A Program of Virginia Humanities
Elizabeth Earley (Like Wings, Your Hands) and Raymond Luczak (Flannelwood) discuss their novels and the decision to embrace characters with disabilities, who are too often left out of or underrepresented in contemporary fiction.
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Tags: Family / Aging, Fiction, Health / Mind / Body, LGBTQ
Listen to and honor the Women’s Initiative’s “Challenge Into Change” essay contest participants while celebrating the power of storytelling as a way towards healing and empowerment. Jaquira Díaz (Ordinary Girls: A Memoir) will read from her work, contest participants will be recognized, and the top three award recipients will read from their own work.
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Tags: Biography / Memoir, Book Club Picks, Family / Aging, Gender, Health / Mind / Body, Language / Culture / Folklife, Latinx, LGBTQ, Nonfiction, Publishing / Books / Writing, Social Justice
Memoirists Adrienne Brodeur (Wild Game), M. Randal O’Wain (Meander Belt), and Maureen Stanton (Body Leaping Backward) discuss the complicated stories of their dysfunctional families, each dysfunctional in its own way. The authors provide unsparing yet compassionate observations of their parents’ choices and cultural landscapes, and uncover what that has come to mean in adulthood.
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David Brendan Hopes (The Falls of the Wyona) and Marco Rafalà (How Fires End) discuss their novels that grapple with the personal marks left by war on individuals, families, and communities.
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Tags: Current Affairs / World Affairs / War, Family / Aging, Fiction, LGBTQ
Clifford Garstang (The Shaman of Turtle Valley), Mimi Lok (Last of Her Name), and Michael Zapata (The Lost Book of Adana Moreau) discuss their novels tackling displacement, storytelling, and the meaning of home.
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Tags: Asian American, Book Club Picks, Family / Aging, Fiction, Global, Language / Culture / Folklife, Southern / Appalachian
Authors Lauren Casper (Loving Well in a Broken World), Kim McLarin (Womanish), and Katherine Wintsch (Slay Like a Mother) offer their perspectives and experiences on parenting young and grown children, loving well, achieving goals, and what it means to be a strong, loving woman today.
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Tags: African American, Biography / Memoir, Family / Aging, Health / Mind / Body, Spirituality / Religion
Elizabeth Earley (Like Wings, Your Hands), David Brendan Hopes (The Falls of the Wyona), and Carter Sickels (The Prettiest Star) discuss the importance of LGBTQ representation in their fictional works.
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Tags: Family / Aging, Fiction, Gender, History, LGBTQ, Southern / Appalachian
Sara Collins (The Confessions of Frannie Langton), Michael Parker (Prairie Fever), and Deb Spera (Call Your Daughter Home) discuss their historical novels and how archival research and deeply developed characters can be used to evoke a time and place amidst rich narratives.
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Tags: African American, Book Club Picks, Family / Aging, Fiction, Gender, History
Amitav Ghosh (Gun Island), Helon Habila (Travelers), and Mimi Lok (Last of Her Name) discuss their novels exploring personal and political impacts of contemporary diaspora.
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Tags: African American, Asian American, Book Club Picks, Current Affairs / World Affairs / War, Family / Aging, Fiction, Global, Language / Culture / Folklife
Angie Kim (Miracle Creek), Alexis Schaitkin (Saint X), and Michael Farris Smith (Blackwood) discuss their acclaimed literary thrillers, the methods they use to build suspense, and the inspirations they draw upon when creating gripping fiction.
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Tags: Book Club Picks, Family / Aging, Fiction, Southern / Appalachian
Laura Lee Gulledge (The Dark Matter of Mona Starr), Maria Padian (How to Build a Heart), and Morgan Parker (Who Put This Song On?) discuss their young adult novels and graphic novel tackling questions of identity and mental health, for readers of all ages.
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Tags: African American, Book Club Picks, Comics / Graphic Novels, Family / Aging, Fiction, Health / Mind / Body, StoryFest / Youth
Gabriel Bump (Everywhere You Don’t Belong), Bruce Holsinger (The Gifted School) and Julie Langsdorf (White Elephant) discuss their novels set in contemporary America and examining the comedies and tragedies of family life.
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Tags: Book Club Picks, Family / Aging, Fiction, Humor
Belle Boggs (The Gulf) and Madeline ffitch (Stay and Fight) discuss their novels’ strong female protagonists and the challenges they face.
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Tags: Book Club Picks, Family / Aging, Fiction, Gender, History, Humor, Southern / Appalachian, Spirituality / Religion
Lamar Giles (Not So Pure and Simple), NoNieqa Ramos (The Truth Is), and Brynne Rebele-Henry (Orpheus Girl) discuss their young adult novels for all ages, which tackle difficult topics, from sexuality and race to religion and family.
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Tags: African American, Family / Aging, Gender, Health / Mind / Body, Humor, Latinx, LGBTQ, StoryFest / Youth
Andrea Bobotis (The Last List of Miss Judith Kratt), Susan Richards Shreve (More News Tomorrow), and Michael Zapata (The Lost Book of Adana Moreau) discuss the fictional family secrets that form the backbones of their novels, as well as their use of narrative and character development to build suspense.
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Tags: Book Club Picks, Family / Aging, Fiction, Global, History
Gabriel Bump (Everywhere You Don’t Belong), Lindsay Lerman (I’m From Nowhere), and Aatif Rashid (Portrait of Sebastian Khan) discuss their novels about the trials and triumphs of self-discovery, including the first blush of adulthood as well as the re-discovery that comes after loss.
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Tags: African American, Family / Aging, Fiction, Humor, Language / Culture / Folklife, Spirituality / Religion
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