Speakers
Corban Addison
Corban Addison, author of Wastelands: The True Story of Farm Country on Trial, details how a close-knit, rural community in North Carolina has battled the polluting practices of large-scale industrial …
Lauren Alleyne
Lauren K. Alleyne is the author of two collections of poetry, Difficult Fruit and Honeyfish, and co-editor of Furious Flower: Seeding the Future of African American Poetry. She is Executive …
Andrea Beatriz Arango
Andrea Beatriz Arango is the Newbery Honor Award-winning author of Iveliz Explains It All. Born and raised in Puerto Rico, she has an EdS in reading education and works as …
E.A. Aymar
E.A. Aymar is the author of No Home For Killers and several other highly praised novels. He has written essays for The Washington Post, The Washington City Paper, The DC Independent …
Quan Barry
Quan Barry is the author of She Weeps Each Time You’re Born and winner of the 2020 ALA Alex Award, We Ride Upon Sticks. She is also author of four books …
Tom Breihan
Tom Breihan is the senior editor at the music website Stereogum, where he writes The Number Ones, a column where he reviews every #1 hit in the history of the …
Isabelle Chapman
Isabelle Chapman, the author of “Gambling ‘America’s Amazon,’” published by CNN, exposes how Alabama Power plans to bury a heap of toxic coal waste in one of North America’s most …
Nyle DiMarco
Nyle DiMarco is the author of Deaf Utopia: A Memoir—and a Love Letter to a Way of Life, a heartfelt and inspiring memoir and celebration of Deaf culture. Nyle is …
Arwen Donahue
Arwen Donahue, author of Landings: A Crooked Creek Farm Year, lives on a Kentucky farm where her family has raised produce for local markets for over 20 years. Her comics …
Glory Edim
Glory Edim is an author, activist, and the founder of Well-Read Black Girl. She’s the author of the best-selling anthology, Well-Read Black Girl: Finding Our Stories, Discovering Ourselves, and is …
Joanne Gabbin
Joanne V. Gabbin is the founder and former Executive Director of the Furious Flower Poetry Center and Professor Emerita of English at James Madison University. She is author or editor …
Ross Gay
Ross Gay is the author of four books of poetry: Against Which; Bringing the Shovel Down; Be Holding, winner of the PEN American Literary Jean Stein Award; and Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude, winner of the …
Kristina Gorcheva-Newberry
Kristina Gorcheva-Newberry is the author of The Orchard. She won the Katherine Anne Porter Prize and the Raz/Shumaker Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Fiction for her first story collection, What …
Sasha Graham
Sasha Graham is the bestselling author of over ten books and tarot kits, including 365 Tarot Spreads, Llewellyn’s Complete Book of the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot, and Dark Wood Tarot. Sasha teaches …
William Habeeb
William Mark Habeeb, son of a Lebanese immigrant father and a Cuban-American mother, lives in Arlington, VA. He teaches in Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. His short fiction has …
Grady Hendrix
Grady Hendrix is the author of How To Sell a Haunted House. He is a New York Times-bestselling writer and author of The Final Girl Support Group, The Southern Book Club’s Guide …
Emily Hilliard
Emily Hilliard, author of Making Our Future: Visionary Folklore and Everyday Culture in Appalachia, is a folklorist and writer based in Berea, Kentucky. She is the former West Virginia State …
Mary Alice Hostetter
Mary Alice Hostetter, author of Plain: A Memoir of Mennonite Girlhood, grew up the tenth of twelve children in a Mennonite farm family and is a fellow at the Virginia …
Gabino Iglesias
Gabino Iglesias, author of The Devil Takes You Home, is a writer, journalist, professor, and literary critic living in Austin, Texas. Iglesias’ nonfiction and reviews have appeared in The New …
Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
Honorée Fanonne Jeffers is the author of National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction winner The Love Songs of W.E.B. DuBois and the poetry collection The Age of Phillis. Both …
Sadeqa Johnson
Sadeqa Johnson, New York Times bestselling author of The House of Eve, is the award-winning author of five novels, Yellow Wife, And Then There Was Me, Second House from the …
Stephen Graham Jones
