The Brooklyn Book Festival Is Sunday

Writing as a born-and-bred Brooklynite and charter member of the Brooklyn Literary Council, it's impossible for me to muster an unbiased view of this Sunday's Brooklyn Book Festival. But even without these ties, I feel sure I'd be singing the festival's praises.

Some highlights: Jennifer Egan! Joyce Carol Oates! Jhumpa Lahiri! Wallace Shawn! Also, an interview with Jules Feiffer describing how his classic children's story The Phantom Tollbooth was born fifty years ago in Brooklyn Heights. Adam Mansbach, the author of Go the F—k to Sleep, meditating on parental frustration with Atlantic writer Ta-Nehisi Coates and Alice Bradley. Celebrated novelist Colson Whitehead talking about his forthcoming book, Zone One, an apparent post-apocalyptic turn into zombie literature. A conversation with Madison Smartt Bell, Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer and Amy Waldman exploring how 9/11 continues to echo in fiction. A debate on the unique challenges facing the Indian subcontinent in the 21st Century. A full day of children's programming anchored by Brooklyn's legendary Mo Willems.

Plus, cooking lessons, intergenerational poetry and expert panels on climate change, the Arab Spring, the politics of water and the uprising in Wisconsin against Governor Scott Walker.

The notable number of prominent festival speakers also includes Larry McMurtry, Walter Mosley, Mary Karr, Russell Banks, Jonathan Safran Foer, Fran Leibowitz, Terry McMillan, Nicole Krauss, John Sayles, Steven Millhauser, Tom Perrotta, Amitav Ghosh and journalists Juan Gonzalez, Jeremy Scahill, Christian Parenti, Alia Malek, Laura Flanders and Mark Hertsgaard, among many others.

And it's all free!

Moreover, this being America's hippest borough, there's a real effort to put independent publishing front-and-center with indie bookstores, publishers and authors given prime real estate in both the exhibiting quad and on the panel discussion.

So, yes, you gotta be a real hater to not love the BBF. Now in its sixth year, the day features more than one hundred panels, readings, signings, interviews, exhibition booths and interactive events for readers of all ages and inclinations scattered across multiple sites around downtown Brooklyn.

In its early years, the festival was largely a homegrown affair, with Brooklyn-based writers taking up the vast majority of speaking slots. But as the BBF has grown hotter in turn with the borough's ascendance, the festival has been able to secure high-wattage literary stars from well beyond the five boroughs (i.e. Joyce Carol Oates), transforming it into one of the country's largest and most prominent annual celebrations of books and reading.

"Now in its sixth amazing year, the Brooklyn Book Festival is, without question, one of the premier literary destinations in the world," said Johnny Temple, chair of the Brooklyn Literary Council. "From our award-winning authors to our publishers big and small, from musicians and comedians to humorists and graphic novelists, the Brooklyn Book Festival represents our growing literary universe - and this year's expanded four days of events will be our biggest and best celebration yet."

This video (watch above right), created by Jeffrey Lependorf, gives a good sense of the breadth, depth and passions associated with the BBF and what will take place on September 18.

Hope to see you there.