September 30, 2003 Top-Ranked Award-Winning Authors Featured at 2003 National Book Festival

Seven current winners of major national book awards will participate in the 2003 National Book Festival on Saturday, Oct. 4, on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., between 7th and 14th streets from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (rain or shine). These distinguished writers head a list of more than 80 award-winning and nationally known authors, illustrators, poets and storytellers appearing at the Festival, which is organized and sponsored by the Library of Congress and hosted by Laura Bush. This third annual national celebration of books and the joy of reading is expected to attract a crowd of more than 60,000.

The seven authors and their appearance times are:

Rick Atkinson, winner of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for History for “An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943” (Henry Holt & Co., 2002), will speak in the History & Biography Pavilion at 3:10 p.m. and sign books from 4 to 5 p.m.

Avi, winner of the 2003 Newbery Medal for “Crispin: The Cross of Lead” (Hyperion, 2002), will speak in the Teens & Children Pavilion at 10 a.m. and sign books from 11 to noon.

Robert A. Caro, winner of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Biography and the 2003 National Book Award for “Lyndon Johnson: Master of the Senate” (Knopf, 2002), will speak in the History & Biography Pavilion at 5:00 p.m. and sign books from 3 to 4 p.m.

Nancy Farmer, winner of the 2002 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature for “The House of Scorpion” (Atheneum, 2002), will speak in the Teens & Children Pavilion at noon and sign books from 1 to 2 p.m.

Julia Glass, winner of the 2002 National Book Award for Fiction for “Three Junes” (Pantheon, 2002), will speak in the Fiction & Imagination Pavilion at 10 a.m. and sign books from 11 to noon.

Nikki Grimes, winner of the 2003 Coretta Scott King Author Award for “Bronx Masquerade” (Dial Books, 2002), will speak in the Children’s Pavilion at 2:30 p.m. and sign books from 4 to 5 p.m.

Eric Rohmann, winner of the 2003 Caldecott Medal for “My Friend Rabbit” (Roaring Brook Press, 2002), will speak in the Children’s Pavilion at 1:45 p.m. and sign books from 3 to 4 p.m.