About the Festival

The Virginia Festival of the Book is an annual public festival for children and adults featuring authors and book related professionals in over 150 programs. Produced by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, VABook! is held in Charlottesville, Virginia each March to promote literacy and celebrate reading and books.
This year's Festival will feature National Book Award winner Alice McDermott as our luncheon speaker.

"The Festival was exhilarating - - sort of like Mardi Gras with brains."
Boyd Zenner, 1998 Festival attendee

A generous sponsor of the 1999 Virginia Festival of the Book

In five years VABook! has become an integral part of the Charlottesville book-reading community, and a pre-eminent book festival in the Mid-Atlantic region. The Fifth Annual Virginia Festival of the Book will take place in Charlottesville from March 24-28, 1999.

VABook! is presented in a unique partnership between the VFH, individuals, and area businesses and organizations. This partnership results in programs that have a wide range of book-related topics and a variety of writers. In 1998, VABook! featured over 150 writers in 171 programs; 12,490 attended programs of the 1998 Virginia Festival of the Book.

Almost every aspect of VABook! is organized and generated by volunteer committees who generously contribute their time and energy to this annual celebration of books and reading.

Programs range from traditional author readings and book signings to a children's parade of storybook characters; from a panel on how to publish a novel to a discussion on running a bookstore; from a workshop on book-binding to a discussion on freelancer's rights. All programs are open to the public; with few exceptions (the Friday Luncheon and Saturday Evening Reception) programs are free of charge.

Past participants include Rita Dove, Russell Banks, Robert Pinsky, David Baldacci, Mary Lee Settle, John Casey, Sheri Reynolds, Sharyn McCrumb, and Howard Norman, John Grisham, Max Byrd, Anita Shreve, Lois Lowry, Charles Wright, Virginia Barber, Gay Talese, and Madison Smartt Bell, among others.

Charlottesville, located in the heart of Virginia, is a city for booklovers. Southern Living says, "Charlottesville draws writers the way Nashville beckons musicians" (February 1998). And according to Standard Rate & Data's 1996 Lifestyle Market Analyst, Charlottesville is the #1-ranked ADI (Area of Dominant Influence) in the United States in "Avid Book Reading." Additionally, the American booksellers Association ranks Charlottesville 8th in the country for "book stores per 10,000 households."

The Festival is widely supported by the more than 20 bookstores located in the area. The Virginia Festival of the Book is also fortunate to enjoy the support of Charlottesville's many resident writers. We hope you, too, will join us in our celebration of books, March 24-28, 1999.

If you would like more information about the Festival, or if you would like to be placed on our mailing list, please feel free to contact us. You can reach us by phone at (804) 924-3296 or by post at 145 Ednam Drive, Charlottesville VA 22903. If you have any comments about our website, please address them to vabook@virginia.edu. Your comments and ideas are greatly appreciated.