Words Come to Life at Bethesda's Annual Literary Festival

March 28, 2013 (Bethesda, MD) – Downtown Bethesda celebrates the diversity of modern literature by presenting the 14th annual Bethesda Literary Festival from Friday, April 19 – Sunday, April 21, 2013.  Managed and organized by the Bethesda Urban Partnership, Inc. (BUP), the festival will feature an array of local and national authors, journalists and poets, as well as writing contests and children’s events.  All events are held throughout downtown Bethesda and are free. 

The festival features Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and bestselling author David Maraniss, Barack Obama:The Story; National Book Award winner and Pulitzer Prize finalist Alice McDermott; New York Times bestselling novelist, Chris Bohjalian, The Sandcastle Girls; executive editor at Bloomberg News and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Amanda Bennett; New York Times bestselling author of The Dressmaker, Kate Alcott; editor of The National Interest Robert Merry, Where They Stand: The American Presidents in the Eyes of Voters and Historians; and award-winning journalist Lynn Povich, The Good Girls Revolt: How the Women of Newsweek Sued Their Bosses and Changed the Workplace.   

Other participating authors include distinguished journalists, Rachel Cox, Into Dust and Fire: Five Young Americans Who Went First to Fight the Nazi Army; Ken Budd, The Voluntourist: A Six-Country Tale of Love, Loss, Fatherhood, Fate, and Singing Bon Jovi in Bethlehem; and Liza Mundy, The Richer Sex: How the New Majority of Female Breadwinners is Transforming Sex, Love, and Family; award-winning author Thomas Mallon, Watergate: A Novel; bestselling author, blogger and domestic satirist, Jill Smokler, Motherhood Comes Naturally (and Other Vicious Lies); award-winning poet and former Maryland poet laureate Michael Collier, An Individual History; and the first official White House videographer, Arun Chaudhary, First Cameraman.

Other highlights of the Bethesda Literary Festival include the Reading and Awards Ceremonies for the Essay & Short Story Contest, the Youth Writing Contest and the Bethesda Poetry Contest; a meet-and-greet with your favorite local authors, and author events for children and teens.

Bethesda Urban Partnership, Inc. (BUP) is the creator and sponsor of Taste of Bethesda, Imagination Bethesda, the Bethesda Literary Festival, a free Summer Concert Series, Winter Wonderland and Bethesda Outdoor Movies: Stars on the Avenue.  Bethesda Urban Partnership also manages the Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District.  The beautification of downtown Bethesda’s parks, streets and sidewalks is also maintained by BUP.

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