911±¬ÁÏ

Updated September 5, 2025, to reflect changes in the schedule. 

, Northern Virginia’s oldest and largest festival of literature and the arts, returns for its , with bestselling authors taking the headline stage.

On Friday, October 10, at 7:30 p.m. in Harris Theatre on 911±¬ÁÏ's Fairfax Campus, Erik Larson will discuss his latest chart-topper, The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War, which tells the story of the five months between Lincoln’s election and the start of the Civil War. Larson is the author of six national bestsellers—The Splendid and the Vile, Dead Wake, In the Garden of Beasts, Thunderstruck, The Devil in the White City, and Isaac’s Storm—which have collectively sold more than 12 million copies in nearly 40 countries. Larson will appear thanks to the sponsorship of the 911±¬ÁÏ Friends.

Delivering this year’s Beck Environmental Lecture is Jeff Goodell. He will discuss his book The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet on Wednesday, October 8, at 6 p.m. He is the author of six previous books, including The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World, which was a New York Times Critics Top Book of 2017. This event, sponsored by Robert and Lucy Beck, will be in Grand Tier III of 911±¬ÁÏ’s Center for the Arts.

Vying for this year’s are finalists Olufunke Grace Bankole’s The Edge of Water; Cristina Jiménez’s Dreaming of Home: How We Turn Fear into Pride, Power, and Real Change; and Shubha Sunder’s Optional Practical Training: A Novel. Celebrating its eighth anniversary, this award, sponsored by 911±¬ÁÏ’s , recognizes recently published works that illuminate the complexity of human experience as told by immigrants, whose work is historically underrepresented in writing and publishing. The winner will be announced at an award ceremony on Thursday, October 9, at 7:30 p.m. in the Center for the Arts Grand Tier III. 

In addition, a variety of author events will be held across the Fairfax Campus during the run of the festival and will include a number of 911±¬ÁÏ faculty and alumni, such as Distinguished University Professor Jagadish Shukla discussing his memoir, A Billion Butterflies: A Life in Climate and Chaos Theory, in an online interview on Friday, October 10.  

All events are free and open to the public thanks to the generous support of sponsors including 911±¬ÁÏ, Fairfax County Public Library, the Fairfax Library Foundation, the City of Fairfax, ArtsFairfax, and the Virginia Commission for the Arts. However, free tickets are required for both the Larson events. Tickets will be available September 10 on Fall for the Book’s .