Tents featuring best-selling authors, poets and illustrators lined the National Mall Saturday for the annual National Book Festival.
The event, organized by the Library of Congress and hosted by First Lady Laura Bush, celebrates the importance of reading and creativity by providing the public an opportunity to meet some of their favorite authors, according to a press release about the event.
"Now in its sixth year, the National Book Festival presents a wonderful opportunity to see firsthand how reading changes lives and how our country, its citizens and its libraries promote reading in imaginative and inspiring ways," said Librarian of Congress James Billington.
This year, more than 70 award-winning authors, poets and illustrators participated in the event. Some of the contributing authors included novelist Khaled Hosseini, author of "The Kite Runner;" Pulitzer Prize winner Bob Woodward; Donald Hall, the 14th Poet Laureate of the United States; mystery writer Daniel Silva; science fiction writers Spider and Jeanne Robinson; and children's author Mo Willems.
Asher Curry, a senior in the School of International Service, said he was very impressed with the festival and the turnout.
"Reading is obviously an important skill that everyone should have," he said. "An event like this, promoting literacy, is very important."
Tim Moore, a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences, said the festival felt like a "big party about books."
The festival's events were organized into pavilions, each featuring various genres of literature. This year's pavilions included "Children," "Teens and Children," "Fiction and Fantasy," "Mysteries and Thrillers," "History and Biography," "Home and Family" and "Poetry."
In addition to the tents with authors, book lovers could learn more about literacy programs and libraries in every state in the "Let's Read America" tent and the "Pavilion of the States."
The "Let's Read America" tent centered on literacy activities developed by some of the event's sponsors, such as Target and The Washington Post. In the "Pavilion of the States," attendees could learn more about reading and literacy traditions in each state throughout the country.
Children's television characters, such as Arthur the Aardvark, Big Bird and Clifford the Big Red Dog appeared throughout the festival grounds all day.
NBA and WNBA players attended the festival to sign autographs and read books to children as part of their Read To Achieve program.
Lisa Kirlick, a sophomore in the School of Communication, said she was excited to visit the "Poetry" tent, but most of all, she said she was excited to meet Big Bird.
Though many AU students attended the festival, many of them said that they wished the event were publicized more around the AU campus.
"AU should have promoted this more," said Lisa Meckler, a freshman in SIS. "I had to find out about it from outside sources."
For anyone who was unable to attend the festival, the Library of Congress has designed a podcast series of the day's events, featuring interviews with some of the authors, which can be downloaded for free on the Library's Web site.
