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More than 100 authors from the area and across the U.S. are coming to the Capital BookFest on Saturday in Largo to participate in the fourth annual event, which promotes literacy in Prince George's County and the Washington metropolitan area.

The BookFest will be held from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Borders Books at 931A Capital Centre Blvd. The event is free and includes book readings, cooking demonstrations, writing and publishing workshops, poetry performances and children's storytelling.

Organizers expect more than 7,000 people to attend, twice as many people as last year, because the office of the county executive in Prince George's County partnered with BookFest and provided additional funding and marketing for the event.

The first 1,000 people who attend will receive a copy of "How We Love," a collection of letters and lessons for the next generation written by adults from across the U.S.

High school students from Frederick Douglass High School in Upper Marlboro, the Humanities Council of Washington, D.C., and the Washington, D.C., Tutors for Kids Program who participated in Book-in-a-Day summer programs, which teaches high school students how to write and publish books, will read from their books and do book signings.

Kwame Alexander, festival producer for Capital BookFest, said the event attracts a diverse group of people. "They come for the people they want to see, but [author] Nikki Giovanni will probably be the hit of the festival. Last year it was [author and actress] Victoria Rowell."

Giovanni, an author of 30 books and a distinguished professor of English at Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg, Va., presented her book, "Rosa," at the Capital BookFest in 2006. This year she will present three children's books at BookFest: "Lincoln and Douglass: an American Friendship," "Hip Hop Speaks to Children: a celebration of poetry with a beat" and "The Grasshopper's Song: An Aesop's Fable Revisited." She will sign books and answer questions.

"I love working in the children's area. I'm a poet [so] I'm used to functioning with very few words; I have 48 pages to get the story done," Giovanni said. "I love history and I love being able to share it with young people."

Harrine Freeman, a Washington, D.C., author, is giving a seminar on her first book, "How to Get Out of Debt: Get an ‘A' Credit Rating for Free." Festival-goers can purchase Freeman's book and learn about her financial services business, H. E. Freeman Enterprises in Bethesda.

Freeman said she is looking forward to seeing Nikki Giovanni.

"I like her writing; it touches your soul, it's very empowering, uplifting and inspiring," she said.

The BookFest partnered with the county's Commission for Women with the goal of empowering women's lives, promoting activities for women and exposing issues single-woman households can face, Alexander said.

Television celebrity Omarosa Manigault, who is famous for her appearances on the 2004 season of the television show The Apprentice and the 2008 season of The Celebrity Apprentice, is presenting her new book and will participate in a question-and-answer session and book-signing.

"My book is really a book that teaches women how to communicate and how to negotiate their own happiness," Manigault said.

Life experiences and challenges, such as her father's murder and the death of close family members, have put her in the position to want to be a change agent for women, she said.

"When you have so much to say, nothing will keep you from putting pen to pad," Manigault said. "I've been dishing it, so I have to be ready to take it."

Other authors participating are Clyde Ford, Tananarive Due, Douglas Blackmon, Evelyn Bethune, Wendy Coakley Thompson, Warren Brown and Rose Rock, mother of comedian Chris Rock.

E-mail Liz Skalski at eskalski@gazette.net.