Event
The Turning Point: Shaping a Poetic Life
Acclaimed Virginia-based poets Janine Joseph, Gregory Orr, and Kiki Petrosino take a look back at their lives and works.
Event
Food and Blackness
Cultural critic Clarkisha Kent and scholar Psyche A. Williams-Forson meet to discuss how racism operates in the practice and culture of eating.
Event
A Sci-Fi Salon: Flying the Coop
Distinguished Virginia Tech professor Lucinda Roy meets with writers and readers in this informal salon to discuss her latest book, “Flying the Coop.”
Event
Furious Flower Poetry Hour
Join past and present members of JMU’s Furious Flower Poetry Center for poetry readings and discussion.
Event
Mid-Century Fiction Lunch
From Jamila Minnicks, winner of the 2021 Penn/Bellwether Prize for Socially-Engaged Fiction, and Sadeqa Johnson, the Library of Virginia People’s Choice award-winning author, come two novels set in the 1950s.
Event
2023 Same Page Community Read
We’re pleased to share that our 2023 Same Page featured book is Ross Gay’s “The Book of Delights.” Gay will be in conversation about this book and his most recent work, “Inciting Joy.”
Event
National Book Foundation Presents: An Afternoon with the National Book Awards
John Keene (“Punks: New & Selected Poems”) and Robert Samuels & Toluse Olorunnipa (“His Name Is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice”) discuss how singular stories collectively shape history.
Event
The Poetic Justice
John Charles Thomas’s memoir “The Poetic Justice” reflects his twin loves of the law and of poetry, keeping readers rooted to the urgent issues that rock our communities.
Event
American Inheritance
In “American Inheritance: Liberty and Slavery in the Birth of a Nation, 1765-1795,” Edward J. Larson grapples with the legacy of enslavement in America.
Blog
Poetry for Today: Readings by Victoria Chang and Rita Dove
In partnership with the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards and as the closing event for the 2022 Virginia Festival of the Book, we present poets Victoria Chang (Obit) and Rita Dove (Playlist …
Blog
Southern Landscapes: Real and Imagined
Authors Ralph Eubanks (A Place Like Mississippi), Jocelyn Nicole Johnson (My Monticello), and Imani Perry (South to America) take center stage at this Festival headliner event to discuss the storied …
Blog
NBF Presents: An Afternoon with the National Book Awards
2021 National Book Award–honored authors Robert Jones, Jr. (The Prophets, Finalist, Fiction), Amber McBride (Me (Moth), Finalist, Young People’s Literature), and Jason Mott (Hell of a Book, Winner, Fiction) join us for …
