Borough president Marty Markowitz greeted a throng of New York literati who came out to Brooklyn Heights for a reception last Friday afternoon where he and Akashic Books publisher Johnny Temple (in the red shirt) announced some of the sponsors and celebrity guests for the third annual Brooklyn Book Festival, which will be held on September 14. PEN American Center and Words Without Borders are signing on as festival partners, with The Nation and The New York Review of Books chipping in on the programing. And the guests include a mix of local authors(Kate Christensen, Gabriel Cohen, Kathryn Harrison) with others from near (Russell Banks, Joan Didion) and far (Dorothy Allison, Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez). And since the Omaha Downtown Literary Festival is waiting until the following weekend this year, I'll finally get to attend the festivities in my old neighborhood! I'm already looking forward to it...