Suzy Rigdon

Fall for the Book to receive $20,000 grant from NEA

Colleen Rich — Thu, 16 May 2024 17:08:25 +0000

Fall for the Book to receive $20,000 grant from NEA Colleen Rich Thu, 05/16/2024 - 13:08

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has approved a $20,000 Grants for Arts Projects award for Fall for the Book. This grant will support general operating costs for festival’s year-round programming. In total, the NEA awarded 1,135 Grants for Arts Projects awards totaling more than $37 million as part of its second round of fiscal year 2024 grants.

Beth Macy, author of Dopesick, speaks to a group about her research. Photo by Aster Equine Photography

“[NEA’s] support helps us fulfill our mission to connect readers and writers and allows us keep the festival free to our community while offering more support to writers,” said Festival Director Kara Oakleaf. “The NEA’s work in advancing the arts is crucial to the cultural life of the United States, and we’re honored to work with them in keeping the literary arts thriving in our community.”

“Projects like Fall for the Book exemplify the creativity and care with which communities are telling their stories, creating connection, and responding to challenges and opportunities in their communities—all through the arts,” said NEA Chair Maria Rosario Jackson.

Fall for the Book, Northern Virginia’s oldest and largest festival of literature and the arts, celebrated 25 years in 2023. All events are free and open to the public thanks to the generous support of sponsors including the ��AV, Fairfax County Public Library, the Fairfax Library Foundation, and the City of Fairfax.

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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.

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Fall for the Book’s biggest event ever draws more than 5,000 virtual attendees

Colleen Rich — Fri, 14 May 2021 13:01:48 +0000

Fall for the Book’s biggest event ever draws more than 5,000 virtual attendees Colleen Rich Fri, 05/14/2021 - 09:01

Fall for the Book shattered attendance records at their recent virtual event with New York Times bestselling author Kristin Hannah. On April 22 and throughout the following week, more than 5,000 people from around the globe tuned in live and on-demand to watch the hour-long event, sponsored by the Fairfax County Public Library.

Had the event been in-person, the audience for Hannah would have filled more than two full Concert Halls.

“The festival has seen big crowds before, but this event—and the momentum it created online—was extraordinary, with nearly 2,000 people coming from Fairfax County and the DMV area alone,” said Kara Oakleaf, director of Fall for the Book.

Based at ��AV, Fall for the Book is an independent nonprofit literary arts organization that promotes reading by sponsoring a variety of year-round events and activities, the flagship of which is the Fall for the Book festival held each October.

At the April event, “The Four Winds” author sat down with Tayla Burney, creator and curator of the WAMU in Your Bookstore series, to talk about the writing process, the Dust Bowl, and Hannah’s long and successful career.

Comments flooded the chat in Crowdcast and on YouTube. Viewers shared links to famous Dust Bowl photographer Dorothea Lange, which sparked a passionate discussion of her work and how it informed their own reading of Hannah’s novel, enriching the evening’s experience.

This event crowned a full year of virtual programming for the festival, which saw more than 10,000 visitors in the fall attending events featuring best-selling authors like Madeline Miller of “Song of Achilles” fame, Rainbow Rowell, and Tommy Orange.

Mason alumna Julija Pivo stepped up during the transition to online because of the pandemic and learned a swath of new technology to produce each of the festival’s 50 events.

“So many challenges came with moving the festival online, which pushed my understanding of how technology can build community,” said Pivo, who graduated with a BFA in creative writing in 2020. “I would never have imagined how far the reach of an online platform could be. Being able to create virtual events that brought joy to people all over the world has been deeply rewarding.”

Pivo worked closely with Mason alumni and festival staffers Oakleaf, Suzy Rigdon and Kate Lewis, and two groups of Mason undergraduate and graduate students, who supported the events.

Over the last 22 years, Fall for the Book has always sought to bring community and campus together through its programming, and now that community has spread even farther.

But there’s no rest for the bookish. The staff is already hard at work planning another virtual festival for October 2021. To find out more about upcoming events, visit fallforthebook.org.

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Fall for the Book to receive $20,000 grant from NEA

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

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Fall for the Book’s biggest event ever draws more than 5,000 virtual attendees

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