CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (January 13, 1997) - The Third Annual Virginia Festival of the Book comes to Charlottesville on March 20-23, 1997 and features 100+ writers including blockbuster author John Grisham.
In just three years, the Virginia Festival of the Book has grown from a small pilot project to a major regional event. This year's Festival again celebrates the book in all its forms. Roundtable and panel discussions, author presentations and signings, bookselling and book swapping, dramatic interpretations, storytelling, lectures, workshops, readings, exhibits and demonstrations... there's something for every one of the 10,000 aspiring and professional writers, children, history buffs, senior citizens, and book lovers of all kinds who are expected to attend the 1997 event. In all, 150+ programs - most free and open to the public - are scheduled throughout the four-day Festival in and around Charlottesville.
Special Festival events this year include: a Festival opening for the press and community (March 20), a benefit reception (March 20, tickets $35), a luncheon (March 21, tickets $30) with #1-selling author John Grisham (The Firm) as the featured speaker, a Book Fair that will showcase local, regional and national publishers and authors, and the Friends of the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library Gordon Avenue book sale (March 22-April 1).
Charlottesville, Virginia - consistently ranked as one of the nation's top book towns in terms of reading and book sales per capita - is the site of the University of Virginia and Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson. Charlottesville is also home to nationally acclaimed poets and authors, many of whom are participating in the Festival. In addition to part-time local resident John Grisham, Gay Talese, Nikki Giovanni, Lois Lowry, Gregory Jaynes, Donald Justice, Sharyn McCrumb, Charles Wright, Barbara Parker, and Madison Smartt Bell are among the writers who will share the spotlight at the 1997 Festival.
The Virginia Festival of the Book is produced by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to developing and supporting public education and research in the humanities, and a large number of local, regional and national sponsors.
Final program schedules will be available at area libraries and bookstores and as a special tabloid section in the Sunday, March 16 edition of Charlottesville's The Daily Progress. For more information about the 1997 Virginia Festival of the Book, contact: Cecile Tucker, Project Coordinator, at (804) 924-3296.
[VFOB Home Page / About VFOB / Program of Events / Special Function Tickets / Who's Participating? / Participating Organizations / Sponsoring Organizations / Volunteering / C'ville Loves Books / John Grisham / '96 Highlights]