I attended the 2014 Annual Book Festival in Washington DC this weekend. It was a great experience of course. I attended years ago, so this was the first time in a while I attended such an event since I decided to get into writing. The event was rich resources, from teaching material to author meet and greets.
The Book Festival is hosted by the Library of Congress every year. This year it was held in the Washington Convention Center downtown. It offered a unique collection of poets, photographers, chefs, authors and writers for people to meet and greet. There were also informational sessions and poetry performances. It was a very resourceful even for me as a newbie in the writer’s realm. Politics and Prose, a local DC bookstore and café was hand to sell books from the festival; many of which the author was available to autograph if requested. I stacked up on my book collection since I’ve started reading again and even got to meet a couple of authors. Each state was highlighted in its literary contributions through the Pavilions of the States feature. There was a booth set up for each state and contained information literary contributions throughout history from the state and really drew a lot of attention for the kids. There was also a lot of good teaching educational material at hand.
If I remember correctly, in years past, the festival carried over into 2 days and it was held outdoors. This year it was indoors for whatever reason. It made it a lot more difficult to get around as there was a huge section for children’s books, so a lot of parents were running around with their young children. They also decided to hold the extra poetry sessions and performances on the same day instead of doing them the following day. The hours were from 10 am to 10pm, so it was difficult to wait around for so many hours since a lot of the poetry sessions weren’t until the evening. But I walked away content with the information I obtained. I definitely look forward to next year’s festival.
Learn more about the DC Book Festival here.
Does your town or city hold book festivals? Are they enjoyable?