Fall for the Book

Celeste Ng and Stephen Graham Jones headline the 2026 Fall for the Book Festival

Katarina Benson — Mon, 03 Aug 2026 18:22:19 +0000

Celeste Ng and Stephen Graham Jones headline the 2026 Fall for the Book Festival Katarina Benson Mon, 08/03/2026 - 14:22

Fall for the Book, Northern Virginia’s largest literary festival, returns for the 28th year this October with bestselling authors Celeste Ng and Stephen Graham Jones as headliners. Taking place from October 6-10, the festival includes talks from local and national authors as well as events across the 911�� campus and the Fairfax area.

On Thursday, October 8, at 7:30 p.m., horror icon and author of more than 30 novels and collections, Stephen Graham Jones will discuss body of work including his historical vampiric novel, The Buffalo Hunter Hunter.

Celeste Ng and Stephen Graham Jones headline the 2026 Fall for the Book festival.

Jones will appear at Harris Theatre on 911��’s Fairfax Campus thanks to the sponsorship of the 911�� Friends.

On Friday, October 9, at 7:30 p.m., Celeste Ng will discuss her bestselling novels, Little Fires Everywhere, Everything I Never Told You, and most recently, Our Missing Hearts.

She will appear at the Stacy C. Sherwood Center in Fairfax thanks to the sponsorship of the Friends of the Reston Regional Library and the Friends of City of Fairfax Regional Library.

A variety of author events will be held across the 911�� Fairfax Campus during the run of the festival. The full schedule will be available on August 13.

All festival events are free and open to the public thanks to the generous support of sponsors like the City of Fairfax, the 911�� Friends, ArtsFairfax, and Virginia Commission for the Arts. Free tickets are required for both headline events and will be available from September 10 on Fall for the Book’s Eventbrite page.

Based at 911��, Fall for the Book is an independent nonprofit literary arts organization that promotes reading by sponsoring a variety of year-round events and activities.

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Erik Larson headlines this year’s Fall for the Book festival

Katarina Benson — Tue, 19 Aug 2025 15:21:28 +0000

Erik Larson headlines this year’s Fall for the Book festival Katarina Benson Tue, 08/19/2025 - 11:21

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

Fall for the Book, Northern Virginia’s oldest and largest festival of literature and the arts, returns for its 27th annual festival, October 7-11, with bestselling authors taking the headline stage.

On Friday, October 10, at 7:30 p.m. in Harris Theatre on 911��'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�� 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��’s Center for the Arts.

Vying for this year’s Institute for Immigration Research New American Voices Award 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��’s Institute for Immigration Research, 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�� 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. See the full schedule.

All events are free and open to the public thanks to the generous support of sponsors including 911��, 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 Eventbrite page.

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Community Partners

Habib wins New American Voices Award

ckearney — Fri, 08 Nov 2024 13:10:16 +0000

Habib wins New American Voices Award ckearney Fri, 11/08/2024 - 08:10

On Thursday, Oct. 17, during the 2024 Fall for the Book festival, three finalists, three judges, and a group of readers gathered at 911��’s Center for the Arts to celebrate the seventh annual Institute for Immigration Research New American Voices Award.

Shahnaz Habib, author of Airplane Mode: An Irreverent History of Travel, was awarded this year’s Institute for Immigration Research New American Voices Award. Photo by Fall for the Book

Shahnaz Habib, author of Airplane Mode: An Irreverent History of Travel, was awarded this year’s top prize of $5,000. Finalists Carrie Sun, author of Private Equity: A Memoir, and Alex Espinoza, author of The Sons of El Rey were each awarded $1,000.

The New American Voices Award was created in 2018 by Fall for the Book and Mason’s Institute for Immigration Research (IIR) to recognize recently published works that illuminate the complexity of the human experience as told by immigrants, whose work is historically underrepresented in writing and publishing. IIR Director Jim Witte announced the award.

This year’s judges—Myriam J. A. Chancy, V. V. Ganeshananthan, and Karin Tanabe—praised the strengths they saw in the 70+ submissions to this year’s contest. The books that most stood out “were all taking great risks, they were all very bold, and in ways that I hadn’t always realized you could be,” said Ganeshananthan.

Tanabe mentioned the stereotype of the “good immigrant” and how all the longlist and shortlist books challenged this narrative.

Habib is a writer and translator based in Brooklyn, New York. She translates from her mother tongue, the south Indian language of Malayalam, and has translated two novels. Airplane Mode is her first book.

