Fall for the Book

National Endowment for the Arts

Fall for the Book hosts second Mini Fest

Colleen Rich — Tue, 20 Feb 2024 16:47:00 +0000

Fall for the Book hosts second Mini Fest Colleen Rich Tue, 02/20/2024 - 11:47

Fall for the Book’s 2023 Mini Fest was such a success that they’re making it an annual tradition.

On Feb. 22, the 2024 Mini Fest will host seven authors and five events that span the genre gambit on ��AV’s Fairfax Campus. Featuring writers Chris Klimas, Michelle Brafman, Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond, Kim Coleman Foote, Itoro Bassey, and Hanna Pylväinen, Mini Fest will run from 10:30 a.m. - 4:15 p.m. in Fenwick Library, Room 2001. Then, in the evening, Fall for the Book welcomes headliner, Marlon James, in Harris Theater at 7 p.m. The events are free and open to the public, but reserving free tickets for Marlon James is encouraged.

At 10:30 a.m., web developer and game designer Chris Klimas will talk about the roots of the interactive text-based storytelling tool Twine, and the potentials of nonlinear and multilinear storytelling in game design, fiction, poetry, and more. In 2009, Klimas created Twine and continues to lead the project.

At noon, Michelle Brafman will discuss her novel about addiction, secrets, and a cultish Northern Virginia swim team, Swimming with Ghosts. When the freak 2012 derecho storm knocks out power for days, old ghosts and simmering tensions boil over between two best friends and swim moms. Sponsored by Mason’s Judaic Studies Program.

At 1:30 p.m., three writers will discuss how displacement, migration, and change connect with their identity. Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond, editor of and contributor to Relations: An Anthology of African and Diaspora Voices, will be joined by contributor Kim Coleman Foote, author of Coleman Hill: A Novel, a kaleidoscopic novel set during the early days of America’s Great Migration, and Itoro Bassey, author of the novel Faith, about a first-generation Nigerian American woman who resettles in Nigeria. Sponsored by the Cheuse International Writers Center.

Wrapping up the daytime events at 3 p.m., Hanna Pylväinen will talk about her novel, The End of Drum-Time, which paints a picture of a world in a remote Scandinavian village, circa 1850, as the son of a reindeer herder falls in love with the daughter of a Lutheran minister. Despite a clash of their cultural, religious, and political backgrounds, the lovers find themselves bound together as they follow the herders on their annual migration north. The End of Drum-Time was a finalist for the National Book Award.

Finally, at 7 p.m., Marlon James, a finalist for the National Book Award for Black Leopard, Red Wolf, will discuss the second installment, Moon Witch, Spider King, which flips the story on its head, retelling it from the Moon Witch’s perspective. Sponsored by the George Mason Friends. Reserve your free ticket.

Fall for the Book events, which continue into March with “Thrillers, Killers, and Wine Chillers” and “Memorial Days: Viet Nam Stories,” are free and open to the public, thanks to the generous support of sponsors including the Mason, Fairfax County Public Library, the Fairfax Library Foundation, and the City of Fairfax. For the full schedule of events, visit fallforthebook.org.

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Black History Month

Heng wins 2023 New American Voices Award

Colleen Rich — Mon, 16 Oct 2023 14:50:37 +0000

Heng wins 2023 New American Voices Award Colleen Rich Mon, 10/16/2023 - 10:50

Author Rachel Heng has won the sixth annual New American Voices Award for her novel The Great Reclamation. She accepted the award at a ceremony at ��AV’s Center for the Arts during 25th annual Fall for the Book festival.

The New American Voices Award was created in 2018 by Fall for the Book and Mason’s Institute for Immigration Research (IIR) to recognize recently published works that illuminate the complexity of the human experience as told by immigrants, whose work is historically underrepresented in writing and publishing.

“When I first started writing this book, I wondered if anyone in America would want to read a book like this,” said Heng, who was born and raised in Singapore and is currently an assistant professor of English at Wesleyan University, “[but] the longer that I’ve been here, I’ve come to see a lot of similarities [between Singapore and the U.S.]. Both are countries of immigrants, [and] it means the world to me, truly, to have this novel recognized for those commonalities.”

The two other award finalists—Angie Kim, author of Happiness Falls, and DK Nnuro, author of What Napoleon Could Not Do—also read from and discussed their work at the event.

