Fall for the Book

Books

Ferrer wins 2026 New American Voices Award

Katarina Benson — Fri, 16 Oct 2026 14:04:47 +0000

Ferrer wins 2026 New American Voices Award Katarina Benson Fri, 10/16/2026 - 10:04

Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Ada Ferrer received the ninth annual Institute for Immigration Research New American Voices Award for her memoir, Keeper of My Kin: Memoir of an Immigrant Daughter, at the Fall for the Book Festival at ��ɫ��Ƶ on October 8.

Ferrer received a $5,000 prize in recognition of her work, which explores the experiences of immigration, family separation, and the challenges of starting over.

“The New American Voices Award is a very special prize,” Ferrer said. “Especially in a moment such as this, it is important to share immigrant stories as part of the fabric of American life. I am moved and honored to be this year’s recipient.”

Established in 2018 by Fall for the Book and the Institute for Immigration Research, the award recognizes recently published works by immigrants and first-generation writers whose voices have historically been underrepresented in literature and publishing.

Ada Ferrer eceived the ninth annual Institute for Immigration Research New American Voices Award. Photo provided

The award's two other finalists, Bindu Bansinath, author of the novel Men Like Ours, and Chantel Acevedo, author of the novel Cages, each received $1,000.

The winner and the finalists each read excerpts from their books and discussed their work during the event.

Judges Angie Cruz, Donna Hemans, and Weike Wang praised Ferrer’s memoir for its portrayal of immigration and the emotional struggles experienced by families separated by political and historical upheaval.

“Through vivid imagery and a scrapbook-like accumulation of letters, documents, and family stories, Ferrer gives a human face to histories too often reduced to politics, sanctions, and humanitarian crises,” the judges wrote.

The judges also highlighted the memoir’s exploration of maternal relationships, family separation, and the difficult choices faced by immigrants.

Ferrer is the Dayton-Stockton Professor of History at Princeton University. Before joining Princeton, she taught at New York University from 1995 to 2024. Her previous book, Cuba: An American History, won the Pulitzer Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in history and was a finalist for the Cundill History Prize.

Previous recipients of the New American Voices Award include Hernan Diaz, Patricia Engel, and Rachel Heng.

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 ��ɫ��Ƶ, the City of Fairfax, ArtsFairfax, and the Virginia Commission for the Arts.

The Institute for Immigration Research is at the forefront of immigration research, producing high-quality, timely research and analysis that examines the economic contributions of immigrants in the United States.

Learn more about the Institute for Immigration Research

Topics

Institute for Immigration Research (IIR)

Fall for the Book’s Writers in the Schools reaches more than 1,000 students

Katarina Benson — Wed, 12 Aug 2026 12:45:43 +0000

Fall for the Book’s Writers in the Schools reaches more than 1,000 students Katarina Benson Wed, 08/12/2026 - 08:45

Last year, Fall for the Book’s annual Writers in the School series reached nearly 1,200 K-12 students in the Fairfax County Public Schools with their Writers in the School series. The program, organized by the ��ɫ��Ƶ-based festival, is designed to introduce students to authors and encourage interest in reading and writing.

Misako Rocks! taught students how to draw manga. Photo provided.

Last fall Japanese writer and artist Misako Rocks! visited Robinson Secondary School in Fairfax to show students how to draw manga. Misako Rocks! has published many graphic novels including Bounce Back, winner of the American Library Association’s 2021 Best Graphic Novels for Children. She also conducted a manga drawing workshop and signed books during 2025 Fall for the Book Festival.

"Having Misako visit was such a joy for the Robinson community. It can be difficult to secure school funding for author talks, and we were so fortunate to receive this opportunity through Fall for the Book. It was really a special day and truly enriched the learning of the 250 students who were able to participate,” said Michael Van Wambeke, Robinson Secondary School Library.

Local author Ann McCallum Staats visited Mosaic Elementary School, also in Fairfax, to teach students about botany with the help of her book Fantastic Flora: The World’s Biggest, Baddest, and Smelliest Plants.

Award-winning writer and professor of English at William Paterson University Marina Budhos visited Manassas Park High School to discuss teenage life and immigrant families. Her recent book, Tell Us We're Home, follows three eighth-grade girls in Massachusetts.