The judges praised Habib’s book: “Through essays, both personal and well-researched, [Habib] tackles a wide range of travel-related topics from the history of passports to forests, carousels, and pickles. The realities she uncovers in the process are often as startling as they are eye-opening and reshape our sense of what it means to travel as a person from the Third World across disparate geographies, from the streets of Brooklyn to those of Istanbul.”

Fall for the Book is Northern Virginia’s oldest and largest festival of literature and the arts. All events are free and open to the public thanks to the generous support of sponsors including the Fairfax County Public Library, 911��, the Fairfax Library Foundation, and the City of Fairfax.

Discover more about Fall for the Book

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Institute for Immigration Research (IIR)

Fall for the Book brings authors to campus this month

ckearney — Thu, 10 Oct 2024 18:14:55 +0000

Fall for the Book brings authors to campus this month ckearney Thu, 10/10/2024 - 14:14

Fall for the Book, Northern Virginia’s oldest and largest festival of literature and the arts, kicks off its 26th season in the City of Fairfax on Saturday, Oct. 12, and runs through Oct. 18.

Fall for the Book panel in the Fenwick Library Reading Room. Photo provided

Global sensation Bonnie Garmus will discuss her breakout debut Lessons in Chemistry on Wednesday, Oct. 16, at 7 p.m. in 911��’s Center for the Arts. Closing the festival is Silvia Moreno-Garcia, author of bestsellers like Mexican Gothic, The Daughter of Doctor Moreau, and her newest title The Seventh Veil of Salome.

Other featured writers include this year’s Beck Environmental Lecture featuring Chelsea Henderson, author of Glacial: The Inside Story of Climate Politics, and the finalists for the New American Voices Award: Carrie Sun, author of Private Equity, Alex Espinoza, author of Sons of El Rey, and Shahnaz Habib, author of Airplane Mode: An Irreverent History of Travel.

From 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Oct. 12 in Old Town Hall, right in the heart of the City of Fairfax’s Fall Festival, there are interactive events for kids on the ground level with Pat Tanumihardja, Debra Shumaker, John Gallagher, and Jamar Nicholas. Upstairs are events perfect for book clubs, including the panel “Murder in the Jazz Age, Twisted Tales, and Devilish Obsessions,” featuring Ananda Lima and 911�� alumna Constance Sayers.

From Oct. 15-18, events will take place on 911��’s Fairfax Campus, at local Fairfax County Public Library branches, at the Sherwood Center in Fairfax.

On Wednesday, Oct. 16, at 4:30 p.m., four 911�� alumni will read from their work in the Fenwick Library Reading Room: John Copenhaver, author of Hall of Mirrors; Sean Murphy, author of This Kind of Man; Noley Reid, author of Origami Dogs; and K.E. Semmel, author of The Book of Losman. Copenhaver’s novel investigates the mysterious death of a popular novelist in McCarthy-era Washington, D.C. Murphy’s story collection investigates masculinity in 21st-century America. Reid’s story collection celebrates the connection between humans and their dog companions. Semmel’s novel interrogates how far a lonely man will go to feel complete.

All events are free and open to the public thanks to the generous support of sponsors including 911��, Fairfax County Public Library, the Fairfax Library Foundation, the City of Fairfax, and the National Endowment for the Arts. However, headline and virtual events require free tickets, which you can reserve on Eventbrite.

See the full schedule for Fall for the Book

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Community Engagement

Fall for the Book to receive $20,000 grant from NEA

ckearney — Thu, 16 May 2024 17:08:25 +0000

Fall for the Book to receive $20,000 grant from NEA ckearney Thu, 05/16/2024 - 13:08

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has approved a $20,000 Grants for Arts Projects award for Fall for the Book. This grant will support general operating costs for festival’s year-round programming. In total, the NEA awarded 1,135 Grants for Arts Projects awards totaling more than $37 million as part of its second round of fiscal year 2024 grants.

Beth Macy, author of Dopesick, speaks to a group about her research. Photo by Aster Equine Photography

“[NEA’s] support helps us fulfill our mission to connect readers and writers and allows us keep the festival free to our community while offering more support to writers,” said Festival Director Kara Oakleaf. “The NEA’s work in advancing the arts is crucial to the cultural life of the United States, and we’re honored to work with them in keeping the literary arts thriving in our community.”

“Projects like Fall for the Book exemplify the creativity and care with which communities are telling their stories, creating connection, and responding to challenges and opportunities in their communities—all through the arts,” said NEA Chair Maria Rosario Jackson.

Fall for the Book, Northern Virginia’s oldest and largest festival of literature and the arts, celebrated 25 years in 2023. All events are free and open to the public thanks to the generous support of sponsors including the 911��, Fairfax County Public Library, the Fairfax Library Foundation, and the City of Fairfax.

