Virginia Festival of the Book
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1sallylou61
My favorite annual event in Charlottesville, VA is the Virginia Festival of the Book, sponsored by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. It is a five-day event held in March.
I find that it is hard to decide which programs to attend among the approximately 150 programs featuring around 300 speakers. However, I've found that it is best to attend no more than three or so programs per day.
Wednesday, March 22nd:
Wednesday was the first day of the festival, and I attended only one program since I had a adult education class this afternoon. The program I attended was titled "Secrets and Lies: Haunting Historical Fiction", and featured Brooke Obie, author of Book of Addis: Cradled Embers; Kathleen Grisson, author of Glory over Everything, a sequel to The Kitchen House; and Susan Rivers, author of The Second Mrs. Hockaday. All of these novels deal with slavery and family. I particularly enjoyed hearing the talks and book readings of Brooke Obie and Kathleen Grisson, and want to read their new novels.
I find that it is hard to decide which programs to attend among the approximately 150 programs featuring around 300 speakers. However, I've found that it is best to attend no more than three or so programs per day.
Wednesday, March 22nd:
Wednesday was the first day of the festival, and I attended only one program since I had a adult education class this afternoon. The program I attended was titled "Secrets and Lies: Haunting Historical Fiction", and featured Brooke Obie, author of Book of Addis: Cradled Embers; Kathleen Grisson, author of Glory over Everything, a sequel to The Kitchen House; and Susan Rivers, author of The Second Mrs. Hockaday. All of these novels deal with slavery and family. I particularly enjoyed hearing the talks and book readings of Brooke Obie and Kathleen Grisson, and want to read their new novels.
2sallylou61
Thursday, March 23rd:
One of the main attractions (and most expensive event to attend) of the festival is the festival luncheon. This year's luncheon featured Christina Baker Kline who gave an excellent presentation with colored illustrations concerning her writing of her most recent book, A Piece of the World, a novel about Christina Olsen, the Christina in Andrew Wyeth's painting, Christina's World. She spoke about why she wrote the book, and the influence that the painting still has on contemporary culture.
I also attended a program titled: "Women Making History: Who Gets to Write Which Stories." This session was different from the usual programs of authors talking and/or reading from their books. It featured a panel of four authors, Catherine Clinton, Claudrena Harold, Dava Sobel, and Susan Southard with Corinne Field as moderator. Instead of talking specifically about their books, Ms. Field directed questions to all the panel members about the philosophy of women's history and where the women thought history was going. This was rather awkward because not all of the authors were historians, and were out of their fields of expertise.
The last program I attended today titled: American Lives and featured biographies of Shirley Jackson, Margaret Wise Brown, and Black Elk written by Ruth Franklin, Amy Gary, and Joe Jackson respectively. I had gone especially to hear about Margaret Wise Brown. However, Ms. Gary read from her biography of Ms. Brown and I did not like the style of writing.
So far I've attended two excellent sessions, and two which were disappointing.
One of the main attractions (and most expensive event to attend) of the festival is the festival luncheon. This year's luncheon featured Christina Baker Kline who gave an excellent presentation with colored illustrations concerning her writing of her most recent book, A Piece of the World, a novel about Christina Olsen, the Christina in Andrew Wyeth's painting, Christina's World. She spoke about why she wrote the book, and the influence that the painting still has on contemporary culture.
I also attended a program titled: "Women Making History: Who Gets to Write Which Stories." This session was different from the usual programs of authors talking and/or reading from their books. It featured a panel of four authors, Catherine Clinton, Claudrena Harold, Dava Sobel, and Susan Southard with Corinne Field as moderator. Instead of talking specifically about their books, Ms. Field directed questions to all the panel members about the philosophy of women's history and where the women thought history was going. This was rather awkward because not all of the authors were historians, and were out of their fields of expertise.
The last program I attended today titled: American Lives and featured biographies of Shirley Jackson, Margaret Wise Brown, and Black Elk written by Ruth Franklin, Amy Gary, and Joe Jackson respectively. I had gone especially to hear about Margaret Wise Brown. However, Ms. Gary read from her biography of Ms. Brown and I did not like the style of writing.
So far I've attended two excellent sessions, and two which were disappointing.
3sallylou61
Friday, March 24th:
All three of the session which I attended on Friday were excellent; all three were primarily featuring nonfiction.
Battles Worth Fighting: Civil Rights and Journalism featured Anya Schiffrin who wrote Global Muckraking: 100 Years of Investigative Journalism from Around the World; Jim Obergetell who wrote Love Wins (no touchstone found); and Patricia Hruby Powell who wrote Loving vs. Virginia: a Documentary Novel of the Landmark Civil Rights Case.
