Brooklyn Book Festival Takes Over New York City With 9 Days of Literary Events in All 5 Boroughs

Brooklyn, NY (July 14, 2026) — The Brooklyn Book Festival and Brooklyn Literary Council revealed a dynamic and international list of authors participating in this year’s 21st Festival Day (Sunday, Sept. 27), Children’s Day (Saturday, Sept. 26) and Virtual Festival Day (online Sunday, Sept. 20). The Festival additionally announced award-winning novelist Amitav Ghosh as the recipient of the 2026 Best of Brooklyn (BoBi) Award to be presented at the annual award ceremony in September. Mexican digital artist and illustrator Jaque Jours created the Festival’s 2026 art poster.

The announcement of authors took place at Littlefield in Gowanus, Brooklyn and playfully included authors announcing authors by video or in person. Picture book author Loryn Brantz performed as a mime to announce the names of her fellow children’s book authors, Jess Hannigan envisioned fluffy clouds announcing the names of authors; novelist Emma Copley Eisenberg revealed the authors through a literal beach read and poet Maya C. Popa did a play on “Vogue’s 73 Questions” to introduce the poets attending the Festival this year. Other authors who lent their talents to the announcement were novelists Emma Straub, Bobuq Sayed, Cleyvis Natera, and Deesha Philyaw; young adult author Ashley Woodfolk, journalist Manoush Zomorodi, children’s book authors Sean Qualls and Bess Kalb, cartoonist Bob Sikoryak and French-Moroccan author Leila Slimani.

The 9-day festival will kick off with its online Virtual Festival Day (Sunday, September 20), a tradition that welcomes authors and audiences from around the world to participate in the Brooklyn Book Festival. Among this year’s Virtual Festival authors are Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist Maggie Haberman, Portuguese novelist and essayist Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida, NYT bestselling author Chloe Benjamin, among others. The Brooklyn Book Festival continues to embrace the transformative impact of bringing together authors from across the nation and globe to inform contemporary conversations.

The flagship Festival Day & Literary Marketplace (Sunday, Sept. 27) will feature fan favorites Marlon James, Joyce Carol Oates, Namwali Serpell, Douglas Stuart, Pulitzer Prize-winning authors and journalists Quiara Alegría Hudes, Colson Whitehead, Tracy K. Smith, Cristina Rivera Garza, Julia Angwin, and other award-winning and emerging authors. The flagship Festival Day takes place in venues and in the parks surrounding Downtown Brooklyn’s Borough Hall, with eight indoor and outdoor stages at Brooklyn Borough Hall, the Brooklyn Law School, Center for Brooklyn History, St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church, Columbus Park, and the Korean War Veteran’s Park. Throughout the day from 10am - 6pm, the stages are filled with conversation and debates, as authors of fiction, poetry, non-fiction, comics, graphic novels, and young adult literature come together to converse, read, and sign books. By bringing together hundreds of authors—from standout emerging voices to iconic writers— Festival Day becomes an opportunity for audiences to think through some of today’s most urgent and complex issues, be uplifted and entertained by their favorite authors, and discover new favorites.

Festival Day also stages the largest book market in the Northeast with more than 250 publishers, offering readers the possibility to discover new authors, independent publishers, and literary organizations in hundreds of tents set up outdoors in Columbus Park and Borough Hall Plaza. Downtown Brooklyn is transformed into a book lover’s dream with a sea of books as far as the eye can see.

Children’s Day (Saturday, Sept. 26) will be held in Brooklyn Borough Hall and Plaza where families will enjoy a full day of readings, workshops, performances, book signings, and art projects with favorite children’s and middle-grade authors and illustrators including R.J. Palacio of Wonder fame, #1 New York Times bestselling Bess Kalb of the Buffalo Fluffalo children's book series; poet, organizer, and educator Mahogany L. Browne; two-time Emmy-nominated writer and author Jorge Aguirre, and bestselling children’s book author Adam Gidwitz. Kids can get creative with their favorite writers and illustrators at workshops and even get their books signed. Plus, the whole family can find new favorite books at the Children’s Marketplace of Books.

As part of the Festival’s 9-day literary celebration, 70+ Bookend Events, organized by dozens of cultural partners, will feature hundreds more authors reading and performing together across all five boroughs. The full schedule of these events will be announced later in August.

Brooklyn Book Festival Producer Liz Koch says, “For us, authors are the undisputed heroes of our culture. We are thrilled to present hundreds of authors in discussions about timely and relevant topics at the Festival, whether through fiction, poetry, children’s books, graphic novels, or deeply researched journalism. We welcome all of New York City to come celebrate these incredible authors with us.”

