Schedule By Day

Business Breakfast: Fun Is Good

Michael Veeck, president and co-owner of six minor-league baseball teams and co-author of Fun is Good: How to Create Joy and Passion in Your Workplace and Career, will deliver inspiring business stories from his career. More...

Hosted by Charlottesville Chamber of Commerce.

Sponsored by Northwestern Mutual Financial Network, Crown BMW of Charlottesville, YellowBook.

Moderator: Robert Vaughan

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

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

Sky Walking: An Astronaut's Memoir

Astronaut Thomas D. Jones, Ph.D. (Sky Walking: An Astronaut's Memoir) discusses his experiences as a science specialist, including four space shuttle flights and three space walks on which he carried out various scientific missions. Cafe's lunch is available, $18.For lunch reservations, contact Allan Van Wickler at amvwdsvw@comcast.net (434-296-0439). Pay at the door (cash only). Capacity is 100.

Hosted by Charlottesville Aviation Luncheon Club.

Moderator: Luther Gore

Medical School Hour: Mary Roach Discusses Stiff

Science writer about the "peculiar," Mary Roach, discusses her New York Times-bestselling book, Stiff, which details the numerous, and sometimes unexpected, uses of bodies after death.

Hosted by Center for Biomedical Ethics and Humanities of the UVA School of Medicine.

Moderator: Marcia Childress

Appalachia: Roads and Guides to a Region

A discussion with editors Rudy Abramson and Jean Haskell (Encyclopedia of Appalachia) Ricky Cox and Grace Edwards (A Handbook to Appalachia) and authors Joe Wilson (A Guide to the Crooked Road), and Anne Mitchell Whisnant (Super-Scenic Motorway).

Sponsored by the We the People Initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Moderator: Grace Toney Edwards

Great Sports Stories: The Arenas, the Players, the Management

Chris Graham and Patrick Hite (Mad About U: Four Decades of Basketball at University Hall), Pete Williams (The Draft: A Year Inside the NFL's Search for Talent) and baseball-team owner Mike Veeck (Fun Is Good).

Moderator: Jim Tolbert

Here and Gone: Photography and Thoughts on American Memorials

Photographer Carol M. Highsmith and author Ryan Coonerty (Etched in Stone) join photographer David Plowden (A Handful of Dust) and contributor Jon Lohman (Spontaneous Shrines and Public Memorialization of Death) to discuss aspects of America's memorials and forgotten structures.

Hosted by National Geographic Society, Virginia Folklife Program.

Sponsored by the We the People Initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Moderator: Barbara Brownell Grogan

Science Writers Tackle the Taboo

Science writers Mary Roach (Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers and Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife) and Elizabeth Royte (Garbageland: On the Secret Trail of Trash) discuss the challenges of writing about topics not fit for polite conversation.

Moderator: Jeanne Siler

Is Pluto a Planet?

David Weintraub (Is Pluto a Planet? A Historical Journey Through the Solar System) will describe the flawed and controversial process that led to the decision, by a small group of astronomers, to define "planet" in a way that demoted Pluto.

Hosted by UVa Department of Astronomy.

Moderator: Jeffrey Bary

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

My Pet Virus: Living With AIDS

Related Event

Charlottesville author Shawn Decker (My Pet Virus: The True Story of a Rebel Without a Cure) discusses his life and reads from his book, which details his experiences growing up in rural Virginia with HIV. He will also answer your questions about being positive and being published.

Moderator: Gwenn Decker

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 Stories Not Being Told: with War Letters editor Andrew Carroll

Andrew Carroll is the founder of the Legacy Project, which preserves letters of Americans who served in wartime. He is the editor of Grace Under Fire: Letters of Faith in Times of War and Operation Homecoming: Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Homefront in the Words of U.S. Troops and Their Families.

Sponsored by UVa Bookstore.

Moderator: Art Beltrone

Life Before Life: Children's Reports of Previous Lives

Child psychiatrist Jim Tucker, (Life Before Life: A Scientific Investigation of Children’s Memories of Previous Lives), discusses 40 years of research at UVa involving children who report memories of previous lives.

Moderator: Andrew Wyndham

Sexual Health: Information to Arouse Your Mind

Mitchell Tepper, Ph.D., M.P.H. and Annette Owens, M.D., Ph.D., editors of Sexual Health (4 volumes) will share with you the expertise of 77 contributing authors to their edited work.

Hosted by Martha Jefferson Hospital.

Moderator: Pat Cheeks

The Civil War: Lessons for Today's Wars

Join William Freehling (The Road to Disunion, Vol. II) and Peter Onuf (Nations, Markets and War: Modern History and the American Civil War) in a lively discussion of how motives and machinations then help us understand what is happening now. Refreshments following courtesy of Bryan Hagen, Merrill Lynch.

Sponsored by UVa Bookstore.

Moderator: Roberta Culbertson

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

Neal Boortz, Radio Show Personality

Related Event

Neal Boortz will be signing copies of his new best selling book, "Somebody's Gotta Say It". Admission to the event is by ticket only and will be distributed by WINA. You CAN BE THERE, keep listening to WINA for details to find out how!

Jim Trelease: The Motivational Magic of Reading Aloud

Jim Trelease (Read-Aloud Handbook) shares with parents, teachers, and anyone interested in children's education the magical and fun connection between being read to and learning to read. Repeated on March 22 at 10 a.m.

Hosted by Jefferson-Madison Regional Library.

Sponsored by Friends of the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library Endowment Fund and AlbemarleFamily.com.

Moderator: John Halliday

Virginia's Civil War

Historian Ed Bearss (Fields of Honor) will discuss Civil War events and battles that took place in Virginia, relating little-known facts, fascinating characters, and an intimate knowledge of terrain and troop movement. Refreshments before this event, courtesy of Bryan Hagen, Merrill Lynch.

Hosted by National Geographic Society.

Sponsored by UVa Bookstore.

Moderator: Len Riedel