Fall for the Book Welcomes a Host of Amazing Authors

From September 27 to October 3, Fall for the Book will host its 17th Annual Festival with nearly 150 authors at George Mason University and other locations around Northern Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia. Headliners include international bestselling novelist Diana Gabaldon, who will receive the 2015 Mason Award on Sunday, September 27, at 6:30 p.m. in the Concert Hall, Center for the Arts; National Book Award-winning novelist Tim O’Brien, who will receive the 2015 Fairfax Prize on Saturday, October 3, at 6:30 p.m., in Harris Theater; and MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant recipient and novelist Ernest J. Gaines, author of A Lesson Before Dying, who will speak with Keith Clark, professor of English and African American studies, on Monday, September 28, at 7:30 p.m., in EagleBank Arena as part of the MasonReads program.

Featured authors this year include

* Emily St. John Mandel, author of the novel Station Eleven, which was a finalist for the National Book Award and PEN/Faulkner Award. Mandel will read on Thursday, October 1, at 7:30 p.m. in the Johnson Center Cinema.

* Kyle Mills, author of the popular thrillers, The Patriot Attack and The Survivor, and who has recently taken over writing the Mitch Rapp series for the late Vince Flynn. Mills will read on Friday, October 2, at 7:30 p.m. at the Sherwood Center in Fairfax.

* Horror writer Peter Straub, whose novels and stories have won ten Bram Stoker Awards and a host of other accolades will read on Wednesday, September 30, at 7:30 p.m. at the Alden Theater in McLean, Virginia.

* Paula McLain, author of the New York Times and internationally bestselling novel, The Paris Wife, and the forthcoming novel, Circling the Sun, will read Saturday, October 3, at 3 p.m. in Harris Theater.

This year’s festival will also host a number of poets, including Jeff Baker, who is the author of Whoop and Shush, which won the Idaho Prize for Poetry in 2014. He’ll be joined both at a panel on Mason’s Fairfax Campus and at Epicure Café in Fairfax at 8 p.m. on Friday, October 2, by Dorianne Laux, author of five collections of poetry, and whose latest, The Book of Men, won The Paterson Prize, and Joseph Millar, whose first collection of poetry, Overtime, was a finalist for the 2001 Oregon Book Award. He has since published two more collections: Fortune and 2007’s Blue Rust.

We are thrilled to host three wonderful Visiting Writers this fall at Mason. For fiction, Benjamin Percy, author of The Dead Lands, will read on Saturday, October 3. For nonfiction, Peter Trachtenberg, author of Another Insane Devotion, will appear on Thursday, October 1. For poetry, Jessica Fisher, author of Inmost will read Monday, September 28.

A full schedule of events is posted at fallforthebook.org/schedule. We encourage professors, staff, students, and community members to attend our free readings throughout the week. If you would like to coordinate a class trip to an event, please email Suzy Rigdon at marketing@fallforthebook.org.

You can also download our free app from iTunes or the Google Play Store to get the festival at your fingertips!