The previous winners of the New American Voices Award are Hernan Diaz’s In the Distance, Melissa Rivero’s The Affairs of the Falcóns, Lysley Tenorio’s The Son of Good Fortune, Patricia Engel’s Infinite Country, and Sindya Bhanoo’s Seeking Fortune Elsewhere.

The IIR is at the forefront of immigration research, producing high-quality research and timely analysis that examines the economic contributions of immigrants in the United States.

Fall for the Book is Northern Virginia’s oldest and largest festival of literature and the arts. All events are free and open to the public thanks to the generous support of sponsors including Mason, the Fairfax County Public Library, the Fairfax Library Foundation, and the City of Fairfax.

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Institute for Immigration Research (IIR)

Fall for the Book festival celebrates its 25th year this fall

Colleen Rich — Tue, 08 Aug 2023 18:30:15 +0000

Fall for the Book festival celebrates its 25th year this fall Colleen Rich Tue, 08/08/2023 - 14:30

This October, Fall for the Book celebrates their 25th anniversary. The last two-and-a-half decades have brought many changes to Northern Virginia’s oldest book festival, but talented and storied headliners have remained a steadfast part of the festivities. This year is no different.

Atmospheric scientist Katharine Hayhoe will deliver the Beck Environmental Lecture as a festival preview event on Wednesday, October 4, on ��AV’s Fairfax Campus. She is the author of Saving Us: A Climate Scientist’s Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World. Named one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People, Hayhoe has been working in the field for more than 20 years. The Beck Lecture is sponsored by Robert and Lucy Beck.

Award-winning author Nick Hornby will be in conversation with Mason professor Stephen Goodwin at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, October 13, at the Stacy C. Sherwood Community Center in Fairfax. From About a Boy to the cult-classic High Fidelity, Hornby’s books and screenplays have thrilled readers and movie-goers for more than 25 years. Hornby’s career has spanned genres with his trademark blend of humor and unsentimental emotion. His newest book is Dickens and Prince: A Particular Kind of Genius. This event is sponsored by the Fairfax Library Foundation.

Booker Prize-winning author Marlon James will close out the festival on Saturday, October 14, at 7 p.m. on Mason’s Fairfax Campus. James has won high praise for his Dark Star Trilogy, which Entertainment Weekly describes as “drenched in African myth and folklore.” The first book, Black Leopard, Red Wolf was a finalist for the National Book Award and was named one of TIME’s 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time. Now James is back with the second installment, Moon Witch, Spider King, which flips the story on its head, retelling it from the Moon Witch’s perspective—a tale that’s “part adventure tale, part chronicle of an indomitable woman who bows to no man.” This event is sponsored by the George Mason Friends.

The festival will also feature book club favorite W. Bruce Cameron, author of Love, Clancy: Diary a Good Dog and A Dog’s Purpose, and the sixth annual Institute for Immigration Research New American Voices Award Ceremony.

Fall for the Book events are free and open to the public, thanks to the generous support of sponsors including the Mason, Fairfax County Public Library, the Fairfax Library Foundation, and the City of Fairfax.

The full festival schedule, which runs October 11-14, will be available soon. Visit fallforthebook.org for details.

Learn more about Fall for the Book

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Fall for the Book hosts first-ever February Mini Fest

Colleen Rich — Wed, 08 Feb 2023 19:40:53 +0000

Fall for the Book hosts first-ever February Mini Fest Colleen Rich Wed, 02/08/2023 - 14:40

The Fall for the Book festival is celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2023 with year full of programming. On February 15, the festival is hosting the first annual Mini Fest, which will bring together four authors from around the globe.

The Mini Fest, featuring writers Crystal S. Anderson, Ava Homa, Bisi Adjapon, and Rashmi Sadana, will run from 10:30 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. in Fenwick Library, Room 2001, on ��AV’s Fairfax Campus. The events are free and open to the public, but reserving free tickets is encouraged.

At 10:30 a.m., Anderson, who teaches in Mason’s African and African American Studies Program, will give her talk: “K-pop’s Got Soul” about her book Soul in Seoul: African American Popular Music and K-pop, which argues that Korean Pop is part of the global R&B movement.

At 12 p.m., Homa will discuss her novel Daughters of Smoke and Fire, which explores identity, family, and oppression in the everyday lives of Kurdish people. Homa herself was born in the Kurdistan province of Iran.

At 1:30 p.m., the Cheuse Center for International Writers presents Adjapon, their Ghanaian writer-in-residence, who will discuss Daughter in Exile—her novel about family, immigration, and adversity—with Mason creative writing professor and author Helon Habila. They will be joined by poet and artist Bennie Herron, whose work is currently on display at Mason Exhibitions Arlington.

