FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Wednesday, August 8, 2018
Press Contacts:
Kathy Daneman
Kathy Daneman Public Relations
kathy@kathydaneman.com | 718-778-0285
Laura Dolan
Geto & de Milly, Inc.
ldolan@getodemilly.com | 212-686-4551
Brooklyn Book Festival Debuts Official 2018 Festival Art Poster with Illustration by Julia Wertz
BROOKYLN, NY—Wednesday, August 8, 2018—The Brooklyn Book Festival (BKBF), New York City’s largest free literary festival, has unveiled this year’s poster created by award-winning illustrator and cartoonist Julia Wertz. From posters to online portals and social media streams, the 2018 Brooklyn Book Festival beautifully captures Brooklyn’s voracious readers as they are, armed with a book wherever they go. The poster is truly a celebration of the written word and its devoted readers, and a loving tribute to the borough where the international festival takes place.
Wertz joins the ranks of award-winning illustrator Adrian Tomine and award-winning designer Rodrigo Corral, who created last year’s poster, and famed author and designer Chip Kidd who produced the first-ever festival poster in 2016.
“We are proud and delighted to have Julia Wertz create the 2018 art poster for the Festival,” said Carolyn Greer, co-producer of the Brooklyn Book Festival. “It is as unique and fun as her work in general, and her many diverse and absorbed readers in the poster reflect the love of reading the festival nurtures!”
“It was a bittersweet experience working on the poster because I left NYC two years ago, and I miss the city every day,” Wertz said. “As a writer and artist, it was so wonderful to live in a place where people are ecstatic about literature and art. There’s something so wonderful about being in a place that has festivals and events for books. I love walking through the Brooklyn Book Festival and seeing all the different types of books people have poured their heart and soul into making. Every book is a peek (or full reveal) of someone’s psyche. Books are stories and stories are what make us who we are, and that deserves to be celebrated. So I was thrilled to be asked to do the poster for the festival, and drawing it was a delight, but it was torture being 3000 miles away from the place I was drawing.”
Wertz is a professional cartoonist, amateur historian and hobbyist urban explorer. Her graphic novels include the Fart Party, Drinking at the Movies, and The Infinite Wait. Her latest book, Tenements, Towers & Trash: An Unconventional, Illustrated History of New York City, won the 2018 Brendan Gill Prize. She is a regular contributor to The New Yorker.
Click here to download the official 2018 Brooklyn Book Festival poster.
The Brooklyn Book Festival attracts tens of thousands from around the world to experience spirited discussions between emerging and iconic writers and a lively Literary Marketplace. This fall’s week-long festival begins on September 10 with five weeknights of literature themed “Bookend” programs presented all over New York City. Brooklyn Book Festival Children’s Day is Saturday, September 15, 2018 and will feature music performances, a dueling draw-off among illustrators, picture book and young readers stages, workshops, an interactive art making “Artspot,” and a Literary Marketplace just for kids are all part of the day’s celebration of childhood reading.
The flagship 14-stage Brooklyn Book Festival takes place Sunday, September 16. On festival day, 300 writers of beloved works of fiction and nonfiction, poetry and graphic novels will participate in panels, readings and other creative performances of their work. From its inception in 2006, the Brooklyn Book Festival has celebrated visual storytelling, with renowned illustrators, cartoonists and graphic novelists regularly a part of the festival.
This year, the festival’s graphic programming will feature panels with Caldecott Award-winning illustrator/author David Small (Home After Dark), New Yorker cartoonist Liana Finck (Passing for Human), and anthropologist Bessora (Alpha) on refugees, outcasts, and inheritors of hard history; Michael Kupperman (All The Answers), Box Brown (Is This Guy for Real?), and Rina Ayuyang (Blame This on the Boogie) on television and celebrity with adulthood and reality; and Audrey Niffenegger and Eddie Campbell (Bizarre Romance), Alex DeCampi and Katie Skelly (Twisted Romance) on weird romance and speculative fiction. Wertz will join Peter J. Tomasi (The Bridge), and Jason Lutes (Berlin) to consider the graphic city. Ed Piskor (X-Men: Grand Design), Kwanza Osajyefo (Black), and Sheena Howard (Superb) will discuss the new superhero. Acclaimed YA authors Hope Larsen (All Summer Long), Jen Wang (The Prince and the Dressmaker), and Tim Fielder (Matty’s Rocket) rise to the challenge with stories of summer rebellion, a gender-bending royal conspiracy, and an African-American Flash Gordon.
Click here to read The BKBF Interview with Ed Piskor.
About the Brooklyn Book Festival
BKBF is presented by the non-profit Brooklyn Book Festival, Inc. and the Brooklyn Book Festival Literary Council. The Festival is made possible with the generous support of the Amazon Literary Partnership, Author’s Guild, Brooklyn Borough President’s Office/NYC & Company Foundation, City Council Members Brad Lander, Stephen Levin and Carlos Menchaca, Con Edison, Cultural Services of the French Embassy, Polish Cultural Institute, Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, Kirby Family Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, NYC Department of Parks & Recreation, New York State Council on the Arts, The Québec Government Office in New York, St. Francis College, and NYU Tandon School of Engineering. The festival’s media sponsors are abc7NY, C-SPAN, Book TV and WNYC.
Cultural and programming partners include BAM, Brooklyn Historical Society, Brooklyn Law School, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Fiction, The Nation, National Book Foundation, New York Review of Books, NYU Tandon School of Engineering, Poetry Society of America, St. Francis College, The Times Literary Supplement, Whiting Foundation, and Windham Campbell Prizes.
e sure to visit www.brooklynbookfestival.org or check out the official Facebook page, follow the Festival on Instagram (@bkbookfest), on Twitter (@BKBF) and past Festival photos on Flickr.
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