The Virginia Foundation for the Humanities held a press breakfast (banana bread! coffee!) yesterday to unveil some details about the Festival of the Book. The Fest’s 16th year of no-holds-barred, eye-popping literary mayhem will run March 17-21, and most of it’s still free. (Click on the hyperlinked names to see what they’re up to.)
Real heavy hitters include Colum McCann, the Irish writer whose Let the Great World Spin won a National Book Award last year. The Southern Environmental Law Center is sponsoring a panel that’ll feature Lee Smith, bestselling novelist and O. Henry Award winner who grew up in Grundy, Virginia. She’ll discuss what the destruction of the Southern environment means to the Southern literary tradition. Friday night will feature poets galore, all at different points of their career, from Virginia Tech’s Nikki Giovanni to Major Jackson, poetry editor of the Harvard Review.
There’s also plenty of local fare at the feast. Anna Alter, daughter of local artist Lee Alter, will be reading her new children’s book called Abigail Spells. Former Charlottesvillian Kate Atwood will discuss A Healing Place, the book she wrote about the loss of her mother. Down from the ivory tower comes UVA psychiatrist Bruce Greyson, who will discuss his work on near-death experiences. Local author Kevin Quirk will discuss Brace For Impact, about the people who survived when Flight 1549 crashed into the Hudson River last year.
Headline events at Culbreth Theater are free—but can be reserved in advance for $10 at the box office there until noon on the day of the event. Everything at the Paramount is $10. You also need (more expensive) tickets to go to the luncheons.
Look through the schedule, because there’s a ton of stuff happening. Can you believe they had the nerve to schedule it the same weekend as SXSW?