Learn more about Fall for the Book

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National Endowment for the Arts

Fall for the Book hosts second Mini Fest

ckearney — Tue, 20 Feb 2024 16:47:00 +0000

Fall for the Book hosts second Mini Fest ckearney Tue, 02/20/2024 - 11:47

Fall for the Book’s 2023 Mini Fest was such a success that they’re making it an annual tradition.

On Feb. 22, the 2024 Mini Fest will host seven authors and five events that span the genre gambit on 911��’s Fairfax Campus. Featuring writers Chris Klimas, Michelle Brafman, Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond, Kim Coleman Foote, Itoro Bassey, and Hanna Pylväinen, Mini Fest will run from 10:30 a.m. - 4:15 p.m. in Fenwick Library, Room 2001. Then, in the evening, Fall for the Book welcomes headliner, Marlon James, in Harris Theater at 7 p.m. The events are free and open to the public, but reserving free tickets for Marlon James is encouraged.

At 10:30 a.m., web developer and game designer Chris Klimas will talk about the roots of the interactive text-based storytelling tool Twine, and the potentials of nonlinear and multilinear storytelling in game design, fiction, poetry, and more. In 2009, Klimas created Twine and continues to lead the project.

At noon, Michelle Brafman will discuss her novel about addiction, secrets, and a cultish Northern Virginia swim team, Swimming with Ghosts. When the freak 2012 derecho storm knocks out power for days, old ghosts and simmering tensions boil over between two best friends and swim moms. Sponsored by Mason’s Judaic Studies Program.

At 1:30 p.m., three writers will discuss how displacement, migration, and change connect with their identity. Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond, editor of and contributor to Relations: An Anthology of African and Diaspora Voices, will be joined by contributor Kim Coleman Foote, author of Coleman Hill: A Novel, a kaleidoscopic novel set during the early days of America’s Great Migration, and Itoro Bassey, author of the novel Faith, about a first-generation Nigerian American woman who resettles in Nigeria. Sponsored by the Cheuse International Writers Center.

Wrapping up the daytime events at 3 p.m., Hanna Pylväinen will talk about her novel, The End of Drum-Time, which paints a picture of a world in a remote Scandinavian village, circa 1850, as the son of a reindeer herder falls in love with the daughter of a Lutheran minister. Despite a clash of their cultural, religious, and political backgrounds, the lovers find themselves bound together as they follow the herders on their annual migration north. The End of Drum-Time was a finalist for the National Book Award.

Finally, at 7 p.m., Marlon James, a finalist for the National Book Award for Black Leopard, Red Wolf, will discuss the second installment, Moon Witch, Spider King, which flips the story on its head, retelling it from the Moon Witch’s perspective. Sponsored by the 911�� Friends. Reserve your free ticket.

Fall for the Book events, which continue into March with “Thrillers, Killers, and Wine Chillers” and “Memorial Days: Viet Nam Stories,” are free and open to the public, thanks to the generous support of sponsors including the Mason, Fairfax County Public Library, the Fairfax Library Foundation, and the City of Fairfax. For the full schedule of events, visit fallforthebook.org.

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Black History Month

Heng wins 2023 New American Voices Award

ckearney — Mon, 16 Oct 2023 14:50:37 +0000

Heng wins 2023 New American Voices Award ckearney Mon, 10/16/2023 - 10:50

Author Rachel Heng has won the sixth annual New American Voices Award for her novel The Great Reclamation. She accepted the award at a ceremony at 911��’s Center for the Arts during 25th annual Fall for the Book festival.

“When I first started writing this book, I wondered if anyone in America would want to read a book like this,” said Heng, who was born and raised in Singapore and is currently an assistant professor of English at Wesleyan University, “[but] the longer that I’ve been here, I’ve come to see a lot of similarities [between Singapore and the U.S.]. Both are countries of immigrants, [and] it means the world to me, truly, to have this novel recognized for those commonalities.”

The two other award finalists—Angie Kim, author of Happiness Falls, and DK Nnuro, author of What Napoleon Could Not Do—also read from and discussed their work at the event.

The previous winners of the New American Voices Award are Hernan Diaz’s In the Distance, Melissa Rivero’s The Affairs of the Falcóns, Lysley Tenorio’s The Son of Good Fortune, Patricia Engel’s Infinite Country, and Sindya Bhanoo’s Seeking Fortune Elsewhere.

The IIR is at the forefront of immigration research, producing high-quality research and timely analysis that examines the economic contributions of immigrants in the United States.

