1 PM - The Sound of American Patriotism
In Cold War Country: How Nashville’s Music Row and the Pentagon Created the Sound of American Patriotism, Joseph M. Thompson reveals how country music’s business leaders partnered with the Pentagon to encourage military service. The partnership provided an economic boost to white country stars, while marginalizing Black artists and fueling divisions over the meaning of patriotism. This immersive history not only chronicles the evolution of music, but also how it shaped race relations, partisanship, and images of the United States abroad.” Sponsored by the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.

Location: Virtual via Zoom. Register for free on Eventbrite. \

2:15 PM - Hunger Behind the Iron Curtain: A Memoir
In The Hunger Book: A Memoir from Communist Poland, Agata Izabela Brewer reminisces   about her loving grandparents, while recalling her life with an unstable, alcoholic mother, the need to forage for food amid Stalinist-era apartment buildings, martial law, and a nuclear disaster in nearby Ukraine. Brewer reflects on these experiences from her perspective as an immigrant and a mother in a memoir Kirkus calls “a memorable meditation on hunger for food and love, childhood in a totalitarian regime, and resilience.” Sponsored by Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.

Location: Virtual via Zoom. Register for free on Eventbrite.

6 PM - A Conversation with J. Michael Martinez
Michael Martinez’s latest poetry collection, Tarta Americana, channels the renowned 1950s singer-songwriter Richie Valens in order to challenge our conceptions of race, identity, and desire. Poet Dan Beachy-Quick says, “Tarta Americana is both bildungsroman and protest song, a story of family and love, of the pain of growing up, and wide-eyed witness to the casual racism that culminates in cruel violence.” Sponsored by Mason Creative Writing.

Location: Chubby Squirrel Brewing Company, 10382 Willard Way, Fairfax, VA

7:30 PM - Poetry Night Out
Four George Mason poetry alumni read from their latest collections. Alyse Knorr’s Ardor considers lesbian love and family-building across landscapes. Siwar Masannat grapples with the relationship between privacy and visibility in Cue. In Thine, Kate Partridge engages with ecopoetics within the context of the American West. Emily Tuszynska’s Surfacing follows a woman embarking on the baffling experience of motherhood. Sponsored by Mason Creative Writing.

Location: Chubby Squirrel Brewing Company, 10382 Willard Way, Fairfax, VA

7:30 PM - A Conversation with Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Bestselling author Silvia Moreno-Garcia closes the festival with her novel The Seventh Veil of Salome, an historical epic about the drama on and off the screen for a 1950s Hollywood actress who wins the role of a lifetime. Kirkus Reviews calls her writing “Intelligent, exciting, and written absolutely beautifully… Moreno-Garcia proves, once again, that she is a master of her craft.” Moreno-Garcia is also the author of Mexican Gothic, The Daughter of Doctor Moreau, and many other books. Sponsored by the Friends of the Reston Regional Library, and the Friends of the City of Fairfax Regional Library.

Location: Stacy C. Sherwood Community Center, 3740 Blenheim Blvd, Fairfax