's Day.[9]

St. Francis College Literary Prize is a prize that is given out every other year in September. St. Francis College announces the winner of the literacy prize of 50,000 dollars who is decided "from a whittled down shortlist," at the Brooklyn Book Festival.[22]

AT&T Fan Fave Contest was a contest held in 2011 where the fans could vote for any of the authors participating in the festival, and the top most voted for would receive a cash prize that they could then donate to a literacy charity of their choosing. While unlikely to happen again, it could still, as AT&T is a major sponsor of the Festival.[23]

References

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  1. ^ a b "A Literary Voice With a Pronounced Brooklyn Accent (Published 2006)". 2006-09-15. Retrieved 2023-07-27.
  2. ^ a b c "About". Brooklyn Book Festival. Retrieved 2023-07-27.
  3. ^ "Brooklyn Book Festival returns to city". www.ny1.com. Retrieved 2023-07-27.
  4. ^ a b c d e "Brooklyn Book Festival Marks Seventh Year (Published 2012)". 2012-09-20. Retrieved 2023-07-27.
  5. ^ "Brooklyn Book Festival Brings People Together". THIRTEEN - New York Public Media. Retrieved 2023-07-27.
  6. ^ Rosen |, Judith. "Brooklyn Book Festival to Take Place September 12". PublishersWeekly.com. Retrieved 2023-07-27.
  7. ^ Kral, Georgia (2012-09-17). "Brooklyn Book Festival Expands as Reputation of Small Presses Grows". MetroFocus. Retrieved 2023-07-27.
  8. ^ "The Literary Festivals to Hit This Year, From Brooklyn to Singapore (Published 2020)". 2020-03-03. Retrieved 2023-07-27.
  9. ^ a b c "PHOTOS: #BKBF celebrates blockbuster literary weekend with top authors". Brooklyn Book Festival. Retrieved 2023-07-29.
  10. ^ "Award-winning and bestselling children's book authors and illustrators are set to wow young fans with readings, workshops and performances on Saturday, September 21". Brooklyn Book Festival. Retrieved 2023-07-29.
  11. ^ a b "Children's Day Archives". Brooklyn Book Festival. Retrieved 2023-07-29.
  12. ^ a b c d e f g "Outpost: "The Brooklyn Book Festival," by Laura Hernandez". World Literature Today. Retrieved 2023-07-27.
  13. ^ a b c Maher |, John. "The Brooklyn Book Festival, After the Storm". PublishersWeekly.com. Retrieved 2023-07-27.
  14. ^ a b c d e "Brooklyn Book Festival's Author Lineup Revealed". Brooklyn, NY Patch. 2017-06-16. Retrieved 2023-07-27.
  15. ^ "Brooklyn Book Festival Ushers in a Season of Literary Delights (Published 2015)". 2015-09-17. Retrieved 2023-07-27.
  16. ^ a b c "It's All About Books at Brooklyn's Book Festival". Brooklyn Book Festival. Retrieved 2023-07-27.
  17. ^ Duggan, Kevin (2020-08-13). "All-Digital 2020 Brooklyn Book Festival to Unite Readers With Writers All Over the Globe". Brownstoner. Retrieved 2023-07-27.
  18. ^ "Authors Archive". Brooklyn Book Festival. Retrieved 2023-07-28.
  19. ^ Staff, Brooklyn Eagle (2013-06-04). "Brooklyn Book Festival announces 2013 author lineup". Brooklyn Eagle. Retrieved 2023-07-29.
  20. ^ "Bookend Events Archives". Brooklyn Book Festival. Retrieved 2023-07-29.
  21. ^ "BoBi Awards Archive". Brooklyn Book Festival. Retrieved 2023-07-29.
  22. ^ "SFC Literary Prize". St. Francis College. Retrieved 2023-07-29.
  23. ^ "Fall 2016 NYC Culture Calendars / Arts Previews". Brooklyn Book Festival. Retrieved 2023-07-29.
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