Join Us At the National Book Festival on September 6, 2025
The 25th annual Library of Congress National Book Festival will be held at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, September 6, from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. (doors open at 8:30 a.m.). The event is free and open to the public. A selection of programs will be livestreamed online and videos of all programs will be available shortly after the Festival.
Discover Great Places Through Reading
The Maryland Center for the Book, a program of the Maryland Humanities, has selected two books as the “Great Reads from Great Places” for the 2025 National Book Festival of the Library of Congress. As an affiliate of the Library of Congress, Maryland Center for the Book selects two titles each year in the Adult and Kids categories as a representation of the state’s literary heritage or talent. Maryland Humanities will be representing our state at the National Book Festival at the Roadmap to Reading.
Follow the Roadmap to Reading
Take a literary trip around the country by visiting the Roadmap to Reading, sponsored by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). The Roadmap to Reading will feature tables with representatives from 54 Centers for the Book: one for each state as well as tables for the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Northern Marianas. The National Book Festival Roadmap to Reading is made possible by the generous support of the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the National Endowment for the Humanities with additional support from Chief Officers of State Library Agencies.
Celebrate Maryland’s Great Reads!
Every year, each Center for the Book selects two books, one for an adult audience and the other for youth, creating a list of books called Great Reads from Great Places.
Our Adult selection for 2025 is Kin: Rooted in Hope by Carole Boston Weatherford with art by Jeffery Boston Weatherford and our Youth selecton is Rap it Up! also by Carole Boston Weatherford and Jeffery Boston Weatherford with illustrations by Ernel Martinez.
Pick up a Great Reads from Great Places brochure and visit each table in the Roadmap to Reading to explore each state’s great reads and receive a unique ink stamp; those who collect all of the stamps can receive a special giveaway at the IMLS booth!
Read more about these authors and their works below!
- About the Great Read's Adult Book Selection
Kin: Rooted In Hope by Carole Boston Weatherford with art by Jeffery Boston WeatherfordHybrid in form, and even more expansive in what it has to say, Kin: Rooted in Hope is a book created by, and about, a Black family and its generations.
Poet and children’s author Carole Boston Weatherford and her son, artist Jeffery Boston Weatherford, collaborated on this book that gives voice to their earliest enslaved ancestors back to the founding of Maryland. With each poem and its accompanying illustration, Carole and Jeffery tell their family story through each of their kin and the world they lived in: the Chesapeake Bay, the plantation house, Frederick Douglass, Harriett Tubman, and more. The selection committee was enthralled by how Kin uses art and poetry to illuminate what can’t be said by historical records (when they are available), in a vital story that is about Maryland’s past and its present.
- About the Great Read's Adult Author
- About the Great Read's Adult Illustrator
- About the Great Read's Children's Book Selection
Rap It Up! by Carole Boston Weatherford and Jeffery Boston Weatherford with illustrations by Ernel Martinez.
From scribbling words on the page to spitting rhymes on the mic, a joyful narrator guides readers through the emotions, literary techniques, structures and motifs that help make rap so amazing. With vibrant illustrations that leap off the page, this book urges readers to believe in themselves and the power of their creativity.
- About the Great Read's Youth Author
- About the Great Read's Adult Illustrator
- About the Great Read's Children's Illustrator
Ernel Martinez was born in Belize and raised in Los Angeles and Detroit. His introduction to art was through the underground world of graffiti. He enjoys creatively finding ways to give underserved communities the tools to tell their stories through art making.
The Maryland Center for the Book is one of 56 Affiliates of the Library of Congress Center for the Book, joining other affilaites in each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam and Northern Marianas. These affiliates carry out the center’s mission of promoting books, reading, libraries and literacy, as well as their local literary heritage.
During the 2025 National Book Festival, on Saturday, September 6, each Affiliate Center has a table at the Festival’s Roadmap to Reading in the Washington Convention Center. Attendees can visit each state and territory table and learn about their state’s literature, including their “Great Reads” selections. Both books will be featured and sold at the Festival’s bookstore. This activity has been a part of the festival since 2002.
The National Book Festival Roadmap to Reading is made possible by the generous support of the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the National Endowment for the Humanities with additional support from Chief Officers of State Library Agencies.