Finally, at 3 p.m., Sadana, a cultural anthropologist in Mason’s Department of Sociology and Anthropology, will take readers to the heart of Delhi, India, with her book The Moving City: Scenes from the Delhi Metro and the Social Life of Infrastructure.

Fall for the Book’s Mini Fest is the second event in an exciting expansion of festival programming year round. The 25th anniversary celebration continues in March, with the return of fan favorite, Story Sprint.

For the full schedule of events, visit fallforthebook.org.

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Watch Lyrical Motion on Fall for the Book’s YouTube channel.

Mason dance students interpret poetry as part of a Fall for the Book collaboration

Colleen Rich — Tue, 01 Nov 2022 17:58:29 +0000

Mason dance students interpret poetry as part of a Fall for the Book collaboration Colleen Rich Tue, 11/01/2022 - 13:58

On a warm but blustery October morning, five poets and seven dancers sat beneath the Word Wall in ��AV’s Horizon Hall. The scrolling quotes that usually fill the screen were gone, replaced by the title “Fall for the Book Presents Lyrical Motion: A Dance & Poetry Collaboration.”

The featured artists and the audience gathered together during the Fall for the Book Festival to watch powerful collaborations between poets: Karyna McGlynn, Vivek Narayanan, Sara Burnett, CJ Evans, and Katherine E. Young, and seven Mason’s School of Dance students: Macq Gross and Micah McKee, Dareon Blowe and Lauryn Crowell, Nolan Eisenhaur, Rosa Allegra Wolff, and Selin Boybeyi, all seniors.

This collaboration was a call and response where the dancers choreographed and performed an original piece based on poems they had been given.

“Over the last few years, I’ve wanted to push the boundaries of what a book festival can be,” said Fall for the Book festival manager and Mason alum Suzy Rigdon. “A cross-genre collaboration between poetry and dance played on the Word Wall—a first for the Horizon Hall landmark—was something I couldn’t get out of my mind.”

With the help of fellow Mason alums—tech wizards Danny Collier and Craig Zacarro of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences and dance professor Christopher D’Amboise of the School of Dance—Rigdon was able to bring this vision to life.

The poetic collaboration felt natural to the dancers. “I find a lot of comfort in poetry. I use precision of language in our rehearsals, [asking,] how can we make synonyms translate into movement?” said Gross.

Gross and co-choreographer Micah McKee worked with the words of Mason creative writing professor Vivek Narayanan.

After seeing their video performance, Narayanan, whose poetry collection After is inspired by the Sanskrit epic poem Ramayana, found it transformative. “I don’t know if I can read the poem the same way now after seeing the dance.”

The connection between the poets and dancers—none of whom had ever met prior to the video debut at Fall for the Book—was deep.

“The rhythm [which McGlynn] spoke helped with the rhythm of movement and process,” said Wolff.

“It was an incredible experience, seeing my poem,” said Burnett, a local writer from Maryland, “and he way Nolan was able to capture the rhythm with his body.”

Poet CJ Evans wanted to give the dancers a challenge. “I didn’t want to pick something easy to interpret. I wanted a more open space… to celebrate the private versus the public. The intimate versus the explosive dance.”

Choreography Duo LCBD (Crowell and Blowe) rose to the challenge.

“We utilized the poem’s skeleton,” said Blowe. “We wanted to keep the abstractness of the work without going into the literal.”

Crowell added, “Having this opportunity to collaborate was great…. It was liberating and expressive.”

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Students

College of Visual and Performing Arts School of Dance

YA author writes bestseller while completing graduate program at Mason

Colleen Rich — Tue, 11 Oct 2022 14:59:25 +0000

YA author writes bestseller while completing graduate program at Mason Colleen Rich Tue, 10/11/2022 - 10:59

��AV alum Andrew Joseph White said he has wanted to tell stories even before he knew how to form letters. White, who graduated with an MFA in creative writing in May, published his first young adult (YA) book, Hell Followed with Us, an LGBTQ post-apocalyptic horror story, less than a month later in June 2022.

Andrew Joseph White. Photo by Sierra Guard/Creative Services

Now a New York Times bestseller, the novel was an American Booksellers Association Winter/Spring 2022 Indies Introduce title and received an American Library Association Booklist Starred Review and starred write-up in Kirkus Review.

