Most writers are preoccupied by a single theme that they revisit and explore in new ways again and again in their fiction. It’s what makes their work distinctive, their style dependable. For local Young Adult novelist Kristen-Paige Madonia, that theme is the threshold of adulthood. “All of my characters are 17,” she says. “It is […]
Over the course of her writing career, which began at a weekly alternative newspaper like C-VILLE Weekly, Barbara Kingsolver has authored 14 books and won numerous awards, including the National Humanities Medal in 2000 and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize in 2011. Her novel The Lacuna won the Orange Prize in 2010, and her memoir, […]
Book artist Lyall Harris doesn’t shy away from difficult and complex subjects, but dares to approach them more closely and pick them apart piece by piece to rebuild them. “Art is a language, a place to put things, to work stuff out,” says Harris. “My conduit.” Whatever her subject, recurring themes of identity and place […]
The idea for the Origami Yoda series began when Tom Angleberger stumbled across an origami Yoda on the Internet. “I was a huge fan of Star Wars—and an origami folder,” he says. So he tried to replicate the origami Yoda he found online. “The one I made was not as good as the one on […]
Every March thousands gather in Charlottesville for the Virginia Festival of the Book, now in its 22nd year, to celebrate storytelling and literacy. With most events free of charge and open to the public, the festival encourages book-lovers from all over to attend readings and panels, to see some of their favorite writers up close, […]
On February 19, Nelle Harper Lee, author of the classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird, died in her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama, at the age of 89. The evening before, I’d finished reading Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee, by local author and biographer Charles Shields. Shields took on the daunting task of researching and […]
For a decade, the National Endowment for the Arts has awarded Jefferson-Madison Regional Library a grant to participate in The Big Read, an effort to engage communities in reading and discussing literature. The application process is competitive as the NEA seeks nonprofit groups reaching audiences of all ages and demographics, aiming to return reading for […]
Last year for the month of October, fiber artist Jill Kerttula lived in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, lodging for free in a furnished apartment alongside three neighbors, among whom was a man who used paintball guns to track bears. Kerttula came to be there after being selected for the artist-in-residence program at the park, […]