The Boston Book Festival Is Back For the Fifth Year With More Featured Authors Than Ever
Photo via talinedv.com
Renowned author and essayist Salman Rushdie is the keynote speaker for the latest chapter of Boston’s annual literary gathering and festival.
This fall, Rushdie will be joined by hundreds of other novelists and authors from October 17-19 in Copley Square for the fifth installment of the Boston Book Festival, a celebration of “the power of words” that aims to stimulate local readership, and “unite, delight, and inspire … a culture of reading and ideas” while enhancing the vibrancy of Boston.
The street fair-style event features a wide range of workshops for aspiring authors, featured speakers like Rushdie, and children’s book illustrator Tommy dePaola, and presentations and genre-specific workshops guided by experts of the industry. “In just five years, the Boston Book Festival has become one of the most anticipated events in the cultural life of the city. The festival takes advantage of the great architectural treasures in Copley Square, utilizing such venues as Trinity Church, Old South Church, and the Boston Public Library, among others,” according to a statement from organizers.
The Boston Book Festival, produced by a nonprofit group by the same name, revealed the lengthy list of featured authors that will be in attendance in October during a party at the Middlesex Lounge in Cambridge on Monday. “The featured authors will represent a wide array of programming, and include award winners, best-selling authors, renowned scholars, children’s writers, and writers of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry,” according to the announcement.
The event goes beyond writers, and also features exhibitors, children’s activities, and live music throughout the day. Most events during the three-day authors gathering are free and open to the public.
The first-ever Boston Book Festival drew about 12,000 “lit-heads” to Copley Square in 2009, and the amount of attendees has steadily increased ever since.
For more information about the literary get-together, and a lineup of scheduled speakers and presentations, visit the Boston Book Festival website here.
