Boston Book Festival Announces 2014 Speaker Lineup

More than 200 notable authors and presenters will be at the sixth annual Book Fest in Copley Square.

copley square

Photo by Connor Sumner for Boston Magazine

As summer comes to a close, we can now look forward to all that fall has to offer, including golden foliage, Halloween, and pumpkin-spice everything. One event that has impressed locals and visitors alike for years is the Boston Book Festival, held each October in and around Copley Square.

The festival recently released the full lineup (below) of more than 200 presenters slated for the 2014 event, and the list—as usual—is an impressive one. Highlights for locals include, but are certainly not limited to, former mayor Tom Menino (his memoir drops in mid-October), Michael Blanding (The Map Thief), Ben Bradlee Jr. (The Kid), Elisabeth Elo (North of Boston), Paul Harding (Tinkers), Susanna Kaysen (Cambridge), David McCullough Jr. (You Are Not Special), and Sue Miller (The Arsonist).

Earlier this year, the BBF announced its keynote presenters would be architect Norman Foster, historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, jazz star Herbie Hancock, Susan Minot (author of Thirty Girls), and Rick Riordan (author of the Percy Jackson and the Olympian series).

The festival also announced that the One City One Story selection will be “Sublimation” by local writer Jennifer Haigh. Copies of the short story will be distributed and available online for free starting this week. Readers are encouraged to attend the 1C1S discussion of “Sublimation” at the festival.

Exact sessions and schedules for the weekend-long event are still to be determined. The 2014 Boston Book Festival will take place October 23-25 in Copley Square.

Here’s the full lineup for BBF2014 so far (subject to change). To see descriptions of each, go to bostonbookfest.org.

Steve Almond
Geeta Anand
Scott Anderson
Ulka Anjaria
Alicia Anstead
Paola Antontelli
Tom Ashbrook
Helene Atwan
Benjamin Barber
Matthew Battles
Alex Beam
Deborah Becker
Jacqueline Bhabha
Kevin Birmingham
Holly Black
Michael Blanding
Gabriella Blum
Charlotte Boulay
Jared Bowen
Jennifer Finney Boylan
Ben Bradlee Jr.
Hiawatha Bray
Anthony Brooks
Roger Brown
Rafael Campo
Jay Cantor
Nicholas Carr
Christopher Castellani
Soman Chainani
Vikram Chandra
Dan Chiasson
Cassandra Clare
Jaime Clarke
Bob Clawson
Leah Hager Cohen
Maureen Corrigan
Marc Crépon
Vicki Croke
Callie Crossley
Ray Daniel
Stanislas Dehaene
Jennifer De Leon
Daniel Dennet
Stacey D’Erasmo
C. Desir
Anna Dewdney
Ursula DeYoung
Tony DiTerlizzi
Judith Donath
Norah Dooley
Paul Durham
Elisabeth Elo
Sorche Fairbank
Sara Farizan
Kate Flora
Katherine Flynn
Rory Flynn
Elena Foster
Norman Foster
Howard Gardner
Johanna Geary
Peter Georgescu
Matthew Gilbert
Ethan Gilsdorf
William Giraldi
Joshua Glenn
Laura Godwin
Carey Goldberg
Meredith Goldstein
Doris Kearns Goodwin
Joshua Greene
H. D. S. Greenway
S. E. Grove
Jennifer Haigh
Herbie Hancock
Paul Harding
Michael Hawley
Julie Hennrikus
Jeremy Hobson
Carl Hoffman
Richard Hoffman
Doug Holder
Michelle Hoover
Margo Howard
Sterling Hundley
John Edward Huth
Major Jackson
Paul Jankowski
Alden Jones
Daniel Jones
Peniel Joseph
Calestous Juma
Hester Kaplan
Kirun Kapur
Arlene Kay
Susanna Kaysen
Jessica Keener
Brendan Kiely
A. S. King
Lily King
Christopher Klein
Laura Koenig
Joseph Koerner
Stephanie Kuehn
Jessica Lander
Ellen Langer
Marian Lanouette
Sarah Lewis
Lawrence Lindner
Bill Littlefield
Andrea Lovett
Christopher Lydon
Kenneth Mack
Gregory Maguire
Edith Maxwell
Ann M. Martin
Andrew McAfee
David McCullough Jr.
Jill McDonough
Rebecca Mead
Askold Melnyczuk
Thomas Menino
Cathryn Mercier
Claire Messud
Ben Mezrich
Michael J. Epstein Memorial Library
Sue Miller
Katie Smith Milway
Susan Minot
Tova Mirvis
E. B. Moore
Bradford Morrow
Doug Most
Liz Mugavero
Yannick Murphy
Celeste Ng
Bob Oakes
Lauren Oliver
Dayo Olopade
Qais Akbar Omar
Joseph O’Neill
ZZ Packer
Leslie Pell van Breen
Leigh Perry
Sacha Pfeiffer
Timothy Phillips
Rebecca Podos
Jason Pontin
Lana Popovic
Henriette Lazaridis Power
Robert C. Pozen
George Prochnik
Patti Quigley
Kate Racculia
Joanna Rakoff
Wendy Ranan
Chris Raschka
Belinda Rathbone
Jean-Claude Redonnet
Edgard Telles Ribeiro
Rick Riordan
Dan Rivera
David Rose
Helen Rosenfeld
Barbara Ross
Jenna Russell
Bob Ryan
Pasi Sahlberg
Jeffrey Schnapp
James Scott
David Sengeh
Jennifer Senior
Kathleen Spivack
Wesley Stace
David Ezra Stein
Kim Stolz
Peter Stothard
Jaaka Stucky
Elizabeth Suneby
Roger Sutton
Jan Swafford
Peter Swanson
Vikas Swarup
Neil Swidey
Maria Tatar
Max Tegmark
Jeanne Theoharis
Hervé This
Rupert Thomson
Anthony Tjan
Tony Toledo
Dawn Tripp
Miles Unger
Martin Walsh
Annie Weatherwax
Scott Westerfeld
Alan White
Jay Winter
Meg Wolitzer
Lisa Wong
Robin Young