On Friday, June 13, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz joined members of the Borough President’s Literary Council, top authors, publishing industry leaders, editors and literary insiders to announce publicly for the first time some of the renowned national and international authors scheduled to participate in the third annual Brooklyn Book Festival, which will take place this fall, Sunday, September 14, 2008, at Borough Hall.

Notable confirmed authors include Dorothy Allison (Bastard Out of Carolina), Russell Banks (The Reserve), Paul Beatty (Slumberland), Jimmy Breslin (The Good Rat), Joan Didion (The Year of Magical Thinking), Jonathan Franzen (The Corrections), Pete Hamill (North River), A.M. Homes (The Mistress’s Daughter), Terry McMillan (Waiting to Exhale), Richard Price (Lush Life) and Esmeralda Santiago (When I was Puerto Rican). Among the youth and children’s writers scheduled to attend are Gail Carson Levine (Ella Enchanted), Jacqueline Woodson (Feathers), Cecily von Ziegesar (Gossip Girls), Chris Myers (Jabborwocky), Jane O’Connor (Fancy Nancy), Jon Sciezska (Time Warp Trio) and Mo Willems (Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity).

The 2008 Brooklyn Book Festival follows last year’s hugely successful event, which attracted 20,000 visitors and media from around the world to Borough Hall. Media outlets that covered the Festival included the New York Post, NY1, New York Magazine, Publishers Weekly and literary blogs across the country. The gathering continues to grow into one of America’s premier literary and literacy events—a hip, smart, diverse festival attracting tens of thousands of book lovers of all ages who come to purchase books, hear authors and celebrate the written word. The Festival enhances the borough’s contemporary and historic literary reputation by adding top national and international authors and new partners to expand the event’s reach and prominence beyond Brooklyn, establishing the Festival as a major annual literary destination.

“These days, Brooklyn is indeed the Creative Capital of New York City and, I believe, America,” says BP Markowitz. “When it comes to books, our definition of ‘creativity’ extends beyond our Brooklyn authors to include our Brooklyn audience—book-lovers who hail from every culture and every nation on the planet. From the start, the Brooklyn Book Festival has been ‘Hip-Smart-Diverse,’ and we’re only getting hipper, smarter, and—just like Brooklyn and America—more excitingly diverse as we grow!”

This year’s Brooklyn Book Festival will again feature outdoor stages in Borough Hall Plaza as well as “Reading Rooms” inside historic Borough Hall. Programming will include panels and readings on an outdoor main stage facing Borough Hall’s historic marble steps and exhibitors that will include bookstores, publishers and literary organizations. Events will also take place at the Brooklyn Historical Society.

The festival will keep children of all ages entertained with book readings, a stage performance by the Troupe Theatre, and author readings and signings beginning at 10 am. Included in the children’s lineup are picture-book author Mo Willems, Jon Scieszka of The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales fame; bestselling authors Jane O’Connor, John Bemelmans Marciano (Madeline Loves Animals) and Brooklyn’s own Nina Crews (Snowball) and Marilyn Singer.

Not to be outdone, the Youth Stoop boasts an array of bestselling authors and a menu of genres to please any appetite—from fantasy and graphic novels to fiction for teen girls. For readers ages eight through twelve, top names such as Gail Carson-Levine (author of the current bestseller Ever) and National Book Award finalist Jacqueline Woodson will read and discuss their books with the eager audience. Cecily von Ziegesar, the creator of the book series Gossip Girls, will also read at the Festival.

The 2008 Brooklyn Book Festival is presented by Brooklyn Tourism and the Borough President’s Literary Council, initiatives of Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz. Target is a major sponsor of this year’s Festival and Time Out New York will once again serve as the event’s media sponsor.

For more information about the Brooklyn Book Festival, visit www.visitbrooklyn.org

Click here for current list of confirmed authors