The Library of Congress National Book Festival Kicks Off in DC, 8/30

Washington, DC

On Saturday, August 30, Events DC will open its doors at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center to welcome residents and visitors to the annual Library of Congress National Book Festival, which has annually attracted hundreds of thousands of book-lovers. The Festival will be held for the first time at the Convention Center from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. and remains free and open to the public. This year's Festival theme is "Stay Up With A Good Book."

"It is an honor for Events DC to host the celebrated Library of Congress National Book Festival at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center; creating the ability for the annual Festival to showcase new innovative and exciting offerings inside the Convention Center," said Gregory A. O'Dell, president and CEO of Events DC. "This opportunity also represents part of an enhanced business strategy to diversify our portfolio of events in an effort to create a conventions and entertainment district while helping to enhance broader economic impact across the city."

The Festival's new location will feature the first-ever nighttime activities, as well as other novel and engaging sessions and activities. Due to expanded facilities available at the Convention Center, the Festival will also unveil an expanded selection of genre pavilions. In addition to the longtime pavilions History & Biography, Fiction & Mystery, Poetry & Prose, Children's, Contemporary Life, Teens and Special Programs, this year's Festival will offer new pavilions focused on Science, the Culinary Arts, and for young readers, Picture Books. Overall, the Festival will feature more than 100 authors of all genres for readers of all ages.

"We are pleased to be in the spacious, clean, airy Walter E. Washington Convention Center this year," said National Book Festival Project Manager Jennifer Gavin. "Change is good, in that we will offer new pavilions due to the abundance of space and be able to go on for 12 full hours in keeping with this year's theme, "Stay Up With A Good Book."

The move to the Convention Center will also provide many more seats for Festival-goers, protection from both heat and rain, and the addition of extra amenities that the Center has to offer - including free Wi-Fi in public spaces and a variety of food and beverages available for sale at retail stations.

The poetry slam is among this year's first-ever nighttime activities as well as a Graphic Novels Super-Session with Michael Cavna, author of The Washington Post's Comic Riffs blog, as master of ceremonies. Other Festival events between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. will include a session featuring "Great Books to Great Movies" moderated by Ann Hornaday, film critic for The Washington Post, and a session celebrating the 100th anniversaries of the births of three literary giants of Mexico-Octavio Paz, Efraín Huerta and Jose Revueltas-in collaboration with the Mexican Cultural Institute.

The Festival's new setting will still offer many of the familiar and popular activities. Representatives from across the United States and its territories will celebrate their unique literary offerings in the Pavilion of the States. The Let's Read America area will offer reading-related activities that are fun for the whole family. The Library of Congress Pavilion will showcase treasures from the Library's vast online collections and offer information about Library programs.

The Walter E. Washington Convention Center is accessible via Metro on the Red Line (Gallery Place) and the Green and Yellow Lines (Mount Vernon Square/7th Street/Convention Center).

Further details about the Library of Congress National Book Festival can be found on its website at http://www.loc.gov/bookfest/. This year's Festival poster, by popular artist and illustrator Bob Staake-who will appear at the Festival-can also be downloaded from the website.

Events DC
Events DC, the official convention and sports authority for the District of Columbia, delivers premier event services and flexible venues across the nation's capital. Leveraging the power of a world-class destination and creating amazing attendee experiences, Events DC generates economic and community benefits through the attraction and promotion of business, athletic, entertainment and cultural activities. Events DC oversees the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, an anchor of the District's hospitality and tourism economy that generates over $400 million annually in total economic impact, and the historic Carnegie Library at Mt. Vernon Square. Events DC manages the Stadium-Armory campus, which includes Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium and surrounding Festival Grounds, the non-military functions of the DC Armory and Maloof Skate Park at RFK Stadium. Events DC also built and now serves as landlord for Nationals Park, the first LEED-certified major professional sports stadium in the United States. For more information, please visit http://www.eventsdc.com.

Library of Congress National Book Festival
The 2014 National Book Festival is made possible through the generous support of National Book Festival Board Co-Chairman David M. Rubenstein; Charter Sponsors the Institute of Museum and Library Services, The Washington Post and Wells Fargo; Patron the National Endowment for the Arts; Contributors The Inner Circle of Advocates, Scholastic Inc. and WAMU 88.5 FM and-in the Friends category-the Marshall B. Coyne Foundation, Inc., the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction, The Hay-Adams, the National Endowment for the Humanities, PBS KIDS and the Small Press Expo. Thanks to C-SPAN2's Book TV, The Junior League of Washington, the Mensa Education and Research Foundation, Split This Rock and U Street Parking.

The Library of Congress, the nation's oldest federal cultural institution, is the world's preeminent reservoir of knowledge. Many of the Library's rich resources and treasures may be accessed through its website, http://www.loc.gov.