The 2025 Virginia Festival of the Book takes place March 20th through March 23rd. For the past three decades, the Festival has brought together writers and readers from across the nation to celebrate reading, literature, and the Center's mission. As we continue in this tradition, our focus remains on accessibility and diversity, and we are committed to showcasing voices through a range of events for all, with many free and open to the public.

Schedule of Events:

March 20, 2025

2:00 pm: Leadership Lessons From Top Presidents with Talmage Boston, Marc J. Selverstone, and Steve Gillon
3:00 pm: Dixon, Descending at the Center at Belvedere with Karen Outen
4:00 pm: The Wilderness Within with Sally Chaffin Brooks and Paula Whyman
6:00 pm: Edgar Allan Poe: UVA Special Collections with Richard Kopley
6:00 pm: Same Page Community Read with Earl Swift
7:00 pm: How Women Made Music with Desire Moses
7:00 pm: Stories of Meaning: Voices of Adult Learners

March 21, 2025

10:00 am: JFK and Vietnam with Marc J. Selverstone
10:00 am: Leaders and Eras with Aran Shetterly, David and Shelly Wilkins, and Raymond Arsenault
10:00 am: Everyday Wonder with Lisa Fishman, Charlotte Matthews, Hayden Saunier, and Lesley Wheeler
11:00 am: Untangling the Publishing Process with Kalela Williams
12:00 pm: Cozy Crime with Ellery Adams, Valerie Burns, and Michael Falco
12:00 pm: Ties That Bind with David Wright Falade
12:00 pm: Metals of Trauma and Perseverance with Kathleen Dorothy Blackburn and Rachel M. Hanson
02:00 pm: UVA MFA Reading with Hannah Dierdorff, Kyle Marbut, and Matthew Morris
02:00 pm: Teenage Wasteland wih Esinam Bediako, Rosa Kwon Easton, Sadie Hoagland, and P.H. Low
02:00 pm: Restless Ambition with Jessica Anthony and Lisa Ko
02:00 pm: History, Mystery, Murder with Colleen Cambridge, John Copenhaver, and Katharine Schellman
02:00 pm: American Gothic with Daniel Kraus, ICT. Nguyen, and Erica Wright
04:00 pm: Champagne, Cake, and Storytelling with Louis Bayard and Emma Donoghue
04:00 pm: Y2K to Today with Isabel Banta, Scott Guild, and Christine Ma
04:00 pm: Poetry Panel with Sarah V. Schweig, Jen Jabaily-Blackburn, and Corrie Williamson
04:00 pm: Bibliographical Society
04:00 pm: Disenfranchised America with Andrew Kahrl and Crystal Sanders
04:00 pm: A Changing Climate Ellen Prager and Dave Jones and Cynthia Reeves
05:00 pm: Searching for Jimmie Strother Gregg D. Kimball with Justin Golden
05:00 pm: SELC Reed Award
06:00 pm: The 2025 Carol Troxell Reader with Evan Friss
06:00 pm: Emergent Voices with Andie Davis, Karen Outen, and Katherine Packert Burke
06:00 pm: Facing the Fracture with Tania Israel
06:00 pm: Queer Poetics with jan Beatty, Sarah Gordon Keith, and Jason Schneiderman
08:00 pm: Festival Meet and Greet

March 22, 2025

10:00 am: Creepy Homes with Mary Kendall, Sarah Pinsker, and Lauren Thoman
10:00 am: Echoes of the Past with Chris Bohjalian and Kimberly Brock
10:00 am: Science, Secrets, Spies with Patrick Spero
10:00 am: Giving Voice with Kendra Y. Hamilton and Jenny Shaw
10:00 am: Grit and Grace with James Grady, Ellen Birkett Morris, and Tim Wendel
10:00 am: Vastness of Being with Catherine Barnett and Oliver Baez Bendorf
12:00 pm: The Man Nobody Killed with Elon Green
12:00 pm: Mae Mallory, the Monroe Defense Committee, and World Revolutions with Paula Marie Seniors
12:00 pm: Her Own Words with Jody Hobbs Hesler, Cynthia Marie Hoffman, Sarah LaBrie, and Suzanne Scanlon
12:00 pm: Swimming Pretty with Vicki Valosik
12:00 pm: Virginia Landscapes with Jonathan Mingle and Andrew S. Ramey
02:00 pm: Sinister Sisters with Tracy Sierra, Marie Still, and Aliah Wright
02:00 pm: Mothership with Greg Wrenn Black Fantastical with Esme Addison, P. Djèli Clark, and Shawntelle Madison
02:00 pm: Southerners and Otherness with Bill J. Leonard and Scott
02:00 pm: Dog Smart with Jennifer S. Holland
02:00 pm: Artist's Talk with Brittani Locke
04:00 pm: What Lurks Beneath wirh Alex Finlay and Henry Wise
04:00 pm: Threads of Legacy with Luisa A. Igloria, Leona Sevick, and Jennifer Chang
04:00 pm: Women in Science with Kelsey Johnson and Tara Roberts
04:00 pm: The Information Cage with Nicol Turner Lee, Christine Rosen, and David Rowell
04:00 pm: Artist's Talk with Emmy Thacker
07:00 pm: A Tribute to Nikki Giovanni with Jericho Brown, Rita Dove, Joanne Gabbin, Tayari Jones, Remica Bingham-Risher, the Leah Glenn Dance Theatre and other authors and performers

March 23, 2025

11:00 am: The Links Inc. Brunch
11:00 am: Jeffrey Rosen on The Pursuit of Happiness: How Classical Writers on Virtue Inspired the Lives of the Founders and Defined America
01:00 pm: The Birds That Audubon Missed with Kenn Kaufman
02:00 pm: The Write Start: The Moseley Speed Critique
04:00 pm: WriterHouse Reading

Date: March 20 - 23, 2025

Location: Various Venues in Charlottesville, VA

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