Lit lovers should head to Bethesda this weekend for the suburban center’s annual Literary Festival, which kicks off tonight at 7 p.m. and runs through Sunday. Organized by the Bethesda Urban Partnership, Inc., the festival includes readings and signings from local and national authors along with other events, including—-inexplicably—-improv from the Washington Improv Theater.

Events of note include a reading at 12 p.m. tomorrow at the Fraser Gallery with first-time novelists Deanna Fei (A Thread of Sky) and Bethesda resident Sarah Pekkanen (The Opposite of Me); a 1:30 p.m. reading tomorrow at the Bethesda Library by Jon Scieszka, the first national ambassador for Young People’s Literature and author of The True Story of the Three Little Pigs and The Stinky Cheese Man; and a 12:30 p.m. reading Sunday at the Doubletree Hotel in Bethesda by renowned journalist Helen Thomas, who has covered 10 presidential administrations, and Craig Crawford, a columnist for Congressional Quarterly, co-authors of Listen Up, Mr. President: Everything You Always Wanted Your President to Know and Do.

Events are scheduled at seven different locations around downtown Bethesda, and a full-schedule of events can be seen here.

THE BETHESDA LITERARY FESTIVAL RUNS TODAY THROUGH SUNDAY AT LOCATIONS AROUND BETHESDA. (301) 215-6660.