Schedule By Topic

Opening Ceremony: Caroline Preston

Join us for a ceremonial start to the book festival, including hits from the 1920s by the Silvertones, the announcement of The Hook contest winners, readings from Letters About Literature winners, and opening remarks by author Caroline Preston (Gatsby's Girl).

Sponsored by VFH Center for the Book and The Big Read in Virginia.

Moderator: Robert Vaughan

Lives Turned Upside Down: Fiction

Stories of personal struggle with Melissa Clark (Swimming Upstream Slowly), Heidi Boehringer (Chasing Jordan), Katharine Davis (Capturing Paris), and Liam Callanan (All Saints).

Moderator: Enrique Herrera

The Gift of Good Advice: Critique Groups, Editors, and Everything-in-Between

Charlotte Crystal, Jennifer Elvgren (Josias, Hold the Book), Deborah Prum (Rats, Bulls, and Flying Machines: A History of Renaissance and Reformation), and Andy Straka (Cold Quarry) will discuss the crucial elements involved in giving constructive manuscript critiques and how to apply critiques from groups and editors to manuscripts.

Hosted by Moseley Writers Group.

Moderator: Andy Straka

The Unexpected Man: A Play About Books

A dramatic reading of The Unexpected Man, by Yasmina Reza, with James Heffernan and Avril Largiader, which stages an encounter on a train between a famous old novelist and a woman who loves his books. 6:00 p.m. in French; 8:30 p.m. in English.

Hosted by Alliance Française.

Moderator: Andree King

Festival Luncheon: Doug Marlette

Pulitzer Prize winner for Editorial Cartooning, creator of Kudzu, and novelist , will speak on his new novel, Magic Time. Tickets $45, ROOM CURRENTLY AT CAPACITY. (See waitlist instructions.) Pre-luncheon music by The Flashbacks.

Sponsored by Wachovia.

Moderator: Robert Vaughan

IMPORTANT - This is a ticketed event. You must purchase tickets in order to attend.

What Makes a Discussible Book?

Marisa de los Santos (Love Walked In), Mary Sharratt (The Vanishing Point), and Lynn York (The Sweet Life) highlight discussible themes from their books;  Barbara Mead (Reading Group Choices) offers secrets for selecting good books for reading groups.

Moderator: Barbara Drummond Mead

The Blue Ridge Anthology Project: From Pen to Print

Reading and discussion of anthology showcasing local talent in fiction, poetry, and non-fiction, including author Coy Barefoot, novelist Sarah Honenberger, poet Hilda Ward, and Civil War columnist Jack Trammell. Contributors include local luminaries like Rita Dove, David Baldacci, and George Garrett.

Hosted by Charlottesville Writers Club.

Moderator: Gary Kessler

When Southerners Don't Act "Southern"

Susan V. Donaldson (I'll Take My Stand: The South and the Agrarian Tradition), M. Thomas Inge (William Faulkner: Overlook Illustrated Lives) and moderator John Lowe (Jump at the Sun) discuss Southern identity and those who describe or challenge it from within.

Hosted by South Atlantic Humanities Center.

Moderator: John Lowe

New Fiction: UVa Creative Writing Alumni Reading

Join M.F.A. program alums Ravi Howard (Like Trees, Walking) and Laura Dave (London is the Best City in America) for a reading from their new novels.

Moderator: Jeb Livingood

Political Intrigues in Fiction

Explore characters whose lives are torn apart by public and private matters. With Thomas Allan (Mattasqwatt Island), Larry Baker (Athens, America), Robert Earle (The Way Home), and Sarah Honenberger (White Lies).

Moderator: Nancy O'Brien

The Japanese American Internment: A Granddaughter's Perspective

A Place Where Sunflowers Grow is a children’s book set in a Japanese American internment camp during WWII. Amy Lee-Tai will discuss the inspiration and motivation behind her book, do a reading, and take questions.

Hosted by Friends of Greene County Public Library.

Moderator: Deborah Willenborg

Reconstructions: Fiction with Mark Childress and Donald McCaig

Donald McCaig (Canaan) and Mark Childress (One Mississippi) read from and discuss their novels of the Post-Civil War and Post-Civil Rights South.

Hosted by the Library of Virginia in celebration of the Virginia Literary Awards.

Moderator: Hoke Perkins

Repeating the Past: Historical Fictions, Present Day Truths

Jewish novelists Michael Lowenthal (Charity Girl), Katharine Weber (Triangle), and Gabriel Brownstein (The Man from Beyond).

Moderator: Grace Zisk

Communities of Memory: Stories from the Holocaust and Beyond

With Daniel Mendelsohn (The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million), Robert Satloff (Among the Righteous: Lost Stories from the Holocaust's Long Reach into Arab Lands) and Yaacob Dweck (tr., Haim Sabato's The Dawning of the Day).

Moderator: Burton Zisk

Current Literature in India and Pakistan

A brief introduction to the current literary scene of South Asia by Mehr Farooqi and Robert A. Hueckstedt. Readings of new translations from Hindi and Urdu, two major literary languages of the region, and time for discussion.