Johnny Temple, co-chair of the Brooklyn Book Festival Literary Council adds, “At the dawn of the Brooklyn Book Festival’s third decade, we have come to appreciate our significance in New York’s cultural landscape, as the largest free book event in (arguably) the Greatest City on Earth. On the heels of the New York Knicks’s historic championship victory, this city is on a roll, and BKBF will help keep it rolling with literary festivities, conversations, and trailblazers galore.”

BKBF 2026 Poster Artist Jaque Jours

The Festival poster features the iconic marble stairs at Brooklyn Borough Hall where tens of thousands of readers have sat over the past 20 years to enjoy the programs presented on the Festival’s Main Stage.

Jaque Jours is a Mexican author-illustrator who mostly works in traditional art mediums to tell stories centered on diverse experiences. She is the illustrator behind the books Telepatía, Las Fotos de Murci, and Día de Muertos. She has illustrated multiple articles and covers for Nexos, a monthly Mexican magazine. Jours said about her creative process:

"When I found out I'd be making this year's BKBF poster, it felt like a circle was closing: I first moved to New York City a few weeks before the 2023 festival, taking the train with my book project in hand. The festival opened the doors to the book publishing world, and near Borough Hall station began the journey that would lead to the publication of my first book.”

“For this poster, I wanted to capture what caught my eye that first time: the uncontainable diversity of the people of New York. I kept returning to what I always draw: people going about their lives—a relaxed delivery guy, a well-read nun, an avid reader slash Knicks fan. I then decided to set them in one of New York’s most important, yet largely unnoticed architectural features: big stairs. Living in the city made me think of stairs in new ways: as refuge, transportation device, sunbathing platform, and meeting place.“

Jours began as an architect but realized she was a storyteller, leading her to earn a master's degree in literature. Since then, she has combined her love of art and literature to create stories that explore ordinary lives, family, cultural traditions, and diverse experiences.

In 2023, she was awarded a FONCA (National Foundation for the Arts and Culture) fellowship by the Mexican Government to make her debut picture book: The Muéganos, which was released in June 2026 by Transit Children’s Editions and will be presented at the Festival’s Children’s Day.

2026 BoBi Award Honoree Amitav Ghosh

The Best of Brooklyn (BoBi) award, presented each year to an author from Brooklyn whose work best exemplifies or speaks to the spirit of Brooklyn, this year is conferred to award-winning novelist Amitav Ghosh.

Amitav Ghosh is the author of the bestselling Ibis Trilogy, composed of Sea of Poppies (shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize), River of Smoke, and Flood of Fire. His other novels include The Circle of Reason, which won the Prix Médicis étranger, and The Glass Palace. He is the author of many works of nonfiction, including The Great Derangement, The Nutmeg’s Curse, and Smoke and Ashes. In 2018, Ghosh became the first English-language writer to win the Jnanpith Award, India’s highest literary honor. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Ghosh will be celebrated at an awards ceremony in the fall. Other past BoBi winners have included Marlon James (2025), Roz Chast (2024), Hilton Als (2023), Esmerelda Santiago (2022), Toi Derricotte (2021), Lynn Nottage (2020), Mo Willems (2019), N.K. Jemisin (2018), Colson Whitehead (2017), Jacqueline Woodson (2016), Jonathan Lethem (2015), and others.

The full list of authors participating in Festival Day, Virtual Festival Day, and Children’s Day, announced during yesterday evening’s virtual author reveal, includes:

Festival Day Authors - Sunday, September 27:

Fiction:
‘Pemi Aguda / Sinan Antoon / Sharmini Aphrodite / John Manuel Arias / Hannah Lillith Assadi / Andrea Bajani / Yu-Mei Balasingamchow / Bindu Bansinath / Sarah Blakley-Cartwright / Gina Chung / T Clark / Naima Coster / Patrick Cottrell / Edwidge Danticat / Kiran Desai / Emma Copley Eisenberg / Melissa Faliveno / Amitav Ghosh / Eduardo Halfon / Chen-Fu Hsu / Quiara Alegría Hudes / Violaine Huisman / Marlon James / Jeyamohan /Daniel Kehlmann / Rachel Khong / Grace Krilanovich / Hafeez Lakhani / Dimitry Elias Léger / M Lin / Valeria Luiselli / T Kira Madden / Karan Mahajan / Megha Majumdar / Davin Malasarn / Courtney Maum / Cleyvis Natera / Emily Nemens / Sigrid Nunez / Joyce Carol Oates / Téa Obreht / Deesha Philyaw / Cristina Rivera Garza / Jordy Rosenberg / Bobuq Sayed/ Giada Scodellaro / Avigayl Sharp / Leïla Slimani / Emma Straub / Douglas Stuart / Brandon Taylor / Morgan Thomas / Stephanie Wambugu / Sarah Wang / Teddy Wayne / Jules Wernersbach / Kayla Rae Whitaker / Colson Whitehead / Katie Yee