JOURNEY TO PUBLICATION: White, who also has an BFA in creative writing from Mason, chose Mason because its creative writing program is more accepting of genre fiction than many others. This was especially important for the MFA, because White’s application consisted of the first chapters of what would become Hell Followed with Us. White started writing the novel in his senior year at Mason and signed with Peachtree Teen in early 2021 as one of the new imprint’s first three books. While at times White simply had to trust the process, Peachtree Teen’s small team impressed him. He said he was glad to debut with an up-and-coming press before working with a larger publisher where authors may have less control.

Advance copies of Hell Followed with Us. Photo provided

DARKER THAN FICTION: White has been deeply fascinated by monsters since he was very young. He connects this with the fact that unrecognized gender dysphoria and undiagnosed autism can make individuals feel like they are not entirely human. White’s debut novel coincides with legislation in multiple states seeking to severely curtail trans people’s rights. In this environment, White’s story, which acknowledges how life sometimes seems to require monstrous actions to survive, is one he feels that a lot of LGBTQ kids need. Hell Followed with Us is also a way to provide young trans readers something he never experienced growing up—a YA trans protagonist. “The whole point of the book is telling queer kids that you can make it out of hell alive. You might not be in one piece; you might not be okay. But you are still alive.”

EXPANDING REPRESENTATION: In addition to a trans protagonist, Hell Followed with Us features an autistic character, Nick, as the secondary lead and love interest. White emphasizes the need for autistic YA characters who readers can take seriously and look up to. When White began research to ensure the character was an accurate depiction of autism, the Winchester, Virginia, native realized how much of what he was reading applied to his own experience. This led White to base Nick on a version of himself, and the process has allowed him to embrace his ability to write characters who are both authentically trans and autistic.

LOOKING AHEAD: White says he would love to win a Lambda Literary Award or Stonewall Book Award one day, and he already has more LGBTQ YA horror novels and an adult novella in the works. When White is not writing, he likes to play horror video games, which are another source of inspiration for his stories; read work by queer YA fiction contemporaries; and spend time with his cat.

White will be part of this year's Fall for the Book. He appears on Saturday, October 15, at 11:30 a.m. in the Wilkins Plaza Tent.

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Find out more about this year’s festival.

Mason Spirit

Spirit Fall 22

Retro Mason: Stephen King appears at Fall for the Book 2011

Colleen Rich — Fri, 07 Oct 2022 16:30:05 +0000

Retro Mason: Stephen King appears at Fall for the Book 2011 Colleen Rich Fri, 10/07/2022 - 12:30

See More Retro Mason

Learn more about Fall for the Book

On September 23, 2011, Stephen King spoke at ��AV’s Fall for the Book before a packed Center for the Arts audience. He read from his soon-to-be-published book Doctor Sleep, a sequel to The Shining, and accepted the Mason Prize for his extraordinary contributions to bringing literature to a wide reading public.

Since 1999, Fall for the Book, an independent nonprofit literary arts organization based at Mason, has hosted such award-winning authors as Neil Gaiman, Diana Gabaldon, Mitch Albom, Amy Tan, John Lewis, and Angie Thomas, among others.

The festival promotes reading by sponsoring year-round events, including the festival held every October. This year’s festival runs October 12–15, 2022. Partners include the Fairfax County Public Library, the Fairfax Library Foundation, and the City of Fairfax. Now in its 23rd year, Fall for the Book is Northern Virginia’s oldest and largest festival of literature and the arts.

Watch a video to King’s talk.

Photo credit: Alexis Glenn/Creative Services

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Fall for the Book Festival announces headliners for 2022

Colleen Rich — Fri, 19 Aug 2022 16:33:10 +0000

Fall for the Book Festival announces headliners for 2022 Colleen Rich Fri, 08/19/2022 - 12:33

After two years of offering the festival virtually, Fall for the Book is thrilled to be back with both in-person and online events for the 24th year. From October 11-15, the festival will be headlined by bestselling novelist Emily St. John Mandel, graphic novelist Gene Luen Yang, comic book heavy-weight Alan Moore, and champion goalkeeper Briana Scurry.

Other featured authors include actress Sarah Edmondson, novelist Melissa Scholes Young, Planet Money host Mary Childs, meteorologist Matthew Cappucci, short story writer Morgan Talty, memoirist Rhajika Bhandari, and more.

