Cynthia Erivo, Michael Feinstein Among Headliners for 2026 National Book Festival

Tony winner Cynthia Erivo and musical theater performer Michael Feinstein are among the headliners confirmed for The Library of Congress National Book Festival, returning on Saturday, Aug. 22, at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. 

A literary tradition, the 2026 National Book Festival arrives as part of the Library’s celebration of America 250: It’s Your Story, providing a multifaceted storytelling experience with expanded programming. Throughout the day, attendees will hear conversations with more than 80 authors from a myriad of literary genres. Additionally, there will be programming spotlighting music, film, recorded sound, veterans’ history, American folklife, and more, providing a window into the vast scope of the Library’s collections and year-round programs.

Erivo will be in attendance to discuss her memoir, “Simply More: A Book for Anyone Who Has Been Told They’re Too Much.” Singer and pianist Feinstein reflects on working with Liza Minelli on her memoir “Kids, Wait Till You Hear This!” Other headliners include director Martin Scorsese, performer Kate McKinnon, writer Ann Patchett, and more. The lineup of more than 80 authors is listed below. The author lineup is subject to change.

The National Book Festival will take place on Saturday, Aug. 22, from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. Doors will open at 8:30 a.m. The festival is free and open to everyone. For the first time this year, free tickets will be required for festival entry, but not for individual programs within the festival. Tickets can be reserved at loc.gov/bookfest.  

For more than a quarter century, the National Book Festival has gathered those who love to read and the authors who inspire them for a day of discovery. The festival was hosted for the first time by the Library of Congress in 2001 with former first lady Laura Bush, who was inspired by the highly successful Texas Book Festival that she founded.

In addition to the variety of author conversations, the festival offers a wide range of family-friendly activities, workshops and interactive programs for attendees of all ages. These include storytelling at the Story District; hands-on activities that connect science and storytelling at the STEM District; learning opportunities in the Workshop Space; presentations from Library experts about innovative work happening at the nation’s Library; and a literary trip around the country in the Roadmap to Reading area.

For book lovers unable to join the festival in person, events on the Main Stage will be livestreamed on loc.gov/bookfest. Videos of presentations will be made available at loc.gov and on the Library’s YouTube channel shortly after the festival.

C-SPAN’s Book TV will return to the National Book Festival as a media partner to livestream select events and interview featured authors. Media partners also include WAMU, NPR and The Washington Post.

Author Lineup (as of July 7)

Fiction

• Amal El-Mohtar – “Seasons of Glass and Iron”
• Andrew Sean Greer – “Villa Coco”
• Tayari Jones – “Kin”
• Karan Mahajan – “The Complex”
• Bsrat Mezghebe – “I Hope You Find What You’re Looking For”
• Ann Patchett – “Whistler”
• Tom Perrotta – “Ghost Town”
• Maria Semple – “Go Gentle”
• Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney – “Lake Effect”

Genre Fiction

• Johnny Compton – “Dead First”
• Nick Cutter – “The Dorians”
• Sunyi Dean – “The Girl with a Thousand Faces”
• Hayley Gelfuso – “The Book of Lost Hours”
• Chloe Gong – “Eyes of Kings”
• Steve Israel – “The Einstein Conspiracy”
• Silvia Moreno-Garcia – “The Intrigue”
• Lauren Nossett – “Indie Darling”
• Karin Slaughter – “The Secrets We Hide”
• Tim Sullivan – “The Tailor: A DS George Cross Mystery”
• Hannah Whitten – “Reliquary”
• Tia Williams – “The Missed Connection”

