The Brooklyn Book Festival is gearing up for its 2026 event, with nearly 500 authors slated to visit the borough later this month.
The festival, launched in 2006, typically draws more than 30,000 attendees to its events in and around Brooklyn’s Borough Hall over the span of nine days.
This year’s festival is scheduled to kick off on Sept. 20 with Virtual Festival Day, which will include events with authors such as Chloe Benjamin (Under Story), George Packer (The Emergency), De’shawn Charles Winslow (The Fervent Whites), and Rahul Bhattacharya (Railsong).
On the same day, the festival’s Bookend Events will commence online and in all five boroughs of the city. Authors scheduled to appear over nine days include Art Spiegelman (Maus), Ryan La Sala (The Dead of Summer), Denne Michele Norris (When the Harvest Comes), and Hannah V. Sawyerr (Truth Is).
Children’s Day, held on Sept. 26, will feature authors and illustrators including Loryn Brantz (I Am a Spicy Nugget), Vashti Harrison (Big), John Patrick Green (the InvestiGators series), and Sean Qualls (Fros, Fades, and Braids).
On Sept. 27, the festival will hold its flagship Festival Day, with authors including Amitav Ghosh (Ghost-Eye), who is this year’s Best of Brooklyn Award honoree, as well as Colson Whitehead (Cool Machine), Marlon James (The Disappearers), Douglas Stuart (John of John), Tayari Jones (Kin), and T Kira Madden (Whidbey).
The full schedule is available at the festival’s website.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
