Let’s take this offline!
Tired of having to see your favorite writers via Zoom? Can’t bear another online book talk? Come join us at the Literary Hill BookFest in the North Hall of Eastern Market for a live, in-person event featuring more than 50 local novelists, nonfiction writers, memoirists, children’s authors, poets, booksellers, publishers, and more.
We’ve had to host our annual celebration of Capitol Hill books and authors virtually for the past two years, so we’re thrilled to be back at Eastern Market for our first in-person event since 2019. We hope you’ll help us get back in the swing of things by stopping by to chat with our BookFest authors, take in a discussion, and buy some books.
Featured writers include National Book Critics Award winner Ariel Sabar, poet and DC Hall of Fame inductee E. Ethelbert Miller, former Washington Post columnist and NPR host Bonny Wolf, award-winning poet and memoirist Sandra Beasley, two-time Lambda Literary Award finalist Cheryl A. Head, award-winning public radio journalist and children’s author Kitty Felde, former Washington Post war correspondent Elizabeth Becker, co-authors and political advocates Lucinda Robb and Rebecca Boggs Roberts, and prize-winning novelist, historian, and curator of religion at the Smithsonian Institution Peter Manseau.
In addition to being available to discuss and sign their books, many authors will also participate in panels throughout the day to discuss a variety of timely topics.
Visitors will be able to purchase an assortment of books from the Hill’s own East City Bookshop and Capitol Hill Books, as well as children’s titles from Lola and Pear Publishing and Platypus Media/Science Naturally!, and poetry from the Washington Writers’ Publishing House and Bourgeon/Day Eight.
Our Children’s Corner will be bustling with family-friendly activities this year. Guided by volunteers, kids will be able to contribute to a jumbo coloring sheet, add to a collective poem, or create origami books. Also on the docket are programs by BookFest authors, with readings by Allison McGill (“Duke the Therapy Dog”) and Angela Kissel (“Rosie to the Rescue”), a talk on Korean culture by Ginger Park, award-winning writer of “The Hundred Choices Department Store,” and a lesson in civic activism from Terry Catasús Jennings and Rosita Stevens-Holsey, co-authors of “Pauli Murray: The Life of a Pioneering Feminist and Civil Rights Activist.”
Visitors can also join in a mock podcast with Kitty Felde, originator of the Fina Mendoza Mysteries, who will guide would-be thespians in acting out a scene from her “State of the Union” podcast, which involves a bird pooping on the president’s head during his annual address at the Capitol. She will also be conducting interviews with children throughout the BookFest about their favorite books and posting them to her “Book Club for Kids” podcast.
Following the BookFest, visitors are invited across the street to the patio at Tunnicliff’s Tavern for Poets’ Corner@Tunnicliff’s, a reading and open-mic event that gives both renowned and novice poets a chance to share their verse with an enthusiastic crowd. There will even be an opportunity for everyone to contribute to the composition of a community-penned poem.
The BookFest is entirely free and open to the public. So come join us in the North Hall of Eastern Market on Sunday, May 1, from 11am to 3pm, and on the patio at Tunnicliff’s from 3:00 to 4:30pm. Find more details at www.literaryhillbookfest.org and follow us on social media @theliteraryhill.