Author Ann McCallum Staats at Mosaic Elementary School. Photo provided

“We worked with the schools to create meaningful, immersive activities to connect the featured books with their current schoolwork,” said Kara Oakleaf, director of Fall for the Book and a faculty member in George Mason’s English Department. “For many of these children and teens, it was their first time seeing an author speak in person.”

Engaging with authors allows students to learn more about the writing process, increases interest in reading, and improves literacy outcomes.

At this year's festival, which runs October 6-10, authors will again visit schools.

Cassandra James, international bestselling author of fantasy epics for teens, will visit Chantilly High School. Her debut duology, Capitana and Libertad, has been translated into multiple languages and was chosen for the Junior Library Guild Gold Selection.

Marcie Flinchum Atkins is a teacher-librarian and the author of When Twilight Comes. The author of several nonfiction books for children, she will speak to Mosaic Elementary students about crepuscular plants and animals active in summer in Virginia. Atkins’s debut historical YA novel, One Step Forward, is about the youngest suffragist imprisoned at Occoquan Workhouse.

Based at George Mason, Fall for the Book is an independent nonprofit literary arts organization that promotes reading by sponsoring a variety of year-round events and activities on the George Mason’s Fairfax Campus and throughout Northern Virginia.

Topics

Celeste Ng and Stephen Graham Jones headline the 2026 Fall for the Book Festival

Katarina Benson — Mon, 03 Aug 2026 18:22:19 +0000

Celeste Ng and Stephen Graham Jones headline the 2026 Fall for the Book Festival Katarina Benson Mon, 08/03/2026 - 14:22

Fall for the Book, Northern Virginia’s largest literary festival, returns for the 28th year this October with bestselling authors Celeste Ng and Stephen Graham Jones as headliners. Taking place from October 6-10, the festival includes talks from local and national authors as well as events across the ��ɫ��Ƶ campus and the Fairfax area.

On Thursday, October 8, at 7:30 p.m., horror icon and author of more than 30 novels and collections, Stephen Graham Jones will discuss body of work including his historical vampiric novel, The Buffalo Hunter Hunter.

Celeste Ng and Stephen Graham Jones headline the 2026 Fall for the Book festival.

Jones will appear at Harris Theatre on George Mason’s Fairfax Campus thanks to the sponsorship of the George Mason Friends.

On Friday, October 9, at 7:30 p.m., Celeste Ng will discuss her bestselling novels, Little Fires Everywhere, Everything I Never Told You, and most recently, Our Missing Hearts.

She will appear at the Stacy C. Sherwood Center in Fairfax thanks to the sponsorship of the Friends of the Reston Regional Library and the Friends of City of Fairfax Regional Library.

A variety of author events will be held across the George Mason Fairfax Campus during the run of the festival. The full schedule will be available on August 13.

All festival events are free and open to the public thanks to the generous support of sponsors like the City of Fairfax, the George Mason Friends, ArtsFairfax, and Virginia Commission for the Arts. Free tickets are required for both headline events and will be available from September 10 on Fall for the Book’s Eventbrite page.

Based at George Mason, Fall for the Book is an independent nonprofit literary arts organization that promotes reading by sponsoring a variety of year-round events and activities.

Topics

Erik Larson headlines this year’s Fall for the Book festival

Katarina Benson — Tue, 19 Aug 2025 15:21:28 +0000

Erik Larson headlines this year’s Fall for the Book festival Katarina Benson Tue, 08/19/2025 - 11:21

Updated September 5, 2025, to reflect changes in the schedule.

Fall for the Book, Northern Virginia’s oldest and largest festival of literature and the arts, returns for its 27th annual festival, October 7-11, with bestselling authors taking the headline stage.

On Friday, October 10, at 7:30 p.m. in Harris Theatre on ��ɫ��Ƶ's Fairfax Campus, Erik Larson will discuss his latest chart-topper, The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War, which tells the story of the five months between Lincoln’s election and the start of the Civil War. Larson is the author of six national bestsellers—The Splendid and the Vile, Dead Wake, In the Garden of Beasts, Thunderstruck, The Devil in the White City, and Isaac’s Storm—which have collectively sold more than 12 million copies in nearly 40 countries. Larson will appear thanks to the sponsorship of the George Mason Friends.

