(Photo: via Brooklyn Book Festival)

Now in its sixth year, the annual Brooklyn Book Festival draws throngs of book lovers for its jam-packed daylong symposium on September 18 that features more than 220 authors in a frenetic series of panel discussions, readings, forums, and more. And it’s completely free!

Today’s most popular authors discuss issues confronting modern American society, such as living in an age of constant anxiety, climate change, and depleted resources. Listen as Phillip Lopate considers the importance of the personal memoir, Jeremy Scahill fields questions about our post-9/11 city, and Academy Award-winning author Larry McMurtry, screenwriter of Brokeback Mountain, weighs in on screenwriting and movie making. Hear Jonathan Safran Foer read from Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Pete Hamill from Tabloid City, and Chuck Klosterman from The Visible Man, while Adam Mansbach, author of the incredibly popular book, Go the F**k to Sleep, discusses politically incorrect parenting.

Brooklyn-based 2011 Pulitzer Prize winning authors Jennifer Egan, Jesse Eisinger, Clifford Levy, and Jake Bernstein discuss Brooklyn’s prominence in this year’s competition and beloved writer Jhumpa Lahiri receives a Brooklyn Book Festival BoBi Award.

In a lead up to the big day a schedule of related Bookend Events take place beginning September 15 at Brooklyn’s bookstores including Greenlight, WORD, Boulevard Books & Café, powerHouse Books, and BookCourt. Other events take place at Brooklyn Bowl, Galapagos Art Space, Brooklyn Public Library, The Tobacco Warehouse, 3rd Ward, and St. Ann’s Warehouse. Check website for precise schedules.

The event takes place at Brooklyn Borough Hall from 10am to 6pm. 209 Joralemon Street near Court Street in Downtown Brooklyn.