Now in its 21st year, the festival will run from September 20 to September 28, with programming spanning all five boroughs.
The 21st annual Brooklyn Book Festival will take place from September 20 to 28. Photo by Susan De Vries
by Olivia Seaman, Brooklyn Paper
The acclaimed Brooklyn Book Festival will return next month with eight days of events featuring hundreds of authors, booksellers, and literary organizations.
Now in its 21st year, the festival will run from September 20 to September 28, with programming spanning all five boroughs. The celebration will include Virtual Festival Day, Children’s Day, the flagship Festival Day and Literary Marketplace in Downtown Brooklyn, as well as more than 70 Bookend events hosted by cultural partners throughout the city.
The centerpiece will take place September 27 when Downtown will transform into a gathering place for readers and writers. Festival Day will run from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. across eight indoor and outdoor stages at Brooklyn Borough Hall, Brooklyn Law School, the Center for Brooklyn History, St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church, Columbus Park, and Korean War Veterans Park.
Brooklyn Book Festival said the event aims to bring readers into conversation with writers. Photo by Susan De Vries
The lineup includes a mix of major literary names and emerging voices. Among the writers scheduled to appear are Marlon James, Joyce Carol Oates, Colson Whitehead, Douglas Stuart, Rachel Aviv, Jelani Cobb, Tina Chang, Naomi Shihab Nye, Emma Straub, Deesha Philyaw, Namwali Serpell, and others working across fiction, nonfiction, poetry, comics, graphic novels, and young adult literature.
Readers will also have plenty of opportunities to shop. Festival Day will feature what organizers describe as the Northeast’s largest book market, with more than 250 publishers represented across hundreds of outdoor tents in Columbus Park and Borough Hall Plaza.
Families will get their own day of programming on September 26, when Children’s Day takes over Brooklyn Borough Hall and Plaza. The event will feature readings, workshops, performances, art projects, and book signings with children’s and middle-grade authors, including R.J. Palacio, Bess Kalb, Mahogany L. Browne, Jorge Aguirre and Adam Gitwitz.
The Brooklyn Book Festival officially kicks off online Sunday, September 20, with Virtual Festival Day, allowing readers to participate from around the world. The virtual lineup includes Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maggie Haberman, bestselling author Chloe Benjamin, and Portuguese novelist Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida.
According to Brooklyn Book Festival organizers, over 250 publishers from a wide range of genres will be present. Photo by Susan De Vries
This year’s festival will also honor Brooklyn author Amitav Ghosh with the Best of Brooklyn, or BoBi, Award. Ghosh, who lives in Brooklyn, is known for works including the Ibis Trilogy and nonfiction books such as The Great Derangement and The Nutmeg’s Curse. The award recognizes an author whose work exemplifies or speaks to the spirit of Brooklyn.
Brooklyn Book Festival Producer Liz Koch said the event is ultimately about bringing readers into conversation with writers.
“For us, authors are the undisputed heroes of our culture. We are thrilled to present hundreds of authors in discussions about timely and relevant topics at the festival, whether through fiction, poetry, children’s books, graphic novels, or deeply researched journalism. We welcome all of New York City to come celebrate these incredible authors with us.”
The show’s 2026 poster was created by Mexican author-illustrator Jaque Jours, whose design features the marble steps of Brooklyn Borough Hall, a familiar gathering place for festival audiences over the past two decades.
“For this poster, I wanted to capture what caught my eye that first time: the uncontainable diversity of the people of New York. I kept returning to what I always draw: people going about their lives—a relaxed delivery guy, a well-read nun, an avid reader slash Knicks fan,” she said in a statement. “I then decided to set them in one of New York’s most important, yet largely unnoticed architectural features: big stairs. Living in the city made me think of stairs in new ways: as refuge, transportation device, sunbathing platform, and meeting place.“
The Brooklyn Book Festival, taking place from September 20 to 28, is free for all. For more information, click here.
Editor’s note: A version of this story originally ran in Brooklyn Paper. Click here to see the original story.
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