Nora Roberts' Penguin Group USA publisher sponsors 9th National Book Festival

 

Nora Roberts will not be sitting in the Fiction and Fantasy writers pavilion at the 2009 National Book Festival. Nor has she dispatched J.D. Robb to join her colleagues in the Mysteries and Thrillers pavilion. However, Penguin Group USA, which publishes the Roberts and Robb titles, is included among the major sponsors of this ninth annual festival.

This year's event will be held on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, Sept. 26, 2009 from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Honorary Chairs of the 2009 National Book Festival are President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama.

Fiction and fantasy authors who will be present to sign autographs and talk with their fans include Sabiha Al Khemir, Julia Alvarez, Junot Díaz, John Grisham, John Irving, Katherine Neville, Jodi Picoult, Nicholas Sparks, Jeannette Walls, Colson Whitehead and David Wroblewski.

Among the mystery and thriller authors at the festival are David Baldacci, Lee Child, Mary Jane Clark, Margaret Coel, Michael Connelly, Craig Johnson, Walter Mosley, James Patterson, George Pelecanos, S.J. Rozan, Lisa Scottline and Daniel Silva.

The Library of Congress promotes the National Book Festival on its website. The festival, which originated in 2001, is held to celebrate of the joys of reading and lifelong literacy.

Each yearly event features a commemorative poster. Writer and illustrator Charles Santore provided the artwork for the 2009 poster depicted on the left of this page. The attached slideshow includes images of all the posters created for the nine festivals.

Nora Roberts, through the work of her Nora Roberts Foundation, shares the National Book Festival's focus on the promotion of literacy. Although Roberts has been active in literacy efforts on behalf of the Romance Writers of America, she has not yet participated in the National Book Festival. The event would appear to be a natural match for her interests.