The Gaithersburg Book Festival will be held in person this year for the first time since before the COVID-19 pandemic. The festival will be held May 21 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Bohrer Park.
The annual book festival, which started in 2010, features authors from around the country and typically draws thousands of visitors, according to its website.
The event was held virtually in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic, with online programming taking place over several days instead of the typical single-day event held in May.
As of Friday, the book festival’s website listed more than 100 featured authors who will be presenting at this year’s festival.
One is Montgomery County Council Member Will Jawando, who has written a memoir entitled “My Seven Black Fathers: A Young Activist’s Memoir of Race, Family, and the Mentors Who Made Him Whole.” The book focuses on Jawando’s upbringing, family, life in school and his time working in President Barack Obama’s administration.
Also featured at the book festival will be “Unthinkable,” a memoir by U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin.
Raskin discusses the chaos of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and his son Tommy’s suicide, which ocurred one week prior to the insurrection. Raskin also wrote about the impeachment effort against President Donald Trump following the insurrection.
Additionally, Fiona Hill, formerly a member of the National Security Council under Trump, will speak about her book “There is Nothing For You Here.”
Hill, a Bethesda resident, testified before Congress during Trump’s first impeachment inquiry in 2019. She was interviewed last year by Bethesda Magazine.
A full list of authors is available on the book festival’s website.
The book festival will also feature writing workshops for children, teens and adults, and the unveiling of the three winners of the festival’s high school poetry contest.
Dan Schere can be reached at daniel.schere@moco360.media