Especially moving was Mr. Obergetell's account of the struggle of his lover and him to gain marriage equality for gays. Their case was one of the bundled cases which was decided by the Supreme Court in favor of marriage rights; Ohio would still not allow them to be married so that they got married on an airplane in Florida shortly before John's death from ALS. Mr. Obergetell teared up as he described his love for John and being his caretaker for several years prior to his death.
Ms. Powell wrote Loving vs. Virginia in verse. It is the Civil Rights case of an inter-racial marriage (Mr. Loving was white, Mrs. Loving was black) which occurred in the 1950s. Although the couple got married legally in Washington, DC, their marriage was not recognized in rural Virginia where they were from and where they wanted to live.
Activism & Leadership: African Americans during Jim Crow featured three books about black history: The Original Black Elite: Daniel Murray and the Story of a Forgotten Era by Elizabeth Dowling Taylor, New Negro Politics in the Jim Crow South by Chaudrena Harold (no touchstone), and Julius Chambers: a Life in the Legal Struggle for Civil Rights by Richard Rosen and Joseph Mosnier. The moderator of this session asked specific questions to each author instead of having the authors discuss their works.
Witches, Patriots, and Partisanship: Early American History featured Benjamin Ray, author of Satan & Salem; John Ragosta, author of Patrick Henry: Proclaiming a Revolution; and Robert McDonald, author of Confounding Father: Thomas Jefferson's Image in His Own Time. This was an interesting session since Mr. Ray told why he wrote his book about the Salem Witch Hunt; Mr. Ragosta told of George Washington's trying to get Patrick Henry politically involved in the late 1790s when he feared the direction that Thomas Jefferson and James Madison would take the country in; and Mr. McDonald explaining how his doctor kept Thomas Jefferson alive for several days so that he could die on July 4th, 1826 the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence as he wanted to. I knew that both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died on the same day, but did not know that Jefferson had been kept alive so he could die then. (James Monroe also died on July 4th but 5 years later.)
All three of the session which I attended on Friday were excellent; all three were primarily featuring nonfiction.
Battles Worth Fighting: Civil Rights and Journalism featured Anya Schiffrin who wrote Global Muckraking: 100 Years of Investigative Journalism from Around the World; Jim Obergetell who wrote Love Wins (no touchstone found); and Patricia Hruby Powell who wrote Loving vs. Virginia: a Documentary Novel of the Landmark Civil Rights Case.
Especially moving was Mr. Obergetell's account of the struggle of his lover and him to gain marriage equality for gays. Their case was one of the bundled cases which was decided by the Supreme Court in favor of marriage rights; Ohio would still not allow them to be married so that they got married on an airplane in Florida shortly before John's death from ALS. Mr. Obergetell teared up as he described his love for John and being his caretaker for several years prior to his death.
Ms. Powell wrote Loving vs. Virginia in verse. It is the Civil Rights case of an inter-racial marriage (Mr. Loving was white, Mrs. Loving was black) which occurred in the 1950s. Although the couple got married legally in Washington, DC, their marriage was not recognized in rural Virginia where they were from and where they wanted to live.
Activism & Leadership: African Americans during Jim Crow featured three books about black history: The Original Black Elite: Daniel Murray and the Story of a Forgotten Era by Elizabeth Dowling Taylor, New Negro Politics in the Jim Crow South by Chaudrena Harold (no touchstone), and Julius Chambers: a Life in the Legal Struggle for Civil Rights by Richard Rosen and Joseph Mosnier. The moderator of this session asked specific questions to each author instead of having the authors discuss their works.
Witches, Patriots, and Partisanship: Early American History featured Benjamin Ray, author of Satan & Salem; John Ragosta, author of Patrick Henry: Proclaiming a Revolution; and Robert McDonald, author of Confounding Father: Thomas Jefferson's Image in His Own Time. This was an interesting session since Mr. Ray told why he wrote his book about the Salem Witch Hunt; Mr. Ragosta told of George Washington's trying to get Patrick Henry politically involved in the late 1790s when he feared the direction that Thomas Jefferson and James Madison would take the country in; and Mr. McDonald explaining how his doctor kept Thomas Jefferson alive for several days so that he could die on July 4th, 1826 the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence as he wanted to. I knew that both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died on the same day, but did not know that Jefferson had been kept alive so he could die then. (James Monroe also died on July 4th but 5 years later.)
