Brooklyn, many would agree, is the most important literary-geographical destination of our time. Where once a bookish person might have dreamed of living in a bedsit on the Upper East Side and constructing the Great American Novel with the aid of the ample collections of the New York Public Library, now the young and hopefully literary covet a shared apartment in Prospect Heights and prefer to envision themselves toiling away at their emotionally muted Bildungsroman over an espresso (milk drinks are for amateurs).

The borough itself plans to celebrate that image this weekend at the Brooklyn Book Festival. On Sunday, writers – at least a few of whom can actually still afford to reside in Brooklyn – will come out for a day of panels and readings and signings. Some are well-known – Geoff Dyer, Dennis Lehane, Terry McMillan – while others are still up-and-coming. The aspiring set will be able to hear the voices and shake the hands of those whose careers they wish they had. Admiration, intelligence and envy will be ladled out in equal measure.

In other words, it promises to be a fun time. And all events are free.

Most of the panels take on a literary theme and then see three or four writers discuss it. Bright and early at 10am on Sunday, for example, you can listen to the novelists James Hannaham, Ottessa Moshfegh and Helen Phillips in discussion about employment in fiction. Another panel will bring together Paul Beatty, Heidi Julavits and Elsa Albert to address the literature of motherhood. Lauren Groff, Rebecca Makkai and Chinelo Okparanta will discuss marriage. David Ulin, Vivian Gornick and Luc Sante will converse on the process of writing about cities.

The topics can get pretty abstract: The Center for Fiction promises a conversation on “the role of fiction in contemporary life”, while PEN is hosting a discussion on how “freedom is being defined, discussed, and challenged”. You can also, in a somewhat oddball outlier of an event, watch Jonathan Lethem discuss how the city “made him a storyteller” with the actor John Leguizamo (who, as it turns out, also writes books).

But still other panels are more attuned to current events. The New York Review of Books is hosting a panel on civil rights and policing, one which includes both the novelist Darryl Pinckney and the co-chair of Obama’s task force on 21st Century Policing. Jon Ronson, Astra Taylor and John Seabrook will discuss the destructive powers of the internet at the ominously titled The Internet: the Great Equalizer? The critics Margo Jefferson and Meghan Daum will be speak on the lost middle class. The famed economist Joseph Stiglitz will also put in a mid-afternoon appearance to speak on the problem of unequal societies.

After each event authors will be available to sign books at tables scattered throughout the festival area in downtown Brooklyn. Several bookstores will also have booths where you can buy any additional reading material you might need, and likely a nice screen-printed canvas tote bag to carry your purchases in.

The festival is, of course, at least somewhat self-aware. The day will even include a panel on gentrification. Where Do We Go From Here brings together DW Gibson, Rosie Schaap and the playwright Dael Orlandersmith to discuss, among other topics, “whether gentrification is inevitable”. It’s not advertised, but one suspects a bonus awaits anyone who shows up to that event bearing a bookstore tote, a Moleskine notebook, and a cup of single-origin pour-over coffee.