Moderator: Robert Hueckstedt

The Full Matilda: David Haynes

David Haynes reads from The Full Matilda, the poignant story of a captivating African American woman who survives Washington, DC's upper-crust families and their web of secrets and worn-out social mores.

Hosted by African American Authors Book Club of Charlottesville.

Moderator: Bonnie Brewer

Disasters in Fact and Fiction

Authors Katharine Weber (Triangle: A Novel), Stefan Bechtel (Roar of the Heavens), Ken Foster (The Dogs Who Found Me), and Elise Blackwell (The Unnatural History of Cypress Parish) discuss stories surrounding famous fires, storms, and floods.

Moderator: Larry Baker

Short Suite: Fiction Trio

Reading and discussion from short story writers Steve Watkins (My Chaos Theory), R.T. Smith (Uke Rivers Delivers), and David Lynn (Year of Fire).

Moderator: Mitzi Ware

Displaced Persons: Fiction Reading

Characters adapting to foreign environments with Marsha Mehran (Pomegranate Soup), Mary Sharratt (The Vanishing Point), and Peter Orner (The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo).

Moderator: Bella Stander

Novels to Keep You Up at Night: Romance! Suspense!

Best-selling Novelists Kathryn Caskie, Sarah Langan, Cathy Maxwell, Sophia Nash and Kathryn Smith discuss their novels of romance and suspense.

Moderator: Cathy Maxwell

Muggles and Vampires: Fantasy Folklore

George Beahm (Fact, Fiction and Folklore in Harry Potter's World; Muggles and Magic) and Bruce McClelland (Slayers and Their Vampires: A Cultural History of Killing the Dead) trace fantastical characters who dominate popular imagination.

Moderator: Karen Wikander

Late Bloomers: Women Novelists Over 40

Meet novelists who started their writing careers together and in middle age: Darnell Arnoult (Sufficient Grace), Lynn York (The Sweet Life), and Pam Duncan (The Big Beautiful).

Moderator: Virginia Boyd

Literary Editors

With editors David Lynn (The Kenyon Review), R.T. Smith (Shenandoah), Mary Flinn (Blackbird), and Ted Genoways (Virginia Quarterly Review).

Moderator: Susan Williamson

New Voices in African American Literature

With Ravi Howard (Like Trees, Walking), Sonnie Beverly (Saved Folk in the House), Eugene Williams, Jr (I Am the Darker Brother), and Kendra Hamilton (The Goddess of Gumbo).

Moderator: Tamyra Turner

Stanza Break: When Poets Commit Prose

Poets Michael Chitwood (Finishing Touches: Selected Essays and Fiction) and Michael McFee (The Napkin Manuscripts: Selected Essays and an Interview) weigh in on what drives them to prose and how it's different from writing poetry.

Sponsored by Charlottesville Writing Center.

Moderator: Heather Burns

The Annual Keenan Lecture: Writing The Wire

David Simon, head writer for the award-winning HBO series, The Wire, and George Pelecanos, novelist and screenwriter, will discuss writing drama for television. Interviewed by Laura Lippman.

Sponsored by UVA Department of Drama.

Moderator: Doug Grissom

Writing Novels for Tweens and Teens

Agent Laura Rennert joins authors Doris Gwaltney (Homefront), Sara Lewis Holmes (Letters from Rapunzel), and Paula Chase (So Not the Drama) to discuss writing and publishing middle-grade and young adult fiction.

Hosted by Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, Mid-Atlantic Region.

Moderator: Anne Marie Pace

Authors' Reception

Join us for wine and hors d'oeuvres at the home of the President of the University of Virginia, hosted by authors Lee Smith, Hal Crowther, and Earl Hamner. All participating authors invited.

Sponsored by the Library of Virginia in celebration of the Virginia Literary Awards, UVa Bookstore.

IMPORTANT - This is a ticketed event. You must purchase tickets in order to attend.

Transformations: An Evening of Fiction

Novelists Howard Norman (Devotion), Lee Smith (On Agate Hill), and Luis Alberto Urrea (The Hummingbird's Daughter) share their recent works.

Sponsored by the Library of Virginia in celebration of the Virginia Literary Awards.

Moderator: Robert Vaughan

Figured in Fiction: Literary Figures as Characters

The life and times of great authors refigured in new fiction by Caroline Preston (Gatsby's Girl), Mameve Medwed (How Elizabeth Barrett Browning Saved My Life) and Louis Bayard (The Pale Blue Eye).

Sponsored by The Virginia Foundation Center for the Book and The Big Read in Virginia.

Moderator: Susan Coleman

For Fantasy Fans

Two Virginian fantasy writers: Charlottesville native, Gwenyth Dunnington (Second Chance) and Portsmouth resident, Robert Marsten Fannéy (Luthiel's Song)

Moderator: Chris Oakley

From Page to Stage to Page

Theater professionals Doug Grissom, Todd Ristau, Betty Hales and Keith Bridges join Stephen Sossaman (Writing Your First Play) to explain play development: closed readings, public readings, workshops, conferences and retreats, then stage production, and book and script catalog publication.

Hosted by Live Arts.

Moderator: Stephen Sossaman