Delivering this year’s Beck Environmental Lecture is Jeff Goodell. He will discuss his book The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet on Wednesday, October 8, at 6 p.m. He is the author of six previous books, including The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World, which was a New York Times Critics Top Book of 2017. This event, sponsored by Robert and Lucy Beck, will be in Grand Tier III of George Mason’s Center for the Arts.

Vying for this year’s Institute for Immigration Research New American Voices Award are finalists Olufunke Grace Bankole’s The Edge of Water; Cristina Jiménez’s Dreaming of Home: How We Turn Fear into Pride, Power, and Real Change; and Shubha Sunder’s Optional Practical Training: A Novel. Celebrating its eighth anniversary, this award, sponsored by George Mason’s Institute for Immigration Research, recognizes recently published works that illuminate the complexity of human experience as told by immigrants, whose work is historically underrepresented in writing and publishing. The winner will be announced at an award ceremony on Thursday, October 9, at 7:30 p.m. in the Center for the Arts Grand Tier III.

In addition, a variety of author events will be held across the Fairfax Campus during the run of the festival and will include a number of George Mason faculty and alumni, such as Distinguished University Professor Jagadish Shukla discussing his memoir, A Billion Butterflies: A Life in Climate and Chaos Theory, in an online interview on Friday, October 10. See the full schedule.

All events are free and open to the public thanks to the generous support of sponsors including George Mason, Fairfax County Public Library, the Fairfax Library Foundation, the City of Fairfax, ArtsFairfax, and the Virginia Commission for the Arts. However, free tickets are required for both the Larson events. Tickets will be available September 10 on Fall for the Book’s Eventbrite page.

Topics

Community Partners

Habib wins New American Voices Award

ckearney — Fri, 08 Nov 2024 13:10:16 +0000

Habib wins New American Voices Award ckearney Fri, 11/08/2024 - 08:10

On Thursday, Oct. 17, during the 2024 Fall for the Book festival, three finalists, three judges, and a group of readers gathered at ��ɫ��Ƶ’s Center for the Arts to celebrate the seventh annual Institute for Immigration Research New American Voices Award.

Shahnaz Habib, author of Airplane Mode: An Irreverent History of Travel, was awarded this year’s Institute for Immigration Research New American Voices Award. Photo by Fall for the Book

Shahnaz Habib, author of Airplane Mode: An Irreverent History of Travel, was awarded this year’s top prize of $5,000. Finalists Carrie Sun, author of Private Equity: A Memoir, and Alex Espinoza, author of The Sons of El Rey were each awarded $1,000.

The New American Voices Award was created in 2018 by Fall for the Book and Mason’s Institute for Immigration Research (IIR) to recognize recently published works that illuminate the complexity of the human experience as told by immigrants, whose work is historically underrepresented in writing and publishing. IIR Director Jim Witte announced the award.

This year’s judges—Myriam J. A. Chancy, V. V. Ganeshananthan, and Karin Tanabe—praised the strengths they saw in the 70+ submissions to this year’s contest. The books that most stood out “were all taking great risks, they were all very bold, and in ways that I hadn’t always realized you could be,” said Ganeshananthan.

Tanabe mentioned the stereotype of the “good immigrant” and how all the longlist and shortlist books challenged this narrative.

Habib is a writer and translator based in Brooklyn, New York. She translates from her mother tongue, the south Indian language of Malayalam, and has translated two novels. Airplane Mode is her first book.

The judges praised Habib’s book: “Through essays, both personal and well-researched, [Habib] tackles a wide range of travel-related topics from the history of passports to forests, carousels, and pickles. The realities she uncovers in the process are often as startling as they are eye-opening and reshape our sense of what it means to travel as a person from the Third World across disparate geographies, from the streets of Brooklyn to those of Istanbul.”

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, ��ɫ��Ƶ, the Fairfax Library Foundation, and the City of Fairfax.

Discover more about Fall for the Book

Topics

Institute for Immigration Research (IIR)

Fall for the Book brings authors to campus this month

ckearney — Thu, 10 Oct 2024 18:14:55 +0000

Fall for the Book brings authors to campus this month ckearney Thu, 10/10/2024 - 14:14

Fall for the Book, Northern Virginia’s oldest and largest festival of literature and the arts, kicks off its 26th season in the City of Fairfax on Saturday, Oct. 12, and runs through Oct. 18.

