C-SPAN2 Set to Air Live BookTV Coverage This Weekend From the Miami Book Fair

Can't make it out to the 32nd Annual Miami Book Fair? No problem, C-SPAN2 has you covered. This Saturday and Sunday starting at 10 a.m., the channel's BookTV will air live coverage of all the events happenings including: author talks, interviews, viewer call-in segments, and anything else you they come across while posted at the fair this weekend. BookTV has planned interviews with Rep. John Lewis, Peggy Noonan, P.J. O’Rourke, Judith Miller, Stacy Schiff, Joy-Ann Reid, Ted Koppel, and many more. 

Book TV has been bringing the Miami Book Fair to their national TV audience since they began covering non-fiction books and authors in 1998. Executive producer Peter Slen , who'll be on-air hosting our coverage, tells the New Times his group has spotlighted the Miami Fair because of it's uniqueness and the size of the passionate crowd that comes out year after year. 

"We put a lot of resources into our Miami coverage because it's a big festival with diverse authors and topics, a welcoming attitude, and a chance to talk with authors we may not see in Washington, DC. We also love meeting the readers in South Florida, and that’s a large group! " Sien tells New Times. 

"The crowds are festive and full of book lovers and Book TV watchers. And they stop by and it's wonderful when they do. That means they're watching Book TV, they're reading, and they care about books and ideas." Slen says C-SPAN will have cameras set up in Chapman Hall at Miami-Dade for author events — the area has traditionally been used for the largest crowds and the top nonfiction author panels. On site, the channel will also have their C-SPAN Bus parked outside as a marketing and educational tool where tours will be conducted.
C-SPAN's long standing tradition of covering the Miami Book Fair has much to do with the deep history of note worthy authors that have attended in the past.

"The history of the festival is so rich—George W. Bush, Al Gore, James Patterson, Norman Lear, Cornel West, John Dean, the Benghazi guards, Doris Kearns Goodwin—those are some of the so-called boldface names…but so many other wonderful historians and authors attend each year that we wouldn’t be doing our job if we didn’t attend." Slen is confident that attendees at the fair will hear or see something that piques their interest on BookTV.

For a full schedule of events and shows planned on BookTV live from the Miami Book Fair this weekend visit http://www.booktv.org/