4sallylou61
Saturday, March 25th
I enjoyed visiting with a couple of friends at the Lit Fair at which small publishers are present to sell their publications (similar to exhibits at library association conferences). I already have all of Sara M. Robinson's poetry books, but enjoyed talking to her. The Virginia Arts Book Center had one of its presses on display, and showed how they make their publications.
Both my husband and I found the Crime Wave brunch disappointing. The food left something to be desired, but every more disappointing were Megan Abbott's introduction of Laura Lippman and Ms. Lippman's talk. Ms. Abbott's introduction was flaky and seemed to go on forever, and Ms. Lippman gave a very disjointed presentation. I was glad that I had not gone to the crime wave bestsellers presentation the night before at which Ms. Abbott was one of the main speakers. I have read some mysteries, but was unfamiliar with both of these authors.
Civil Protests, Bloody Responses featured Howard Means, author of 67 Shots: Kent State and the End of American Innocence and Robert A. Pratt, author of Selma's Bloody Sunday: Protest, Voting Right, and the Struggle for Racial Equality. I was particularly interested in hearing about Kent State since I had been working as a librarian at Penn State at that time, and some people got Kent State and Penn State mixed up and wondered if it was safe to come to Penn State. Moreover, one does not hear about Kent State nearly as much now as about Selma. Mr. Pratt gave a very interesting account illustrated with slides.
The evening's featured program was Written in the Stars: Margot Shetterly and Dava Sobel, the authors of Hidden Figures: the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race and The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars respectively. Earlier this year I read Hidden Figures and then saw the movie. The moderator, Kelsey Johnson, from the University of Virginia Astronomy Department asked the authors various questions. Both of the books dealt with history that had been hidden; specific examples of contributions women had made in science in different periods of history. Both the women astronomers in the late nineteenth century and the black female mathematicians in the mid twentieth century were called computers since they did computing. Although I think that Ms. Johnson did a good job at making sure each other spoke about an equal amount of time, I was sorry that an astronomer was chosen to be the moderator instead of a female scientist in an entirely different department (neither math nor astronomy). However, much of the conversation was between the two authors.
I enjoyed visiting with a couple of friends at the Lit Fair at which small publishers are present to sell their publications (similar to exhibits at library association conferences). I already have all of Sara M. Robinson's poetry books, but enjoyed talking to her. The Virginia Arts Book Center had one of its presses on display, and showed how they make their publications.
Both my husband and I found the Crime Wave brunch disappointing. The food left something to be desired, but every more disappointing were Megan Abbott's introduction of Laura Lippman and Ms. Lippman's talk. Ms. Abbott's introduction was flaky and seemed to go on forever, and Ms. Lippman gave a very disjointed presentation. I was glad that I had not gone to the crime wave bestsellers presentation the night before at which Ms. Abbott was one of the main speakers. I have read some mysteries, but was unfamiliar with both of these authors.
Civil Protests, Bloody Responses featured Howard Means, author of 67 Shots: Kent State and the End of American Innocence and Robert A. Pratt, author of Selma's Bloody Sunday: Protest, Voting Right, and the Struggle for Racial Equality. I was particularly interested in hearing about Kent State since I had been working as a librarian at Penn State at that time, and some people got Kent State and Penn State mixed up and wondered if it was safe to come to Penn State. Moreover, one does not hear about Kent State nearly as much now as about Selma. Mr. Pratt gave a very interesting account illustrated with slides.
The evening's featured program was Written in the Stars: Margot Shetterly and Dava Sobel, the authors of Hidden Figures: the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race and The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars respectively. Earlier this year I read Hidden Figures and then saw the movie. The moderator, Kelsey Johnson, from the University of Virginia Astronomy Department asked the authors various questions. Both of the books dealt with history that had been hidden; specific examples of contributions women had made in science in different periods of history. Both the women astronomers in the late nineteenth century and the black female mathematicians in the mid twentieth century were called computers since they did computing. Although I think that Ms. Johnson did a good job at making sure each other spoke about an equal amount of time, I was sorry that an astronomer was chosen to be the moderator instead of a female scientist in an entirely different department (neither math nor astronomy). However, much of the conversation was between the two authors.