Stephen Graham Jones is the NYT bestselling author of nearly thirty novels and collections, as well as several novellas and comic books. His most recent books are Don’t Fear the …
Janine Joseph
Janine Joseph, author of Decade of the Brain: Poems and Driving Without a License, winner of the Kundiman Poetry Prize, is a poet and librettist from the Philippines. She is …
John Keene
John Keene is an African American writer and translator and the author of several collections, including Counternarratives, Playland, and most recently Punks: New and Selected Poems, winner of the 2022 Thom Gunn Award …
Clarkisha Kent
Clarkisha Kent, author of Fat Off, Fat On, is a Nigerian American writer and critic. Her writing has been featured in outlets like Entertainment Weekly, Essence, gal-dem, Paper Bet, BET, …
Sarah Langan
Sarah Langan is the author of Good Neighbors, The Keeper, The Missing, Audrey’s Door, and the forthcoming Mom’s Night Out. She is a three-time Bram Stoker Award winner, has an …
Edward J. Larson
Edward J. Larson is the author of American Inheritance and many acclaimed works in American history, including the Pulitzer Prize winning history of the Scopes Trial, Summer for the Gods. …
Celeste Lipkes
Celeste Lipkes, author of Radium Girl, is a writer and psychiatrist residing in Asheville, North Carolina. Prior to medical school, she received an MFA in poetry from the University of …
Tracey Livesay
Tracey Livesay is the author of American Royalty and Like Lovers Do, which was named one of the 100 Best Fiction Books of 2020 by Kirkus Reviews. A former criminal …
Jeffrey Dale Lofton
Jeffrey Dale Lofton, author of Red Clay Suzie, hails from Warm Springs, Ga. His years telling the stories of playwrights and scriptwriters taught him the pull of a powerful story …
Rebecca Makkai
Rebecca Makkai is the author of I Have Some Questions for You. Her last novel, The Great Believers, was a finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. …
Meg Medina
Meg Medina, author of Merci Suárez Plays It Cool, is also the author of the Newbery Medal winner and Kirkus Prize finalist Merci Suárez Changes Gears and its sequel, Merci …
David Vander Meulen
David L. Vander Meulen is a Professor of English at UVA, where he teaches eighteenth-century English literature, bibliography, textual criticism and scholarly editing. Since 1991 he has been editor of Studies in …
Kathryn Miles
Kathryn Miles is the author of Trailed. Her essays and articles have appeared in publications including Audubon, Best American Essays, Best American Sports Writing, The Boston Globe, The New York …
Jamila Minnicks
Jamila Minnicks is the author of Moonrise Over New Jessup, the 2021 winner of the PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction. Her work is also published in CRAFT Literary Magazine, …
Thorpe Moeckel
Thorpe Moeckel, author of According to Sand and six other books, has taught in the writing program at Hollins University since 2005. His work has been recipient of NEA, Javits, …
Meghan O’Rourke
Meghan O’Rourke, award-winning poet, nonfiction writer, and acclaimed editor, is the author of the poetry collections Sun In Days, Once, and Halflife, as well as the memoirs The Invisible Kingdom …
Toluse Olorunnipa
Toluse Olorunnipa, co-author of His Name is George Floyd,is the White House Bureau Chief for The Washington Post. He joined the Post in 2019 and previously covered the White House. …
Gregory Orr
Gregory Orr is the author of thirteen collections of poetry, the most recent of which is Selected Books of the Beloved. Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Virginia, he …
Vaishnavi Patel
Vaishnavi Patel is a lawyer specializing in civil rights. She likes to write at the intersection of Indian myth, feminism, and anticolonialism. She grew near Chicago and, in her spare …
Kiki Petrosino
Kiki Petrosino is the author of Bright, White Blood: a Lyric of Virginia, and three other poetry books. She holds graduate degrees from the University of Chicago and the University of …
Matthew Quick
Matthew Quick is the New York Times bestselling author of We Are the Light and eight other novels, including Silver Linings Playbook. His works promote dialogue on tough issues, particularly mental health, …
Deanna Raybourn
Deanna Raybourn is the author of Killers of a Certain Age and the New York Times bestselling, Edgar Award-nominated Veronica Speedwell Mysteries, as well as the Lady Julia Grey series and …