Non-Fiction:
Julia Angwin / Rachel Aviv / Ian Bogost / Tanya Bush /Anelise Chen / Margena A. Christian / Jelani Cobb / Mechele Dickerson / Bruce Feiler / Ami Fields-Meyer / Jamie Fisher / Fab 5 Freddy / Anand Gopal / Joshua Jelly-Schapiro / Tom Junod / Ibram X. Kendi / Helene Landemere / Yotam Maron / Ed Park / Natasha Pickowicz / Chanda Prescod-Weinstein / Ashanté M. Reese / Namwali Serpell / Zahra Tangorra / Ben Tarnoff / Brigid Washington / Dana A. Williams /Manoush Zomorodi

YA:
K. Ancrum / Katie Bernet / Libba Bray / Angelica Cheng / Mike Curato / Natasha Díaz / Sarah Beth Durst / Stef Ferrari / Camryn Garrett / M.J. Hastings / Darcie Little Badger / Cindy Pham / Page Powars / Michael Ruhlman / E.L. Shen / Shannon J. Spann / Danielle Valentine / Amélie Wen Zhao / Ashley Woodfolk

Poetry:
Will Brewer / Tina Chang / Cornelius Eady / Diamond Forde / Haleh Liza Gafori / Adrian Matejka / Erika Meitner / John Murillo / Maya C. Popa / Peggy Robles-Alvarado / Yasmine Seale / Naomi Shihab Nye / Tracy K. Smith / R.A. Villanueva

Comics/Graphic Novels:
Andrea Chalupa / Jarrett Dapier / Jibola Fagbamiye / JD Glass / Danica Novgorodoff / Krystal Quiles/ Angelique Roche / R. Sikoryak

Virtual Festival Day Authors (Sunday/ September 20):

Fiction:
Chloe Benjamin / Daniela Catrileo / Mahmud El Sayed / Elaine Hsieh Chou / Karim Kattan / Mónica Ojeda / Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida / Larissa Pham / De'Shawn Charles Winslow

Graphics:
Ernesto Saade / Mohammed Sabaaneh / Nadine Takvorian

Nonfiction:
Maggie Haberman

Children’s Day Authors - Saturday, September 26:

Jorge Aguirre / Stephen Barr / Kara Bodegón-Hikino / Loryn Brantz / Mahogany L. Browne / Meg Cabot / Tina Cho / Vikki Chu / Elisha Cooper / Nick Eliopulos / Debbie Fong / Adam Gidwitz / John Patrick Green / Jason Douglas Griffin / Jess Hannigan / Vashti Harrison / Corey Ann Haydu / Brett Helquist / Sam Ita / Vicki Johnson / Jaque Jours / Bess Kalb / Cindy Kang / Sarah Nicole Kennedy / Pooja Makhijani / Manuel Marsol / Kate Micucci / Kate Milford / Emma Mills / Rebecca Mock / Lorraine Nam / Yevgenia Nayberg / R. J. Palacio / Sean Qualls / Angela Quezada Padron / Gillian Reid / Dave Roman / Laura Sandoval Herrera / Stephen Savage / Steph Stilwell / Emily Sun Li / Kon Tan / Steve Teare / Millie von Platen / Sofia Warren / Rowboat Watkins / Sam Wedelich / Zach Weinersmith / Xindi Yan

About the Brooklyn Book Festival

The Brooklyn Book Festival was launched in 2006 to address the need for a major literary event that embraced the diverse constituencies of New York City. The Festival’s mission is to celebrate published literature and support the literary community through free and low-cost programs that connect New York City readers with local, national, and international authors, publishers, and booksellers. To this end, the staff collaborates with the Brooklyn Book Festival Literary Council, co-chaired by Johnny Temple and Camille Rankine, to develop original programs that are hip, smart, diverse, and inclusive, including Festival Day & Literary Marketplace, citywide Bookend events, Virtual Festival Day and the BKBF Children’s Day.

BKBF is presented by the non-profit Brooklyn Book Festival, Inc. and the Brooklyn Book Festival Literary Council. The Festival is proud of its roster of supporters including the Amazon Literary Partnership, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Brooklyn Delegation to the City Council, the Office of the Brooklyn Borough President, Antonio Reynoso, CityPoint, Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, Hawthornden Foundation, the Kirby Family Foundation, Literary Arts Fund, the Mayor’s Office of Media & Entertainment, National Grid, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin and Council Members Darlene Mealy and Lincoln Restler, New York City Tourism Foundation, the New York Review of Books, the New York State Council on the Arts, NYU, State Senator Andrew Gounardes, Taipei Cultural Center, TD Charitable Foundation, the Tiger Baron Foundation.

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