October 2, 2003
For Immediate Release
Contact: Kevin McFadden
434-924-6890
kjm7a@virginia.edu
VABook! 2004 Announces Luncheon Speaker Clyde Edgerton
Novel on Aging Complements Festival’s Tenth Anniversary
(Charlottesville, VA, Oct. 2, 2003) . . .The tenth annual Virginia Festival of the Book (VABook!) is pleased to announce that novelist Clyde Edgerton will be the speaker for its annual luncheon on Thursday, March 25, 2004 at 11:45 a.m. at the Omni Charlottesville Hotel. Edgerton, whose most recent novel is Lunch at the Piccadilly, has written seven previous novels, including Raney and Walking Across Egypt.
In Lunch at the Piccadilly, Edgerton introduces a cast of hilarious characters at the Rosehaven Convalescence Center, including nonagenarian Lil Olive, who is recuperating from a fall but longs to get back behind the wheel of her '89 Olds, and L. Ray Flowers, a freelance evangelical preacher who would unite nursing homes and churches in a national movement, "Nurches of America."
The Washington Post has called Edgerton "One of this country’s funniest and foremost accomplished novelists," and the San Diego Union-Tribune called him "a master of the old-fashioned American art of tale-spinning … [whose] literary line goes back straight as an arrow to Sherwood Anderson and Mark Twain."
"There are enough tears in the world right now," said VABook! Program Director Nancy Damon on the choice of luncheon speaker. "We wanted a novelist who can bring us laughter. But don’t be surprised if he evokes some of both."
"A novel focused on the challenges of aging is a perfect complement to a book festival that has just gotten to its first milestone," said Robert C. Vaughan, President of the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, the state humanities organization that produces VABook! annually. "We’re getting better with age."
The VABook! Luncheon is one of the few paid events of the five-day free literary festival. Due to its popularity, this event usually sells out soon after tickets go on sale. Those wishing to attend the luncheon are encouraged to reserve early. Tickets are $35.00. To order, call (434) 924-6890.
The tenth annual Virginia Festival of the Book will be held March 24-28, 2004 in venues throughout Charlottesville.