5sallylou61
Sunday, March 26th
The Festival ended on a high but sad note for me. Mental Health: Sue Klebold and the Family Aftermath featured the mother of Dylan Klebold, one of the Columbine shooters. Ms. Klebold gave a very moving heartfelt talk about the incident and her coming to grips with it and her life afterwards. She started by apologizing to anyone in the audience who might have been hurt by the actions of her son. The whole incident had many ripple effects impacting numerous people. She addressed the question of How she could not have known that her son was so troubled -- a question she has wrestled with for years. She is sure that her son committed suicide although it is rare for someone committing suicide to kill so many others. Sue wrote her book, A Mother's Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy partly as therapy, but also to help other parents recognize when their son or daughter might be mentally ill. Sue's life now is centered around suicide prevention.
Both in her talk and during the question and answer period, Sue stressed the importance of a parent's listening, and not trying to fix a problem. She feels that if she had been
a better listener instead of a fix, Dylan might have been able to talk to her about his depression.
Virginia State Senator Creigh Deeds, whose mentally ill son stabbed his father multiple times prior to committing suicide, was in the audience and answered questions about what the state of Virginia is doing in the mental health field.
The Festival ended on a high but sad note for me. Mental Health: Sue Klebold and the Family Aftermath featured the mother of Dylan Klebold, one of the Columbine shooters. Ms. Klebold gave a very moving heartfelt talk about the incident and her coming to grips with it and her life afterwards. She started by apologizing to anyone in the audience who might have been hurt by the actions of her son. The whole incident had many ripple effects impacting numerous people. She addressed the question of How she could not have known that her son was so troubled -- a question she has wrestled with for years. She is sure that her son committed suicide although it is rare for someone committing suicide to kill so many others. Sue wrote her book, A Mother's Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy partly as therapy, but also to help other parents recognize when their son or daughter might be mentally ill. Sue's life now is centered around suicide prevention.
Both in her talk and during the question and answer period, Sue stressed the importance of a parent's listening, and not trying to fix a problem. She feels that if she had been
a better listener instead of a fix, Dylan might have been able to talk to her about his depression.
Virginia State Senator Creigh Deeds, whose mentally ill son stabbed his father multiple times prior to committing suicide, was in the audience and answered questions about what the state of Virginia is doing in the mental health field.
6sallylou61
Wrap-up of festival -- since I attended so many sessions on serious topics, the festival was not as much fun as in earlier years. However, I attended some very meaningful sessions.
Books purchased:
A Piece of the World by ChriSstina Baker Kline
Glory over Everything by Kathleen Grissom
Wilde Lake by Laura Lippman
67 Shots by Howard Means
Selma's Bloody Sunday by Robert A. Pratt
A Mother's Reckoning by Sue Klebold
Already had Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly
In the future, I think that I will just put my experiences in my thread instead of using a separate one.
Books purchased:
A Piece of the World by ChriSstina Baker Kline
Glory over Everything by Kathleen Grissom
Wilde Lake by Laura Lippman
67 Shots by Howard Means
Selma's Bloody Sunday by Robert A. Pratt
A Mother's Reckoning by Sue Klebold
Already had Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly
In the future, I think that I will just put my experiences in my thread instead of using a separate one.
7christina_reads
I enjoyed reading your thoughts on this conference! I've lived in VA for several years but have never made it to the Festival of the Book. Sounds like I'm missing out!
8DeltaQueen50
I have also enjoyed reading about your festival experience. You brought home some great souvenirs.
9sallylou61
>7 christina_reads:, >8 DeltaQueen50: Glad you enjoyed reading about the festival. This year I was trying to stay pretty much in one geographic area -- downtown where a number of the sites were close together -- instead of also going to the University of Virginia where parking can be difficult due to lack of space or Barnes and Noble which is in an easily accessible mall but tends to be noisy for book discussions. Nearly every session was given 90 minutes with an additional 30 minutes between sessions. (Sessions generally began at 10:00 a.m., noon, 2:00 and 4:00 with the evening programs starting at various times.) However, some programs went the whole 90 minutes with book purchasing and signing afterwards whereas others went for an hour and used the last half hour for book purchasing and signing. I never knew which would be the case prior to attending the free programs. (Only the luncheon, mystery brunch, and Saturday evening program had admission charges.)
The only books I got signed were 67 Shots and Selma's Bloody Sunday; the lines were short after that program, and I had several hours before the evening program. I would rather relax somewhere than stand in long lines and possibly not get a good seat for the next program. Also, I limited myself to three programs a day. In the past, I have found that four were too many.
The only books I got signed were 67 Shots and Selma's Bloody Sunday; the lines were short after that program, and I had several hours before the evening program. I would rather relax somewhere than stand in long lines and possibly not get a good seat for the next program. Also, I limited myself to three programs a day. In the past, I have found that four were too many.
