Friday, April 17

7pm – Award-Winning Essays
Barnes & Noble
Adult and young adult finalists from the Bethesda Literary Festival’s Writing contest will read their essays entitled, “One Thing in My Life I Would Change If I Had the Opportunity.” Finalists will receive awards for their stories.

7:30pm – Domestic and International Politics
The Writer’s Center
Meet E.J. Dionne, author of Souled Out and twice-weeklycolumnist for The Washington Post where he covers national policy and politics; and Kimberly Dozier,CBS News Correspondent and author of Breathing the Fire: Fighting to Report – and Survive – the War in Iraq, as they discuss politics, the Middle East and their recent books.

 8pm – Poetry Slam
Washington School of Photography
Performance poetry competition open to individuals, organized by poet and slam master Delrica Andrews. Cash prizes. Ages 18+. Registration at the door.

Saturday, April 18

10am – Children’s Books and Science
Bethesda Elementary School
Join Bethesda Transportation Solutions for a reading of Underground Train and A Community Adventure.  Mad Science will also be there to conduct a special experiment and a few lucky kids will experience a transportation innovation, the Mad Science Hovercraft! 

11am – Politics in the Age of Obama
Doubletree Bethesda
Join Managing Editor of Washington Week and Senior Correspondent for The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, Gwen Ifill, as she discusses her newest book, The Breakthrough: Politics in the Age of Obama.

11am-1pm – Children’s Story Time
Barnes & Noble
Join author R. M. Smith, author ofAn A to Z Walk in the Park, and Winnie the Pooh for children’s story time.

12:30pm – Fiction Bestsellers
Doubletree Bethesda
Hear from national bestselling author, Louis Bayard, author of The Black Tower; and Peter Schechter, international political and communications consultant and author of Pipeline, as they discuss their most recent fiction books.

12-5pm – 16 th Annual Writer’s Center Small Press Fair
The Writer’s Center
Meet dozens of editors and publishers of literary journals and small presses at the Small Press Fair.  From 1-2:30pm, a creative writing workshop for younger children will be held with long-time Writer’s Center workshop leader Sally Canzoneri. From 3-4pm, a used books appraisal by Andy Moursund will be featured.

1pm – Washington, D.C. for Families
Bethesda Library
Meet picture book author Laura Krauss Melmed for apresentation for families on her recent books, including Capital! Washington, D.C. from A to Z.

2pm – Masters of Suspense
Doubletree Bethesda
Meet world-wide bestselling suspense author Mary Higgins Clark,and her daughter, suspense novelist Carol Higgins Clark, as they discuss their careers and recent novels.

2:30pm – Sports for Kids
Bethesda Library
Meet author Fred Bowen, Washington Post Sports Columnist on the KidsPost page, as he delights young sports fans and their parents with his AllStar Sportstory Series for ages 8 and up.

7:30pm – Poetry Readings
The Writer’s Center
Poetry readings by David Keplinger, author of The Prayers of Others, The Clearing and World Cut Out with Crooked Scissors: The Selected Poetry of Carsten Rene Nielsen; and Michael Collier, author of Dark Wild Realm, The Neighbor and The Ledge. The readings will be followed by a reception and book signing.

8pm – Sidesplitting Standup!
Caddies on Cordell
Comes see DC Improv comedian Tony Deyo, who has performed at HBO’s U.S. Comedy Arts Festival, New York’s The Laugh and on NBC’s The Night Shift. He also helped produce the stand-up comedy documentary Metaphysical Graffiti with Rob Cantrell, which debuted at the Cannes Film Festival in 2005. Ages 21+.

8:30pm – Bethesda Idol
The Writer’s Center
Similar to the pop culture TV show, this will be an opportunity to have your work judged by industry professionals: literary agent Jeff Kleinman of Folio Literary Management and additional literary agents to be announced will review your book. All genres are welcome. Prizes include free tuition to a multi-session Writer’s Center workshop (up to a $345 value), and a free one-year membership to the Writer’s Center. Please visit www.writer.org for the how to submit your literary work.


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11am – Looking Back at NPR
Hyatt Regency Bethesda
Meet veteran reporter-commentator Daniel Schorr, a Senior News Analyst at NPR and Emmy-winning journalist as he speaks about his career and his most recent book, Come To Think Of It, a collection of his NPR commentaries from the last 10 years.

11am-1pm – Authors’ Reception
Barnes & Noble
Roam the aisles, chat with authors and have your books signed. Authors include: Heidi Hemming and Julie Hemming Savage, Women Making America; Andrew Jampoler, The Last Lincoln Conspirator: John Surratt's Flight From the Gallows; Bonnie Zucker, Anxiety-Free Kids: An Interactive Guide for Parents and Children; Matthew Alexander, How to Break a Terrorist: The U.S. Interrogators Who Used Brains, Not Brutality, to Take Down the Deadliest Man in Iraq; Robert Samuelson, Great Inflation and its Aftermath: The Past and Future of American Affluence; Judith Stern, Dr. Patricia Quinn, Putting on the Brakes: Understanding and Taking Control of Your ADD and ADHD; Michael Sullivan, Avempartha; Marc Silver, Voices of Caregiving: The Healing Companion: Stories of Courage, Comfort and Strength; Stephen Hess, What Do We Do Now?: A Workbook for the President-Elect; Jennifer Allison, Gilda Joyce The Ghost Sonata; Susan Froetschel, Royal Escape; Philip Schrag/David Kenney, Asylum Denied: A Refugee's Struggle for Safety in America; Hena Khan, Night of the Moon: A Muslim Holiday Story; Susan Crites, I Love You More than Rainbows; Mary Amato, The Riot Brothers Series; Anthony Pitch, "They Have Killed Papa Dead!": The Road to Ford's Theater, Abraham Lincoln's Murder, and the Rage of Vengeance; Frank Van Riper and Judith Goodmanm, Serenissima: Venice in Winter and Naomi Baumslag, Murderous Medicine: Nazi Doctors, Human Experimentation, and Typhus.

11:30am – “What Would You Do to Make the World a Better Place?”
Bethesda Elementary School
Join the winners of the Bethesda Literary Festival’s Youth Writing Contest, “What Would You Do to Make the World a Better Place?” as they read their stories and receive prizes.

12:30pm – Middle Eastern Politics
Hyatt Regency Bethesda
Meet Ken Silverstein, Washington Editor for Harper’s Magazine, and author of Turkmeniscam; and Kenneth Pollack, Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, expert on Middle Eastern political-military affairs and author of A Path Out of the Desert, as they discuss politics, the Middle East and their most recent books

1pm – Young Adult Book & Movie Party
Bethesda Library
Meet teen book author Annette Curtis Klause, as she discusses all her books, including Blood and Chocolate, which was made into a major motion picture in 2007. The presentation will include a showing of the movie.

 2pm – Political Afternoon
Hyatt Regency Bethesda
Join Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and Associate Editor at The Washington Post, David Maraniss, author of ROME 1960; and U.S. News and World Report Deputy Editor, Robert Schlesinger, author of White House Ghosts, for a discussion about their careers in journalism and their most recent books.

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