Biography, History and Memoir

• Elizabeth Adelman – “Chasing Lewis’s Monkeyflower: The Amazing Afterlife of the Lewis and Clark Expedition’s Wild Plants”
• Geoff Bennett – “Black Out Loud: The Revolutionary History of Black Comedy From Vaudeville to ’90s Sitcoms”
• Kai Bird and Susan Goldmark – “American Scoundrel”
• Douglas Brinkley and Annette Gordon-Reed – “1,000 Days in America: An Illustrated History of Moments That Defined a Nation”
• Pamela Colloff – “Catch the Devil: A True Story of Murder, Deception and Injustice on the Gulf Coast”
• Nephi Craig – “Our Knives Will Save Us: Dispatches from a White Mountain Apache Chef”
• Cynthia Erivo – “Simply More: A Book for Anyone Who Has Been Told They’re Too Much”
• Craig Fehrman – “This Vast Enterprise: A New History of Lewis & Clark”
• Michael Feinstein – “Kids, Wait Till You Hear This!”
• Isaac Fitzgerald – “American Rambler: Walking the Trail of Johnny Appleseed”
• Beverly Gage – “This Land Is Your Land: A Road Trip Through U.S. History”
• Frank Miller – “Push the Wall: My Life, Writing, Drawing and the Art of Storytelling”
• Beronda L. Montgomery – “When Trees Testify: Science, Wisdom, History and America’s Black Botanical Legacy”

General Nonfiction

• Mac Barnett – “Make Believe: On Telling Stories to Children”
• Lindsay M. Chervinsky – “The American Revolution and America’s Role in the World”
• Marc J. Dunkelman – “Why Nothing Works: Who Killed Progress – and How to Bring It Back”
• Patrick Radden Keefe – “London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family’s Search for Truth”
• Jenny Lawson – “How to Be Okay When Nothing Is Okay: Tips and Tricks That Kept Me Alive, Happy and Creative in Spite of Myself”
• Annie Lowrey – “The Time Tax: How the Government Wastes Our Time – and How to Fix It”
• Sarah M.S. Pearsall – “Freedom Round the Globe: A World History of the American Revolution”
• David M. Rubenstein – “Inside the Owner’s Box: Conversations on Power and Leadership in Sports”

Poetry and Translation

• Arthur Sze – “Transient Worlds: On Translating Poetry”
• Emily Wilson – “Crossing the Wine-Dark Sea: Journeys Through Ancient Literature”

Young Adult

• Elana K. Arnold – “Holloway”
• Alex Aster – “Barbie: Dreamscape”
• Jennifer Lynn Barnes – “The Gilded Blade”
• Gabi Burton – “To Steal a Throne”
• Traci Chee – “Kindling”
• Roshani Chokshi – “The Swan’s Daughter: A Possibly Doomed Love Story”
• I.V. Marie – “Ruinous Ends”
• Amber McBride – “The Leaving Room”
• Lynn Painter – “Better Than the Movies”
• Randy Ribay – “Nest of Tongues”
• Liselle Sambury – “A Clash of Carnivores”

Middle Grade

• B.B. Alston – “Amari and the Metalwork Menace”
• Ernesto Cisneros – “Queso, Just in Time”
• Donna Barba Higuera – “Firesnake”
• Tae Keller – “When Tomorrow Burns”
• Natalie Lloyd – “The Witching Wind”
• Kate McKinnon – “Secrets of the Purple Pearl”
• Chanel Miller – “The Moon Without Stars”
• Kadir Nelson – “Basket Ball: The Story of the All-American Game”
• Victor Piñeiro – “The Island of Forgotten Gods”
• Sean Qualls – “Fros, Fades and Braids: A Brief History of Black Hair in America”
• Geo Rutherford – “Spooky Rivers: 25 Strange and Mysterious Rivers That Snake Across Our Planet”
• Lauren Tarshis – “I Survived the Night of the Lions, 2025”
• Jasmine Warga – “The Unlikely Tale of Chase and Finnegan”

Graphic Novel

• Meg Cabot – “The Princess Diaries”
• John Gallagher – “Rex Rocket: Cosmic Wiener Dog”
• John Patrick Green – “InvestiGators: Weather or Not”
• Shannon Hale – “Princess Academy”
• Shannon Messenger – “Keeper of the Lost Cities: The Graphic Novel Part Two”
• Dan Santat – “A Fishboy Named Sashimi”

Picture Book

• Caroline Brewer – “Anansi and the Talking Cloth”
• Mariann Edgar Budde – “I Can Learn to Be Brave”
• Cátia Chien – “Fireworks”
• Daniel Nayeri – “The Sweetest of Lemons”
• S.D. Nelson – “The Animals Speak: The Lakota Way”