Fall for the Book is Northern Virginia’s oldest and largest festival of literature and the arts. All events are free and open to the public thanks to the generous support of sponsors including Mason, the Fairfax County Public Library, the Fairfax Library Foundation, and the City of Fairfax.

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Institute for Immigration Research (IIR)

Fall for the Book festival celebrates its 25th year this fall

ckearney — Tue, 08 Aug 2023 18:30:15 +0000

Fall for the Book festival celebrates its 25th year this fall ckearney Tue, 08/08/2023 - 14:30

This October, Fall for the Book celebrates their 25th anniversary. The last two-and-a-half decades have brought many changes to Northern Virginia’s oldest book festival, but talented and storied headliners have remained a steadfast part of the festivities. This year is no different.

Atmospheric scientist Katharine Hayhoe will deliver the Beck Environmental Lecture as a festival preview event on Wednesday, October 4, on 911��’s Fairfax Campus. She is the author of Saving Us: A Climate Scientist’s Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World. Named one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People, Hayhoe has been working in the field for more than 20 years. The Beck Lecture is sponsored by Robert and Lucy Beck.

Award-winning author Nick Hornby will be in conversation with Mason professor Stephen Goodwin at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, October 13, at the Stacy C. Sherwood Community Center in Fairfax. From About a Boy to the cult-classic High Fidelity, Hornby’s books and screenplays have thrilled readers and movie-goers for more than 25 years. Hornby’s career has spanned genres with his trademark blend of humor and unsentimental emotion. His newest book is Dickens and Prince: A Particular Kind of Genius. This event is sponsored by the Fairfax Library Foundation.

Booker Prize-winning author Marlon James will close out the festival on Saturday, October 14, at 7 p.m. on Mason’s Fairfax Campus. James has won high praise for his Dark Star Trilogy, which Entertainment Weekly describes as “drenched in African myth and folklore.” The first book, Black Leopard, Red Wolf was a finalist for the National Book Award and was named one of TIME’s 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time. Now James is back with the second installment, Moon Witch, Spider King, which flips the story on its head, retelling it from the Moon Witch’s perspective—a tale that’s “part adventure tale, part chronicle of an indomitable woman who bows to no man.” This event is sponsored by the 911�� Friends.

The festival will also feature book club favorite W. Bruce Cameron, author of Love, Clancy: Diary a Good Dog and A Dog’s Purpose, and the sixth annual Institute for Immigration Research New American Voices Award Ceremony.

Fall for the Book events are free and open to the public, thanks to the generous support of sponsors including the Mason, Fairfax County Public Library, the Fairfax Library Foundation, and the City of Fairfax.

The full festival schedule, which runs October 11-14, will be available soon. Visit fallforthebook.org for details.

Learn more about Fall for the Book

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Fall for the Book hosts first-ever February Mini Fest

ckearney — Wed, 08 Feb 2023 19:40:53 +0000

Fall for the Book hosts first-ever February Mini Fest ckearney Wed, 02/08/2023 - 14:40

The Fall for the Book festival is celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2023 with year full of programming. On February 15, the festival is hosting the first annual Mini Fest, which will bring together four authors from around the globe.

The Mini Fest, featuring writers Crystal S. Anderson, Ava Homa, Bisi Adjapon, and Rashmi Sadana, will run from 10:30 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. in Fenwick Library, Room 2001, on 911��’s Fairfax Campus. The events are free and open to the public, but reserving free tickets is encouraged.

At 10:30 a.m., Anderson, who teaches in Mason’s African and African American Studies Program, will give her talk: “K-pop’s Got Soul” about her book Soul in Seoul: African American Popular Music and K-pop, which argues that Korean Pop is part of the global R&B movement.

At 12 p.m., Homa will discuss her novel Daughters of Smoke and Fire, which explores identity, family, and oppression in the everyday lives of Kurdish people. Homa herself was born in the Kurdistan province of Iran.

At 1:30 p.m., the Cheuse Center for International Writers presents Adjapon, their Ghanaian writer-in-residence, who will discuss Daughter in Exile—her novel about family, immigration, and adversity—with Mason creative writing professor and author Helon Habila. They will be joined by poet and artist Bennie Herron, whose work is currently on display at Mason Exhibitions Arlington.

Finally, at 3 p.m., Sadana, a cultural anthropologist in Mason’s Department of Sociology and Anthropology, will take readers to the heart of Delhi, India, with her book The Moving City: Scenes from the Delhi Metro and the Social Life of Infrastructure.

Fall for the Book’s Mini Fest is the second event in an exciting expansion of festival programming year round. The 25th anniversary celebration continues in March, with the return of fan favorite, Story Sprint.

For the full schedule of events, visit fallforthebook.org.

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