Top Journalists, Authors and Poets To Headline Annual Literary Festival

Bethesda’s annual literary festival is right around the corner – will you be there?

The 12th annual Bethesda Literary Festival, organized by the will draw local and national journalists, authors and poets to a variety of venues throughout downtown Bethesda. The event, geared to celebrate diversity in modern literature, is slated for Friday, April 15 through Sunday, April 17.

At the festival, awards will be handed out for the Bethesda Essay & Short Story Contest, the Youth Writing Contest and the Bethesda Poetry Contest.  Stop by a meet-and-greet with one of 15 renowned authors or attend an author event for children and teens with the kids – it’s all free.

This year, the festival will feature National Public Radio’s Michele Norris, journalist and author Cokie Roberts and her husband, Steve Roberts, the co-authors of the new book “Our Haggadah: Uniting Traditions for Interfaith Families,” and author and MSNBC commentator Richard Wolfe. Other participating authors include Marie Arana, former editor-in-chief of The Washington Post’s “Book World” section, linguist Deborah Tannen, and journalist and researcher Gayle Tzemach Lemmon. Award-winning poets David Keplinger and Michele Wolf are also on the guest list.

Click to the right to view a full schedule of events.