Novelists Colson Whitehead, Lev Grossman, Mohsin Hamid, and Jennine Capó Crucet headline Fall for the Book’s 19th annual festival at George Mason and locations around Northern Virginia. Other major writers include David Shields and Janet Mock.
The festival runs from October 11-14, 2017, and welcomes a robust list of poets, historians, novelists, memoirists, children’s authors, YA writers, and more. This year, the festival is partnering with the City of Fairfax’s Fall Festival on Saturday, October 14, to bring a day of literary and artistic events to audiences from throughout the region.
Colson Whitehead will kick off the event at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, October 11, in Harris Theater on George Mason’s Fairfax campus. He is the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling novel The Underground Railroad, winner of the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize (and an Oprah’s Book Club selection).
Jennine Capó Crucet will speak on Thursday, October 12, at 4:30 p.m. in the Concert Hall, Center for the Arts, on Mason’s Fairfax campus. All incoming Mason freshmen received a copy of her novel, Make Your Home Among Strangers from St. Martin’s Press, as part of this year's Mason Reads program; Crucet’s presentation is its capstone event. Students are participating in programming throughout the semester and will attend Crucet’s reading, which is open to the public as well. Make Your Home Among Strangers was recently long-listed for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize.
Mohsin Hamid will read on Friday, October 13 at 7:30 p.m. in Harris Theater. Hamid is the New York Times bestselling author of four novels—Moth Smoke, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, and Exit West—and a book of essays, Discontent and Its Civilizations. His writing has been featured on bestseller lists, adapted for the cinema, shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, selected as winner or finalist of twenty awards, and translated into thirty-five languages.
Lev Grossman will read on Saturday, October 14, at 5 p.m. in Harris Theater. His #1 New York Times bestselling Magicians trilogy has been published in 25 countries, has transformed fantasy literature, and is now a hit TV series on the SyFy network. George R.R. Martin writes: “The Magicians is to Harry Potter as a shot of Irish whiskey is to a glass of weak tea.” Entertainment Weekly calls the show “a looking-glass fiction held up to a world cluttered with looking-glass fictions,” and an “American pop-aware enterprise with an abundance of salty cynicism and sex magic, plus a sinister force of antagonism.”
Community Day at the Festival
On Saturday, October 14, park for free in the university's Rappahannock parking deck and enjoy readings, signings, a book fair, the Hungry Patriot food truck and more all day. Mason’s Alumni Weekend features events with alumni authors, as well.
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, George Mason University, the Fairfax Library Foundation, and the City of Fairfax. For more information, visit fallforthebook.org.
September 25, 2017