Fall for the Book panel in the Fenwick Library Reading Room. Photo provided

Global sensation Bonnie Garmus will discuss her breakout debut Lessons in Chemistry on Wednesday, Oct. 16, at 7 p.m. in ��ɫ��Ƶ’s Center for the Arts. Closing the festival is Silvia Moreno-Garcia, author of bestsellers like Mexican Gothic, The Daughter of Doctor Moreau, and her newest title The Seventh Veil of Salome.

Other featured writers include this year’s Beck Environmental Lecture featuring Chelsea Henderson, author of Glacial: The Inside Story of Climate Politics, and the finalists for the New American Voices Award: Carrie Sun, author of Private Equity, Alex Espinoza, author of Sons of El Rey, and Shahnaz Habib, author of Airplane Mode: An Irreverent History of Travel.

From 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Oct. 12 in Old Town Hall, right in the heart of the City of Fairfax’s Fall Festival, there are interactive events for kids on the ground level with Pat Tanumihardja, Debra Shumaker, John Gallagher, and Jamar Nicholas. Upstairs are events perfect for book clubs, including the panel “Murder in the Jazz Age, Twisted Tales, and Devilish Obsessions,” featuring Ananda Lima and George Mason alumna Constance Sayers.

From Oct. 15-18, events will take place on George Mason’s Fairfax Campus, at local Fairfax County Public Library branches, at the Sherwood Center in Fairfax.

On Wednesday, Oct. 16, at 4:30 p.m., four George Mason alumni will read from their work in the Fenwick Library Reading Room: John Copenhaver, author of Hall of Mirrors; Sean Murphy, author of This Kind of Man; Noley Reid, author of Origami Dogs; and K.E. Semmel, author of The Book of Losman. Copenhaver’s novel investigates the mysterious death of a popular novelist in McCarthy-era Washington, D.C. Murphy’s story collection investigates masculinity in 21st-century America. Reid’s story collection celebrates the connection between humans and their dog companions. Semmel’s novel interrogates how far a lonely man will go to feel complete.

All events are free and open to the public thanks to the generous support of sponsors including George Mason, Fairfax County Public Library, the Fairfax Library Foundation, the City of Fairfax, and the National Endowment for the Arts. However, headline and virtual events require free tickets, which you can reserve on Eventbrite.

See the full schedule for Fall for the Book

Topics

Community Engagement

Fall for the Book to receive $20,000 grant from NEA

ckearney — Thu, 16 May 2024 17:08:25 +0000

Fall for the Book to receive $20,000 grant from NEA ckearney Thu, 05/16/2024 - 13:08

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has approved a $20,000 Grants for Arts Projects award for Fall for the Book. This grant will support general operating costs for festival’s year-round programming. In total, the NEA awarded 1,135 Grants for Arts Projects awards totaling more than $37 million as part of its second round of fiscal year 2024 grants.

Beth Macy, author of Dopesick, speaks to a group about her research. Photo by Aster Equine Photography

“[NEA’s] support helps us fulfill our mission to connect readers and writers and allows us keep the festival free to our community while offering more support to writers,” said Festival Director Kara Oakleaf. “The NEA’s work in advancing the arts is crucial to the cultural life of the United States, and we’re honored to work with them in keeping the literary arts thriving in our community.”

“Projects like Fall for the Book exemplify the creativity and care with which communities are telling their stories, creating connection, and responding to challenges and opportunities in their communities—all through the arts,” said NEA Chair Maria Rosario Jackson.

Fall for the Book, Northern Virginia’s oldest and largest festival of literature and the arts, celebrated 25 years in 2023. All events are free and open to the public thanks to the generous support of sponsors including the ��ɫ��Ƶ, Fairfax County Public Library, the Fairfax Library Foundation, and the City of Fairfax.

Learn more about Fall for the Book

Topics

National Endowment for the Arts

Fall for the Book hosts second Mini Fest

ckearney — Tue, 20 Feb 2024 16:47:00 +0000

Fall for the Book hosts second Mini Fest ckearney Tue, 02/20/2024 - 11:47

Fall for the Book’s 2023 Mini Fest was such a success that they’re making it an annual tradition.

