Announcing BBF 2012 Keynote Speakers

Over our first three years, the Boston Book Festival's keynote sessions have quickly gained a reputation for being stimulating, dynamic, even provocative--and certainly never boring! When the 2012 edition of the BBF hits town on October 27, we can promise that our two keynotes--one for kids, one for adults--will continue this tradition.

2012 Boston Book Festival Keynote: Richard Ford

2012's Boston Book Festival keynote will be delivered by award-winning novelist and short story writer Richard Ford. Ford is best known for his Frank Bascombe novels, including Independence Day, the first novel ever to win both the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Pulitzer Prize. His latest work, Canada, has been called by Lorrie Moore "a hearty meal of a novel." It is indeed a supremely satisfying, beautifully introspective novel about loss and progress, about the ongoing process of making sense of one's past in order to proceed into the future. 

2012 Boston Book Festival Kids' Keynote: Lemony Snicket

This year's kids' keynote will be delivered by the elusive and mysterious Lemony Snicket, author of the wildly popular Series of Unfortunate Events. This October, he'll be publishing Who Could That Be At This Hour? the first volume of his autobiography, an account that shouldn't be published, in four volumes that should never be read. Does attending this year's kids' keynote require bravery? Or foolhardiness? We'll let you be the judge of that.

Richard Ford and Lemony Snicket will headline an illustrious line-up that includes dozens of other authors we'll be revealing over the coming weeks. Visit our presenters' page to learn more about our keynote speakers and their work, and mark your calendars now for October 27--the full day of programs, for kids and adults alike, is not to be missed.