The National Book Festival has announced its lineup for the 2025 literary showcase — an event that seems poised this year to draw more interest than usual for political reasons, even before the scheduled appearance by a Supreme Court justice.
The list of 90 authors for the 25th annual festival on Sept. 6 in Washington includes Justice Amy Coney Barrett discussing her journey to the U.S. Supreme Court; National Book Award winning novelists Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a Columbia resident and Susan Choi, a Johns Hopkins University professor; and the wildly popular children’s horror author R.L. Stine, who created the “Goosebumps” series.
While the announced lineup isn’t out of the ordinary, libraries nationwide including the Library of Congress, which mounts the festival, have made headlines repeatedly over the past few months as President Donald Trump attempts to redraw America’s cultural landscape.
The free, daylong event was founded in 2001 by former first lady Laura Bush and drew an annual audience of about 200,000 book lovers before the pandemic, according to the Library website.
“For 25 years, the National Book Festival has gathered lovers of reading and the authors who inspire them for a day of conversation and discovery,” says a festival news release. “The special National Book Festival experience, defined by the depth and breadth of storytelling, has grown to become one of the nation’s favorite literary traditions.”
Other festival headliners include:
- The Pulitzer prize winning-biographer Ron Chernow, whose biography of former U.S. President Alexander Hamilton became the groundbreaking Broadway musical “Hamilton”.
- Scott Turow, author of 13 blockbuster legal thrillers, including “Presumed Innocent.”
- U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón, the first Latina appointed to that prestigious role. She will be joined by the two most recent poet laureates: Joy Harjo, the nation’s first Native American poet laureate, and Tracy K. Smith.
- Jill Lepore, a staff writer for The New Yorker magazine and a history professor at Harvard University.
- The two-time Academy Award-winning actor and new picture book author Geena Davis.
In addition to author appearances, the book festival also includes storytelling sessions, workshops, a STEM district intended to develop kids’ interest in science, technology, engineering and math, and a Roadmap to Reading that takes audience members on a literary journey to all 50 states.
While the event blueprint has remained unchanged for much of its recent history, it will take place in a political landscape that has been significantly altered and which has implications for the way the festival will be viewed.
For example, the book festival is co-chaired by Baltimore Orioles owner David M. Rubenstein, who the president removed in February as chairman of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
In addition, the Library of Congress leadership remains up in the air. In May, Trump fired chief librarian Carla Hayden, and attempted to install his former personal attorney, Todd Blanche, in her place. Leaders of both parties objected and Blanche was escorted out of the building.
The institution is being led in the interim by Hayden’s former second-in-command, Robert Newlin.
Hayden, a Baltimorean and the first Black Librarian of Congress, announced earlier this week that she is joining the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
And finally, Barrett’s appearance may draw visitors who will attempt to find clues as to how the Supreme Court might rule in the coming months on a slew of high-profile lawsuits seeking to block various Trump initiatives, from birthright citizenship to tariffs.
If you go
The National Book Festival will be held from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sept. 6 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, 801 Allen Y. Lew Place NW, Washington. Free. For details, visit loc.gov/events/2025-national-book-festival/
Have a news tip? Contact Mary Carole McCauley at mmccauley@baltsun.com and 410-332-6704.
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