This year’s Literary Hill BookFest brings together nearly 40 local writers to talk with visitors about their books. Selected authors will also give talks on a variety of stimulating and important topics:
- 11:15 a.m. Sig Cohen and Carolyn Miller Parr, co-authors of “Love’s Way: Living Peacefully with Your Family as Your Parents Age,” discuss how to have the tough conversation about end-of-life issues.
- 12:00 p.m. Critically acclaimed New York Times notable author Louis Bayard reads from his new book, “Courting Mr. Lincoln,” about the future president and the two people closest to him: his friend and mentor, Joshua Speed, and his future wife, Mary Todd.
- 12:45 p.m. A panel of writers and teachers talks about how to inspire young people with a lifelong passion for reading. Grant Goodman is the author of YA novels featuring Agent Darcy and Ninja Steve and a middle school teacher; Glen Mourning, a fourth-grade teacher, writes the “Crunchy Life” series for urban kids; Paul Smith Rivas is a high school study coach and author of “This Book Is Not on the Test”; and Colleen Shogan is a mystery novelist (“K Street Killing”) and college professor.
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Derek Musgrove 1:30 p.m. George Derek Musgrove delivers the Michael Fry Memorial Talk on Local History, focusing on the book he co-authored with Chris Asch, “Chocolate City: A History of Race and Democracy in the Nation’s Capital.” Musgrove is an associate professor of history at the University of Maryland and a noted authority on post-civil-rights-era black politics.
- 2:15 p.m. Abby Maslin, author of “Love You Hard: A Memoir of Marriage, Brain Injury, and Reinventing Love,” reveals how she and her family coped after her husband suffered a traumatic brain injury during a 2012 mugging on Capitol Hill.
The BookFest is on Sunday, May 5, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the North Hall of Eastern Market. In addition to writers, this year’s event will feature more than a dozen exhibitors, book sales, activities for children and their families and, at 3 p.m., the Poets’ Corner@Tunnicliff’s reading and open-mic event across the street on the patio at Tunnicliff’s Tavern. Learn more at www.literaryhillbookfest.org or follow the BookFest on social media @theliteraryhill.
