From Lee Child to Claudia Rankine: How to see your favorites at Miami Book Fair

So you are eager to attend this year’s Miami Book Fair — but not quite sure how to go about it.

We can help.

For the first time, the country’s largest book fair is going virtual, tough news for the thousands of fairgoers who flock to the Wolfson campus of Miami Dade College every November. But this year, starting Sunday and continuing through Nov. 22, you can attend the fair in the comfort of your own home, and it won’t cost you a cent. You won’t even have to face Miami traffic to get there.

Here’s what you need to know: The complete fair schedule is available at miamibookfair.com. You’ll need to register there or at miamibookfaironline.com. Registered fairgoers can build their personal watchlists (like you do on Netflix).

Here are just a few of the confirmed authors who will appear at the fair this year:

Fiction: Lee Child; Kevin Kwan; Joyce Carol Oates; Terry McMillan; Ben Okri; Roddy Doyle; Dean Koontz; Mary Gordon; Nelson George.

Nonfiction: Claudia Rankine; Fred Guttenberg; P.J. O’Rourke; Anthony DePalma; Erin Brockovich; Bari Weiss; Candacy Taylor.

Poetry: Margaret Atwood; Heidi Erdrich; Juan Felipe Herrera.

And if you’re looking to boost your memory, check out Nelson Dellis’ memory tricks. He’s a two-time champion of the USA Memory Championship and lives in Coconut Grove.

The fair will continue with its multilingual programming, featuring programs in English, Spanish and Creole.

There is no physical Children’s Alley, so you’ll have to paint your kids’ faces yourself.

But the fair will host children’s programming every day after school throughout the week and also on the weekends, with live workshops where you can learn how to write a song, build a video game or write a poem.

Among the highlights in Children’s Alley: “Bill Nye’s Great Big World of Science”; Jacqueline Woodson, “Before the Ever After”; Adrianna Cuevas, “The Total Eclipse of Nestor Lopez”; and Kwame Alexander, with James Patterson, “Becoming Muhammad Ali.”

There’s also a cool interactive map, the Florida Writers’ Map, which is filled with the names of Florida authors, filmmakers and musicians. You can click on the person’s name and you will be taken to a box with information about their book or activity at the fair. And in a nod to YouTube, you can click on a video and text about the video you are going to watch.

The virtual Book Fair Marketplace will replace the popular Street Fair weekend, and will feature booksellers and other vendors.

For complete details, visit www.miamibookfaironline.com