The Crozet Book Fest takes place October 25 at locations around Crozet. Full details at bluebirdcrozet.com. Supplied photos.
If you think spring is the season of book festivals, think again. The Crozet Book Fest will take place on October 25, featuring free panel discussions and book signings with authors of fantasy, suspense, and romance, as well as middle grade and picture books. Now in its second year, the Crozet Book Fest is presented by Bluebird & Co., with support from CharlottesvilleFamily, Jefferson-Madison Regional Library, Virginia Humanities, and WriterHouse. Building off past success, the event promises to be a close-up and cozy chance to meet authors, hear them discuss their work, and join others in celebrating all things bookish.
Some of the genre-specific panels include Murders, Muffins, & Mayhem: Cozy Mysteries to Die For, featuring Olivia Blacke, Mollie Cox Bryan, and Mindy Quigley, as well as a young adult fantasy panel called World Building from Within: Where Your Inner Weird Doesn’t Need A Map, with Amber McBride and Ivelisse Housman. For fans of romance, there’s also Messy, Hot, & Human: Writing the Contemporary Love Interest, featuring Audrey Ingram, Eliza MacArthur, and Jeffrey Dale Lofton.
For younger readers (and writers who want to publish books for them), there are events such as Picture Books & Pals: Storytime with the Authors, featuring Kris Coronado, Hannah Barnaby, Gabriella Aldeman, and Tammy Tatum, as well as So You Want to Be A Writer: Middle Grade Authors on Storytelling for Writers of All Ages, with Kate Albus, Alyssa Colman, Meredith Davis, and Lindsey Leavitt. Most events are free to attend, but advance registration is required.
C-VILLE spoke with Flannery Buchanan of Bluebird & Co. to learn more about this year’s fest.
C-VILLE: What was the drive behind your decision to create the Crozet Book Fest and host it annually in October?
Flannery Buchanan: The impetus was two-fold. First, we had so many authors last fall that we wanted to support with events but with only so many hours in the day, days in the week … we thought a one-day festival was the way to support our authors in a more meaningful way. Plus, once we floated the idea to a group of our regular authors like Elle Cosimano, Katharine Schellman, Sara Read, and more, their enthusiasm was contagious and motivating, and now here we are.
How does this play a part in your ongoing trajectory from mobile bookshop to brick and mortar as a way to continue to build book community in the Crozet area?
People just seem hungry for community, for positive interactions, for ways to support local businesses. We are so fortunate that Crozet and beyond continuously supports what we’re doing with local authors and the book community in general. Our goal is for Crozet to be this little literary hub for many years to come and the Crozet Book Fest is but one way to reach that goal.
What are some lessons you learned from year one in 2024 that you think will make this year’s event even better?
The lessons we learned were all logistical in nature: how far apart to spread the events, where we needed more volunteers, how many books to buy. The hard lessons you can only learn [once] you actually do it.
How many authors are lined up for this year?
We have 33 authors on panels and 15 more doing table signings at the library from noon to 5pm.
As you were putting together the schedule, where did you start? Was there a specific author or genre that you just knew you had to include this year?
We started out with some rough themes that we were seeing in 2025 in general: horror, motherhood. But until we received submissions from authors, we really had to wait and see where it all fell together. That’s always the fun part—taking the authors and the work and fitting them together into something that makes sense and will be interesting to people.
Who are some of the headliners that you’re personally most excited about?
Well, Stacy Willingham for starters. Chelsea, my business partner, has always loved her work and I’ve been talking to her publicist for years trying to get her for an event so this was very exciting for us. I am also very excited for Alix E. Harrow because she has a huge following and most people don’t know that she’s Charlottesville-based.
Are there any other details or highlights you want to make sure we mention?
As always, please, please, please support the local businesses with whom we work. Bar Botanical, Mudhouse, and The Yellow Mug graciously host events with no fees so that we can bring these events to Crozet. What we hope from people in return is that you buy a coffee [or] get lunch. The more support we can throw their way, the better!
