Summer's finally here, and hopefully you've packed your textbooks away until fall semester. In the meantime, you finally have time to pick up some books for *gasp* fun. In an effort to find something for the summer reading list, I headed over to the Blank Page archives to find some new authors.

We've had the chance to interview great writers at DC's annual National Book Festival. Neil Gaiman, Salman Rushdie and Paul Theroux are all bestselling authors and gave us some great tips for aspiring writers.

Neil Gaiman writes fantasy and science fiction. A friend recomended I read his novel American Gods. It's an amazing book- put his one at the top of your summer list. His other works include Anansi Boys, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book. Gaiman is listed in the Dictionary of Literary Biography as one of the top ten living post-modern writers, and is a Hugo, Nebula, Bram Stoker and Newbery Medal winner.

Another author to check out is Salman Rushdie. His novel Midnight's Children won a Booker Prize, and you literally can't put it down. In our interview, he talks about how he treats writing like his job, and the importance of not wasting your creative energy.

Paul Theroux writes travel lit and fiction. His books The Great Railway Bazaar and The Ghost Train to the Eastern Star are two of my favorite travel pieces. At the National Book Festival, he gives advice to aspiring travel writers about how he approaches writing and why it's important to travel solo.