In-person events will be hosted at Mason’s Fairfax Campus and around Fairfax County. A special day of Children’s Events will also take place on Saturday, October 8, in Old Town Hall as part of the City of Fairfax’s Fall Festival.

On Thursday, October 13, the festival will celebrate the fifth annual New American Voices Award, which honors immigrant writing. The three finalists are Aamina Ahmad, author of “The Return of Faraz Ali”; Daphne Palasi Andreades, author of “Brown Girls”; and Sindya Bhanoo, author of “Seeking Fortune Elsewhere.”

Friday, October 14, the City of Fairfax presents two-time Olympic Gold Medalist, Hall of Famer, and legendary Women’s World Cup ’99 team member Briana Scurry, who will talk about her powerful memoir “My Greatest Save: The Brave, Barrier-Breaking Journey of a World Champion GoalKeeper.” She will speak at 7 p.m. at the Stacy C. Sherwood Center in Fairfax.

On Saturday, October 15, Fall for the Book is partnering with the Wisconsin Book Festival to present comic book legend Alan Moore virtually, as he appears on Crowdcast at 11:30 a.m. Watch the event on-demand from home via Crowdcast, or join an on-campus watch party.

Also on Saturday, the George Mason Friends present Gene Luen Yang, author of the graphic novel “Dragon Hoops.” A two-time National Book Award finalist for his graphic novels “Boxers & Saints” and “American Born Chinese,” which is coming to Disney+, Yang has also written for New Super-Man from DC Comics, and the Avatar: The Last Airbender series from Dark Horse Comics. Yang will appear at 5 p.m. at Harris Theater.

Later that evening, the Fairfax Library Foundation presents Emily St. John Mandel, author of international bestsellers “Sea of Tranquility” and “Station Eleven.” Mandel will cap off the festival at 7:30 p.m. in Harris Theater, talking about her new space and time-defying novel.

On-demand and live streamed events will be available on the festival’s website and YouTube channel. All events are free and open to the public, thanks to our sponsors. Free tickets will be available on Eventbrite for headline events one week prior to the festival.

The full schedule is now live and can be found on www.FallfortheBook.org/schedule.

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Debut writers dominate immigrant writing award shortlist

Colleen Rich — Fri, 12 Aug 2022 20:55:50 +0000

Debut writers dominate immigrant writing award shortlist Colleen Rich Fri, 08/12/2022 - 16:55

Sindya Bhanoo’s “Seeking Fortune Elsewhere,” Daphne Palasi Andreades’s “Brown Girls,” and Aamina Ahmad’s “The Return of Faraz Ali” have been named finalists for ��AV’s Institute for Immigration Research New American Voices Award.

Celebrating its fifth anniversary, this award recognizes recently published works that illuminate the complexity of human experience as told by immigrants, whose work is historically underrepresented in writing and publishing. This year’s book prize was judged by authors Patricia Engel, Huan Hsu and Christopher Castellani. Engel won the award in 2021 and joined the ranks of previous winners Hernan Diaz, Melissa Rivero, and Lysley Tenorio.

The winning writer will receive $5,000, and the two finalists each will receive $1,000. The winner will be announced this fall, and all three finalists will join the judges for an award ceremony and reading to discuss their work. The event will be hosted by the Fall for the Book festival on Thursday, October 13, at 7:30 p.m. at Mason’s Fairfax Campus.

Bhanoo is a longtime newspaper reporter and a frequent contributor to The New York Times and The Washington Post. Castellini praised Bhanoo’s short fiction collection saying, “Bhanoo is an immensely talented writer who packs deep emotional punches into stories told economically and with elegant restraint.”

A graduate of Columbia University’s MFA Fiction program, Andreades was awarded a Henfield Prize and is recipient of a 2021 O. Henry Prize. Engel said of her debut novel: “Andreades offers an electric rendering of urban girls becoming women, their loyalties and fissures amid the wild and dislocating terrain of contemporary diaspora.”

A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Ahmad has received a Stegner Fellowship, a Pushcart Prize, and a Rona Jaffe Writers’ Award. Hsu described her debut novel as “an engrossing, beautifully written saga of identity, loyalty, class, and aspiration, all wrapped in a page-turning crime thriller.”

Fall for the Book, which runs October 12-15, 2022, is Northern Virginia’s oldest and largest festival of literature and the arts. All events are free and open to the public thanks to the generous support of sponsors, including the Mason, Fairfax County Public Library, the Fairfax Library Foundation, and the City of Fairfax. For more information, visit fallforthebook.org

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