The 2017 National Book Festival, sponsored by the Library of Congress, is scheduled for Saturday, September 2, 2017, at the Washington Convention Center. Originally sited on the Mall, it was relocated a few years ago due to concern about the thousands of attendees effect on the grounds.
Who’s appearing from the wonder world of comics? Check the list below! It’s stellar!
And if that’s not enough, there are lots of amazing authors and illustrators scheduled!
Basic information
The map of the festival. “South” is the side facing the old Carnegie Library on Mount Vernon Square. (If you have time, walk directly south, along 8th Street. The National Portrait Gallery, Navy Memorial, Archives, Smithsonian sculpture gardens…)
Schedule
(The Library of Congress might be livestreaming some panels via their Facebook page, but details remain murky.)
Graphic Novels
| Time | Author | Signing |
|---|---|---|
| 5:30 pm-6:00 pm | Gene Luen Yang | 4:00 pm-5:00 pm |
| 5:55 pm-6:30 pm | Ann Telnaes | 4:30 pm-5:30 pm |
| 5:55 pm-6:30 pm | Mike Lester | 4:30 pm-5:30 pm |
| 6:25 pm-7:00 pm | Roz Chast | 4:30 pm-5:30 pm |
| 6:55 pm-7:30 pm | Lincoln Peirce | 5:00 pm-6:00 pm |
Note that all signings are BEFORE the event.
Note that the talks end early this year.
Authors (of interest to comics fans)
Lincoln Peirce
At the 2017 National Book Festival
Presentation
- Graphic Novels
Saturday, September 2
6:55 pm – 7:30 pm
Book Signing
- Saturday, September 2
5:00 pm – 6:00 pm
Lincoln Peirce is a cartoonist and writer from Portland, Maine. His comic strip, “Big Nate,” was syndicated in 1991 and currently appears in over 400 newspapers, including The Washington Post, the Minneapolis Star Tribune and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. He is also the author and illustrator of a best-selling series of novels based on his comic strip. His books have been honored by the American Library Association, the Children’s Book Council and the American Booksellers Association. Peirce’s most recent book, the latest that stars sixth-grade student Nate and his friends, is “Big Nate: A Good Old-Fashioned Wedgie” (Andrews McMeel).
At the 2017 National Book Festival
Presentation
- Graphic Novels
Saturday, September 2
6:25 pm – 7:00 pm
Book Signing
- Saturday, September 2
4:30 pm – 5:30 pm
Roz Chast is an award-winning cartoonist whose work has been published in The New Yorker, Scientific American, the Harvard Business Review, Redbook and Mother Jones, among other publications. She studied painting at the Rhode Island School of Design, where she received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1977. She is presently on the staff of The New Yorker and is the artist who created the 2017 National Book Festival poster. Her best-selling multimedia graphic memoir, “Can’t We Talk about Something More Pleasant?” (Bloomsbury), chronicles her relationship with her aging parents at the ends of their lives through cartoons, photos and text. It won the National Book Critics’ Circle Award, the Kirkus Prize in nonfiction and was a 2014 National Book Award Finalist.
Mike Lester
At the 2017 National Book Festival
Presentation
- Graphic Novels
Saturday, September 2
5:55 pm – 6:30 pm
Book Signing
- Saturday, September 2
4:30 pm – 5:30 pm
Mike Lester is an award-winning editorial cartoonist and illustrator whose work is syndicated by The Washington Post Writers Group. His children’s book “A Is for Salad” (Puffin) was a New York Times best-seller in 2000. In 2012, he created and launched the comic strip “Mike du Jour.” He has received the National Cartoonists Society’s Reuben award for best book illustration four times, in 2000, 2006, 2008, and 2010, and the Reuben for best advertising illustration in 2004. He also received the Society of Professional Journalists’ Sigma Delta Chi Award for editorial cartoons in 2007 and 2010.
At the 2017 National Book Festival
Presentation
- Graphic Novels
Saturday, September 2
5:55 pm – 6:30 pm
Book Signing
- Saturday, September 2
4:30 pm – 5:30 pm
Ann Telnaes is an award-winning editorial cartoonist for The Washington Post who works in various mediums—animation, visual essays, live sketches and traditional print. She won the Pulitzer Prize in 2001 for her print cartoons and the National Cartoonists Society’s Reuben for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year for 2016. In 2004, she donated 81 of her original drawings to the Library of Congress, which then showed her work in a solo exhibition. Also in 2004, the Library of Congress and Pomegranate Press published her first book, a collection of her editorial cartoons titled “Humor’s Edge: Cartoons by Ann Telnaes” (Pomegranate). She is the current president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists.
At the 2017 National Book Festival
Presentation
- Graphic Novels
Saturday, September 2
5:30 pm – 6:00 pm
Book Signing
- Saturday, September 2
4:00 pm – 5:00 pm
National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature Gene Luen Yang is a writer of both graphic novels and comics. His first graphic novel, “American Born Chinese,” is about a teenager struggling with his identity – a theme that is common in much of Yang’s work, which emphasizes the importance of celebrating diverse cultures. It was the first graphic novel to be nominated for a National Book Award and the first to win the American Library Association’s Printz Award; it was also a winner of the 2007 Eisner Award. His next solo work, “Boxers & Saints,” is a two-volume project set during the Boxer Rebellion and a National Book Award finalist. His most recent work is “Secret Coders: Secrets & Sequences” (First Second), which combines adventure and mystery with logic puzzles and basic programming instruction. Yang has been drawing comics since the fifth grade and believes both graphic novels and comics can be used effectively as educational tools in the classroom. He teaches at Hamline University as part of the MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults.
Dav Pilkey
At the 2017 National Book Festival
Presentation
- Children’s Purple Stage
Saturday, September 2
11:15 am – 11:40 am
Book Signing
- Saturday, September 2
noon – 1:00 pm
Dav Pilkey, creator of the worldwide best-selling Captain Underpants and Dog Man series, has written and illustrated numerous popular and award-winning books for children. He won a Caldecott Honor for his picture book “The Paperboy.” When Pilkey was a kid, he suffered from ADHD and dyslexia. He loved to draw and make up stories, and created his own original comic books. When he was in second grade, Pilkey created a comic book about a superhero named Captain Underpants. The Captain Underpants book series has more than 80 million copies in print to date, has been translated into more than 25 languages and was recently released as a feature film by DreamWorks Animation. “Dog Man: A Tale of Two Kitties” (GRAPHIX) is the latest in his Dog Man graphic novel series, which debuted at No. 1 on the New York Times best-seller list and was praised by critics. In starred reviews, Booklist said, “Pilkey has once again fired an arrow of joy straight at the fevered childhood psyche of millions of readers,” and Kirkus called “Dog Man,” “riotously funny and original.”
“Come to our Facebook page tomorrow morning beginning at 10am ET and we’ll be livestreaming our Main Stage all day.
http://www.loc.gov/bookfest/schedule/”
So, only the main stage…
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