On Feb. 22, the 2024 Mini Fest will host seven authors and five events that span the genre gambit on ��ɫ��Ƶ’s Fairfax Campus. Featuring writers Chris Klimas, Michelle Brafman, Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond, Kim Coleman Foote, Itoro Bassey, and Hanna Pylväinen, Mini Fest will run from 10:30 a.m. - 4:15 p.m. in Fenwick Library, Room 2001. Then, in the evening, Fall for the Book welcomes headliner, Marlon James, in Harris Theater at 7 p.m. The events are free and open to the public, but reserving free tickets for Marlon James is encouraged.

At 10:30 a.m., web developer and game designer Chris Klimas will talk about the roots of the interactive text-based storytelling tool Twine, and the potentials of nonlinear and multilinear storytelling in game design, fiction, poetry, and more. In 2009, Klimas created Twine and continues to lead the project.

At noon, Michelle Brafman will discuss her novel about addiction, secrets, and a cultish Northern Virginia swim team, Swimming with Ghosts. When the freak 2012 derecho storm knocks out power for days, old ghosts and simmering tensions boil over between two best friends and swim moms. Sponsored by Mason’s Judaic Studies Program.

At 1:30 p.m., three writers will discuss how displacement, migration, and change connect with their identity. Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond, editor of and contributor to Relations: An Anthology of African and Diaspora Voices, will be joined by contributor Kim Coleman Foote, author of Coleman Hill: A Novel, a kaleidoscopic novel set during the early days of America’s Great Migration, and Itoro Bassey, author of the novel Faith, about a first-generation Nigerian American woman who resettles in Nigeria. Sponsored by the Cheuse International Writers Center.

Wrapping up the daytime events at 3 p.m., Hanna Pylväinen will talk about her novel, The End of Drum-Time, which paints a picture of a world in a remote Scandinavian village, circa 1850, as the son of a reindeer herder falls in love with the daughter of a Lutheran minister. Despite a clash of their cultural, religious, and political backgrounds, the lovers find themselves bound together as they follow the herders on their annual migration north. The End of Drum-Time was a finalist for the National Book Award.

Finally, at 7 p.m., Marlon James, a finalist for the National Book Award for Black Leopard, Red Wolf, will discuss the second installment, Moon Witch, Spider King, which flips the story on its head, retelling it from the Moon Witch’s perspective. Sponsored by the George Mason Friends. Reserve your free ticket.

Fall for the Book events, which continue into March with “Thrillers, Killers, and Wine Chillers” and “Memorial Days: Viet Nam Stories,” are free and open to the public, thanks to the generous support of sponsors including the Mason, Fairfax County Public Library, the Fairfax Library Foundation, and the City of Fairfax. For the full schedule of events, visit fallforthebook.org.

Topics

Black History Month

Heng wins 2023 New American Voices Award

ckearney — Mon, 16 Oct 2023 14:50:37 +0000

Heng wins 2023 New American Voices Award ckearney Mon, 10/16/2023 - 10:50

Author Rachel Heng has won the sixth annual New American Voices Award for her novel The Great Reclamation. She accepted the award at a ceremony at ��ɫ��Ƶ’s Center for the Arts during 25th annual Fall for the Book festival.

“When I first started writing this book, I wondered if anyone in America would want to read a book like this,” said Heng, who was born and raised in Singapore and is currently an assistant professor of English at Wesleyan University, “[but] the longer that I’ve been here, I’ve come to see a lot of similarities [between Singapore and the U.S.]. Both are countries of immigrants, [and] it means the world to me, truly, to have this novel recognized for those commonalities.”

The two other award finalists—Angie Kim, author of Happiness Falls, and DK Nnuro, author of What Napoleon Could Not Do—also read from and discussed their work at the event.

The previous winners of the New American Voices Award are Hernan Diaz’s In the Distance, Melissa Rivero’s The Affairs of the Falcóns, Lysley Tenorio’s The Son of Good Fortune, Patricia Engel’s Infinite Country, and Sindya Bhanoo’s Seeking Fortune Elsewhere.

The IIR is at the forefront of immigration research, producing high-quality research and timely analysis that examines the economic contributions of immigrants in the United States.

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 Mason, the Fairfax County Public Library, the Fairfax Library Foundation, and the City of Fairfax.

Topics

Institute for Immigration Research (IIR)