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1. Meet Your New Favorite Bookstore
From events that take place in bookshops themselves, to vendors who will be selling on site, here's your chance to meet and greet independent and non-profit booksellers! Bluebird & Co. and Stone Soup Books will be selling books at onsite programs along the historic Downtown Charlottesville Mall. The Beautiful Idea, Daedalus Bookshop, Hello Comics, Jefferson School African American Heritage Center, New Dominion Bookshop, and 2nd Act Books will host events in their locations. Remember that all authors will have their pens ready to sign! Grab books for yourself and friends!
2. Catch Some Tunes
Hear live music at two Festival events! On Thursday, March 20, join "Celebrating Women in Music," our Festival Kickoff Party, with Suz Slezak (David Wax Museum, The Golden Hours) and Lauren Plank Goans (Lowland Hum, The Golden Hours) for a special performance, plus a discussion with WNRN Content Director Desiré Moses, a contributor to How Women Made Music: A Revolutionary History from NPR Music. Then check out "Searching for Jimmie Strother: A Tale of Music, Murder and Mystery" for a talk and live music with author Gregg D. Kimball and musician-scholar Corey Harris.
3. Get Swept Away
There's nothing like an imaginative fantasy world, or a lush tale in historical fiction to take you away from the here and now. Catch Black Fantastical with authors Esme Addison's, P. Djèlí Clark's, and Shawntelle Madison's spellbinding tales of Black diasporic fantasy. Hear witty, pretty prose and enjoy delectable treats during Champagne and Cake with Louis Bayard and Emma Donoghue. And enjoy breakfast with a generous side of history as authors Chris Bohjalian and Kimberly Brock explore stories of risk and deceit set against the backdrop of the American South.
4. Find Your Partner in Crime
From "Sinister Sisters" to "Creepy Homes and Creaky Mysteries," you'll get your heart pounding during the 2025 Virginia Festival of the Book's crime and thriller line-up. From ladies who kill, to murders in exotic locales, to dark American gothic tales, the festival features stories that will keep you on the edge of your seat!
5. Celebrate a New Voice and Remember a Legend
The world lost a literary icon in Nikki Giovanni who was a former board member and a dedicated supporter of Virginia Humanities. The Virginia Festival of the Book is honored to pay tribute to this poet and activist through performances in dance and music, as well as readings by Jericho Brown, Rita Dove, Joanne Gabbin, and Remica Bingham-Risher, at 7:00 p.m. in the Paramount Theater. And preceding the Tribute to Nikki Giovanni, hear an exciting new voice in poetry: the recent Anisfield-Wolf Book Awardee Donika Kelly, as she engages in conversation with former U.S. Poet Laureate Rita Dove.
Plan Your Stay
Some ticketed events are already selling out. So, don’t delay: Start making plans now! Get started at VaBook.org, where you can register for the Festival. This lets you save your favorite events, create a schedule for yourself, and stay in the loop on the latest Festival happenings. While you’re at it, make a plan to stay at one of the many hotels, B&Bs, and boutique accommodations in Charlottesville and Albemarle County. In fact, did you know the Downtown Mall has an official Book Crawl? Crawl cards can be found at any of the six bookstores located in the Downtown Book District -- with a prize at the end of course!
We can’t wait to see you soon!