PODCAST:

The Virginia Center for the Book is hosting the 2026 Virginia Festival of the Book. Programming begins Thursday the 19th with preview events, and will continue to this Sunday, March 22nd.

TRANSCRIPT:

Ella Powell: 

The Virginia Center for the Book is hosting the 2026 Virginia Festival of the Book. Programming begins this Thursday with preview events, and will continue from this Friday, March 20th, through this Sunday, March 22^nd. For Arts This Week, we spoke with the director of the Center, Kalela Williams.

Kalela Williams: 

Yeah, my name is Kalela Williams, and I’m the director of the Virginia Center for the Book, which is part of Virginia humanities. And the Virginia Center for the Book produces the Virginia Festival of the book. And we are in our 33rd year here in 2026. The festival will be mostly on the downtown mall as well as the main street region of Charlottesville this year. We’re going to have a pretty wide imprint this year. In previous years, we’ve sort of been ensconced in a hotel, and this year we’ll be all over the downtown mall. So you’ll see folks in T-shirts. You’ll see folks holding tote bags. We really want a festival-like atmosphere and kind of taking over the heartbeat of Charlottesville.   

Ella Powell: 

Wow. 33rd year.

Kalela Williams: 

Yeah. 

Ella Powell: 

How did the festival become a large annual tradition for the Center?

Kalela Williams: 

You know, after three decades, just become part of Charlottesville, but also part of Virginia, where people look forward to it every year. People travel from across the state and even neighboring states and from other places. So it’s just part of the fabric of this community, which is really exciting.

Ella Powell: 

And I read that the Center actually represents Virginia as the state affiliate of the National Library of Congress. 

Kalela Williams: 

That’s right.

Ella Powell: 

I was curious what this connection entails.

Kalela Williams: 

Yeah, so every state and four US territories have a Center for the Book, and so we are Virginia Center for the Book, and we are, like the other centers for the book, an affiliate of the Library of Congress. And what this means is that we take part in national projects with the Library of Congress. For instance, one of the projects that we do is called Great Reads, where each state chooses an adult book and a children’s book that represents their state for the year. We had two great books last year. One was Onyx and Beyond by Amber McBride, who’s a local author here in Charlottesville, and the other was the bookshop by Evan Friss, who lives in Harrisonburg. So everybody pretty local last year. We also represent our state at the National Book Festival in Washington, DC each year. So we love the Library of Congress, and love being an affiliate, and it’s really something special.

Ella Powell: 

I was curious who some of the notable speakers or authors are going to be at the festival this year as well.

Kalela Williams: 

Yeah, we are so excited about the festival. Sally Mann is joining us from Lexington, so again, we’ve got a local author, Sally is a renowned photographer. Her work is just incredible. It really captures the spirit of Appalachia. We’re so excited that she’s joining us. We also have Ibram X. Kendi, who is joining us on Friday, March 20. Right now the tickets are sold out, unfortunately, but we do have simulcast tickets available, and we’ll have signed books for sale there. So we’re just really excited to have him present. We’ve got some great books that are part of the festival that I’m super excited about. Lori Gwen Shapiro with the aviator and the showman. It’s the story of Amelia Earhart, not just her, but her, I would say reckless husband. So some really great stuff that’s happening.

Ella Powell: 

I saw the theme for this year will be revolutions in light of America’s 250th anniversary. Are y’all doing any special programming for that or like events that line up with the theme for the year?

Kalela Williams: 

Yes, we certainly are celebrating the American Revolution itself, or at least shining a light on the American Revolution. We have a program called the American Revolution at 250 that’s taking place at six o’clock on Saturday, March 21 which is a panel of scholars who are considering the revolution. There’s a panel about war in American history. There’s another about paradoxical people in American history that really speak to those revolutionary spirits and the influences of that specific war. But we’re actually looking at revolution in a broader sense. We’re looking at not just upheaval and actual war and conflict. We’re also looking at new ways of thinking, at novelty, at pivot points and even cycles. So we’re really taking that big circular view, if you will, of the idea of revolution.

Ella Powell: 

I mean, I think it’s perfect, obviously, because the actual anniversary. But then also just, you know, make it about everything. 

Kalela Williams: 

That’s right, yes. 

Ella Powell: 

And then I guess what other initiatives does the Virginia Center for the Book work on throughout the year? And just what is y’all’s overall mission?

Kalela Williams: 

Our mission is to unite readers through books. And I take readers in a broad sense, too. A lot of folks will say, I’m not really a reader, but yeah, everybody’s a reader, because anybody who has thoughts and ideas is a reader. And there’s multiple ways of reading, there’s, of course, audio books, there’s digital books. I mean, all of it’s reading, right? So we do events throughout the state. We were in Williamsburg this past February for a program with author Jeffrey Blunt, which was just really great. We’ve been in the Shenandoah Valley with our first annual cider festival, which we did in concert with the Frontier Culture Museum and the Virginia Cider Association. We have been doing a program called In Common with our colleagues in media initiatives, which is part of Virginia Humanities in the Shenandoah Valley in South Virginia. So we’ve just, we’re really trying to get around the state. We have worked with our partners in Grundy at the Grundy library in the Buckingham County Library in southwest Virginia. We try to move around the state and really represent the state.

Ella Powell: 

Is there anything else in particular you’d like to share about the festival, or what you guys do?

Kalela Williams: 

You know, I want to share about the festival that it’s just going to be a lot of fun, it’s going to be a lot of insight, it’s going to be a lot of people, it’ll be just the right amount of crowded and we are just thrilled about this idea of storytelling. We’re bringing performance in this year. We have a live podcast recording. We are really trying to look expansively at this concept of revolution and where it puts us now in 2026 if you go to VA book.org you can reach us. You can find all about what we do.

Ella Powell: 

Come out to the Virginia Festival of the book from Thursday through Sunday for an amazing array of author talks, performance, book signing and more, primarily along the downtown Mall. Most events include an hour of programming and a literary marketplace will be open from noon to 6pm on Saturday in the old Metropolitan Hall cellar. Visit the Virginia Festival of the book website to view the full schedule with location details. Arts this week is supported by the UVA Arts Council and Piedmont Virginia Community College. PVCC Arts presents a rich array of dance music, theater and visual arts programming. Learn more@pvcc.edu for WTJU, I’m Ella Powell.