L. Renée
L. Renée descends from proud Black Appalachians and writes about her ancestors. Winner of the international 2022 Rattle Poetry Prize, her work has been published in Obsidian, Tin House Online, …
Nicholas Reynolds
Nicholas Reynolds, author of Need to Know, World War II and the Rise of American Intelligence, has been a serious student of World War II for most of his life. …
G. Samantha Rosenthal
G. Samantha Rosenthal, author of Living Queer History: Remembrance and Belonging in a Southern City, is Associate Professor of History and Coordinator of the Public History Concentration at Roanoke College …
Lucinda Roy
Lucinda Roy, author of Flying the Coop, Volume II in her slave narrative trilogy The Dreambird Chronicles, is an award-winning writer whose eight books include the novel The Freedom Race …
Sofia Samatar
Sofia Samatar, author of The White Mosque, is Associate Professor of English at James Madison University. Her works include the award-winning fantasy A Stranger in Olondria and Monster Portraits, a …
Robert Samuels
Robert Samuels, co-author of His Name is George Floyd, is a national political enterprise reporter for The Washington Post who focuses on the intersection of politics, policy, and people. Samuels …
Gregory Smithers
Gregory Smithers is a professor of history at Virginia Commonwealth University and a British Academy Global Professor at the University of Hull in England. A former Virginia Humanities fellow, his …
Lisa Russ Spaar
Lisa Russ Spaar has published thirteen books of poetry and criticism, most recently Madrigalia: New & Selected Poems and a novel, Paradise Close. Her honors include a Rona Jaffe Award, …
Rosalyn Story
Rosalyn Story, author of Sing Her Name, is a violinist with the Fort Worth Symphony and the author of the novels More Than You Know and Wading Home, as well …
Suzanne Stryk
Suzanne Stryk, author of The Middle of Somewhere: An Artist Explores the Nature of Virginia, is an artist who finds equal fascination in the natural world and the visual arts. …
Emily Thiede
Emily Thiede, author of This Vicious Grace, teaches Creative Writing and is on the board of Writer House, is a cohost of the Basic Pitches podcast, and has mentored writers through …
Judge John Charles Thomas
Judge John Charles Thomas, author of The Poetic Justice: A Memoir, is a former Justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia, a published poet, and a retired partner in the …
Samantha Thornhill
Samantha Thornhill, author of The Animated Universe, is a native of Trinidad & Tobago. After graduating from UVA’s MFA poetry program, she spent over a decade in New York City …
Heather Toney
Heather McTeer Toney, author of Before the Streetlights Come On: Black America’s Urgent Call for Climate Solutions, is an award-winning speaker, respected author, and expert on environmental and climate justice …
Paul Tremblay
Paul Tremblay is the author of The Pallbearers Club, Survivor Song, Growing Things, and A Head Full of Ghosts. His novel The Cabin at the End of the World has been …
Matthew Vollmer
Matthew Vollmer is the author of two short-story collections as well as three collections of essays. He teaches in the English Department at Virginia Tech and lives in Blacksburg, Va. …
Zach Weinersmith
Zach Weinersmith is the creator of the popular webcomic SMBC and nerd comedy show BAHFest, as well as the co-author of The New York Times bestselling popular science book, Soonish. …
Andrew Joseph White
Andrew Joseph White is a queer, trans author of Hell Followed With Us and grew up in Virginia. He is a graduate student in George Mason University’s Creative Writing Program …
Dr. Psyche Williams-Forson
Dr. Psyche Williams-Forson is professor and chair of the Department of American Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park. She is the author of the award-winning Building Houses Out …
Jason Wright
Jason F. Wright is the author of New York Times bestselling Christmas Jars and The Wednesday Letters. His articles have appeared in over fifty newspapers and magazines across the United …
Jung Yun
Jung Yun is the author of O Beautiful, a New York Times Editors’ Choice and a San Francisco Chronicle Book of the Year. She is also the author of Shelter, …
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