In this powerful and inspiring program, a thrilling diversity of best-selling authors join thousands of book lovers across the country to celebrate American ingenuity — what it means to them, how it fires their minds and imaginations and why books are so important to us in these times.

“The Library of Congress National Book Festival: Celebrating American Ingenuity,” will air Sunday, Sept. 27, 6-8 p.m. ET/PT (check local listings) and will be hosted by Hoda Kotb of NBC News’ “TODAY.”

The broadcast will feature a variety of presentations and interviews by two dozen of the nation’s most beloved literary voices, all brimming with insight as they welcome us into their work spaces to give us a glimpse of their minds and hearts.

The broadcast will feature an impressive group of authors, including the following:

• Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and 2020 recipient of the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction Colson Whitehead.
• Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
• National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature Jason Reynolds.
• NBC News “TODAY” co-host Jenna Bush Hager.
• Master of the legal thriller John Grisham.
• Melinda Gates, philanthropist and co-founder of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
• Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Jon Meacham on civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis.
• A conversation between longtime friends Ann Patchett, whose recent novel, “The Dutch House,” is a Pulitzer finalist, and two-time Newbery winner Kate DiCamillo, whose recent book is “Stella Endicott and the Anything-Is-Possible Poem.”
• Booker Prize winner Salman Rushdie.
• Graphic novelist Gene Luen Yang.
• Fantasy novelist Leigh Bardugo.
• Haben Girma, disability rights advocate, author and the first deaf-blind graduate of Harvard Law School.
• National Book Award-winning novelist James McBride.
• Ann Druyan, Emmy Award-winning writer, producer and director specializing in science.

Additional luminaries included in this celebration of reading are:

• Laura Bush, co-founder of the National Book Festival in 2001.
• Current U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo and former U.S. Poets Laureate Tracy K. Smith, Juan Felipe Herrera and Robert Pinsky.
• Sarah Broom, whose debut memoir caused a literary sensation.
• Tomi Adeyemi, recipient of the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy.
• Kali Fajardo-Anstine, National Book Award finalist.

Throughout the program, the writers Walter Isaacson, Sandra Cisneros and Amy Tan will offer thought-provoking commentary on how “American Ingenuity” has led this nation though the best and worst of times and how that spirit has helped guide our journey toward a more perfect union.