Authors

The 20th Library of Congress National Book Festival once again features the nation's best authors, poets and illustrators discussing their work.

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  • Biography
    Jared Diamond
  • Biography
    Kate DiCamillo Kate DiCamillo, 2014-15 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. Photo credit: Shawn Miller, Library of Congress. Kate DiCamillo, 2014-2015 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, was the fourth writer to hold this position. During her two-year term, DiCamillo traveled across America to promote her platform, “Stories Connect Us,” which engaged towns, schools, hospitals, community centers—anywhere people can […]
  • Biography
    Angela Dominguez
  • Biography
    Mark Doty Mark Doty was born in Maryville, Tennessee in 1953. He is the author of eight poetry collections, including My Alexandria (1993), winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and Britain’s T. S Eliot Award; Atlantis (1995), winner of the Ambassador Book Award, the Bingham Prize, and the Lambda Literary Award; and Fire to Fire: […]
  • Biography
    Jesse Dougherty
  • Biography
    Rita Dove Rita Dove was born in Akron, Ohio, in 1952. She is the author of nine collections of poetry, including Thomas and Beulah (1986), winner of the Pulitzer Prize; On the Bus with Rosa Parks (1999), a New York Times Notable Book of the Year; and, most recently, Collected Poems 1974-2004 (2016). Furthermore, she has written a book of short stories, a novel, a play,...
  • Biography
    Ann Druyan
  • Biography
    Erica Armstrong Dunbar

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  • Biography
    Melinda Gates
  • Biography
    Robert M. Gates
  • Biography
    Barton Gellman
  • Biography
    Haben Girma
  • Biography
    Susan Glasser
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    John Grisham Grisham was born in 1955 in Jonesboro, Ark. After giving up his dream of becoming a professional baseball player, Grisham focused his energies on obtaining a degree in accounting from Mississippi State University and a law degree from the University of Mississippi in 1981. While practicing law at a small practice in Southaven, Miss., Grisham […]

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  • Biography
    Richard Haass
  • Biography
    Jenna Bush Hager
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    Joy Harjo Native American poet Joy Harjo serves as the 23rd Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry. The first Native American poet to serve in the position, Harjo is an enrolled member of the Muscogee Creek Nation. She was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on May 9, 1951, and is the author of nine books of poetry.
  • Biography
    Juan Felipe Herrera Juan Felipe Herrera was born in Fowler, California, in 1948. He is the author of 30 books of poetry, novels for young adults, and collections for children. Herrera has served as the chair of the Chicano and Latin American Studies Department at California State University Fresno and held the Tomás Rivera Endowed Chair in the Creative Writing Department at the University of California, Riverside,...
  • Biography
    K.A. Holt
  • Biography
    Harold Holzer
  • Biography
    Deborah Hopkinson
  • Web Page
    Juan Felipe Herrera Juan Felipe Herrera was born in Fowler, California, in 1948. He is the author of 30 books of poetry, novels for young adults, and collections for children. Herrera has served as the chair of the Chicano and Latin American Studies Department at California State University Fresno and held the Tomás Rivera Endowed Chair in the Creative Writing Department at the University of California, Riverside,...

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  • Biography
    George Packer
  • Biography
    Ann Patchett
  • Biography
    Rick Perlstein
  • Biography
    Robert Pinsky Robert Pinsky was born in Long Branch, New Jersey, in 1940. He is the author of nine poetry collections. In addition to editing five anthologies, Pinsky has published several books of prose. Pinsky has taught writing at Wellesley College, the University of California, Berkeley, and is currently a professor in the graduate writing program at Boston University. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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  • Biography
    Aisha Saeed
  • Biography
    Connie Schofield-Morrison
  • Biography
    Jon Scieszka 2008-09 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature Jon Scieszka. Photo credit: Shawn Miller, Library of Congress. Jon Scieszka, 2008-2009 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, was the first writer to hold this position. During his two-year term, Scieszka created a platform with the mission to “get kids excited about reading. Recent surveys and statistics show […]
  • Biography
    Sarah Scoles
  • Biography
    Jenn Shapland
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    Danez Smith
  • Biography
    Tracy K. Smith Tracy K. Smith was born in Falmouth, Massachusetts, in 1972, and raised in Fairfield, California. She is the author of four books of poetry. She is currently the Roger S. Berlind ’52 Professor in the Humanities, and Director of the Creative Writing Program, at Princeton University.
  • Biography
    Nic Stone

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  • Biography
    Gene Luen Yang 2016-17 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature Gene Luen Yang with acting Librarian of Congress David S. Mao and founding director of the Center for the Book John Y. Cole. Photo credit: Shawn Miller, Library of Congress. Gene Luen Yang, 2016-2017 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, was the fifth writer to hold this position. During […]
  • Biography
    Kelly Yang