The Charlottesville Chapter of The Links Incorporated presents its sixteenth annual Celebration of the African American Literary Tradition, including brunch, musical and spoken word performances by community youth, a tribute to book festival authors, book sales and signing. Tickets required.
Join G.S. Wilson (Jefferson on Display) in a discussion on how Thomas Jefferson’s image, cultivated through his physical presentation, clothing choices, and etiquette, can offer insight into his complex character and the powerful effect he had on others.
Printmaker Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr. (2019 Frank Riccio Artist-in-Residence) will discuss his collaboration with the Virginia Center for the Book to produce an intergenerational project that celebrates words of wisdom shared by diverse residents of Charlottesville and Albemarle County. This program will include a free public printing demo with Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr. at 12:00 PM, followed by an artist’s talk at 1:00 PM.
Join National Book Critics Circle board members Tess Taylor and Marion Winik as they discuss the NBCC’s work in support of reading, criticism, and literature. Taylor and Winik will be joined by NBCC Literary Award-recognized author Nicole Chung (All You Can Ever Know). The only national literary awards chosen by critics themselves, the 2018 NBCC award longlist is announced in January, and awarded the week before the Festival.
Michelle Damiani (Santa Lucia), Ann Jeffries (Judicial Indiscretion) and Margaret Locke (The Legendary Duke) discuss their steamy romance novels and the unique challenges in writing characters over the course of a series.
Belgian authors Kristien Hemmerechts (The Woman Who Fed the Dogs) and Annelies Verbeke (Thirty Days) discuss their latest novels—stories that are gritty yet humanizing—which mark the first of their titles to be made available in English translation.
James Horn (1619) and Joseph Kelly (Marooned) reexamine well-known origin stories for our country and Commonwealth, presenting groundbreaking new histories of the 1607 arrival of colonists in Jamestown and the 1619 arrival of the first African enslaved people and establishment of Virginia’s first General Assembly. Consequential decisions wrought in harsh conditions led to the birth of democracy, and also laid the cornerstone for racial inequality from the beginning.
Esi Edugyan (Washington Black) and John Edgar Wideman (American Histories) discuss the meanings of race, violence, and freedom, as explored in their acclaimed fiction. Edugyan and Wideman each received the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for an earlier novel; they are accompanied in conversation with Award jury member Rita Dove.
Samantha Boyette (What Happens When), D. Jackson Leigh (Ordinary is Perfect) and Radclyffe (Passionate Rivals) discuss the issue of diversity—ethnic, racial, sexual, and gender-related—in publishing, the similarities and differences between mainstream and LGBTQI romances, and the nuances of authentic character construction.