April 28, 2005
For Immediate Release
Contact: Kevin McFadden
434-924-6890
kjm7a@virginia.edu

VABook! 2005 Continues Festival Growth Trend

The Virginia Festival of the Book (VABook!) is pleased to announce that the audience for the eleventh annual Charlottesville event has increased to a new record attendance total of 22,874.

“We are thrilled by the numbers, by the quality of the programs and the enthusiasm shown by our attendees,” said Program Director Nancy Damon, who has seen the festival grow every year since she began in 2000. VABook! 2005 audiences heard from memorable authors such as David Baldacci, Geraldine Brooks, Linda Fairstein, Tony Horwitz, Stephen Isserlis, Elinor Lipman, Sharyn McCrumb, Jonathan Safran Foer, Esmeralda Santiago, Gregory Orr and Valerie Tripp. Serial novelist Alexander McCall Smith spoke at three events, delighting almost 900 attendees, and Blink author Malcolm Gladwell saw some 1,200 at an evening lecture and the business breakfast. The poet Robert Creeley, who passed away shortly after the festival, appeared courtesy of the Virginia Quarterly Review and gave what was believed to be his last public reading at the festival.

More than 9,000 area youth participated in book-related programming in Charlottesville and Albemarle area schools. Programs ranged from in-school student readings to author and illustrator visits, from book swaps to stage productions.

Winners of the annual poster contest sponsored by the Altrusa Club International included:

Elementary School: First place: Marie Mack (Woodbrook); second place: Emily Claire Schill (Meriwether Lewis);third place: Carolyn Pugh (Woodbrook); honorable mention: Ryan J. Tarkington (Woodbrook) and Josh Epstein (Meriwether Lewis).

Middle School: First place: Ava Burke; second place: Suzannah Spaar; third place: Marigene Willson; honorable mention: Holly Rich (all from Village School).

High School: First place: Laura Campbell (Western Albemarle); second place: Virginia Fuentes (Western Albemarle); third place: David Lee Dallas (Charlottesville); honorable mention: Annilyn Schill (Western Albermarle)

The twelfth annual Virginia Festival of the Book will be held March 22-26, 2006 in venues throughout Charlottesville. Visit www.vabook.org for more information.

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