Best selling author Liz Moore (left) gave a talk moderated by Art Taylor, right. He is an award-winning mystery writer and a faculty member at George Mason, where he helps administer the creative writing program.
What? Haven’t heard of the “Fall for the Book” festival? Many others hadn’t either. Yet Fall for the Book is Northern Virginia’s oldest and largest festival of literature and the arts. It was founded in 1999 by WIlliam Miller, for over two decades the head of the creative writing program at George Mason University. It began as a two-day event organized by GMU and the City of Fairfax and has since grown into a week-long, multi-venue regional festival. And it’s free.
Their May event, a book discussion by best selling author Liz Moore, featured a standing room only crowd of avid readers asking questions and waiting for her to sign her new thriller, “The God of the Woods,” set at an exclusive summer camp in the Adirondacks. The discussion, held at the Stacy C. Sherwood Community Center in Fairfax, was full of Moore’s fans, many of them in their early twenties. Moore is the author of the New York Times bestselling novel, “Long Bright River,” which was a Good Morning America Book Club pick and one of Barack Obama’s favorite books of the year. She also wrote the acclaimed novel “Heft and The Unseen World.”
FALL FOR THE BOOK is an independent non-profit literary arts organization that promotes reading by sponsoring a variety of year-round events and activities. It is part of Watershed Lit: Center for Literary Engagement and Publishing Practice at George Mason University. Each Fall it holds a multi-day festival in October, attracting authors whose books regularly have a waitlist at the library. 2025’s headliner was Erik Larson. Larson is the author of six New York Times bestsellers, including “The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance during the Blitz;” “Isaac’s Storm;” and “The Demon of Unrest.” Larson’s talk was a sold-out event (while free, attendees must reserve tickets) and there was a line out the door of fans of this prolific writer. Larson is a master of narrative non-fiction. The man can tell a story. His vividly written books have won several awards and been published worldwide. His other best selling books include “In the Garden of Beasts,” “Devil in the White City,” “Dead Wake,” and “Thunderstruck.”
The authors who come to the festival are top drawer, frequently best-selling writers, such as New York Times bestselling journalist and author Jeff Goodell who was back this year with “The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet.” Goodell examines how extreme heat from global warming will drastically change life on Earth as we know it, urging us to prepare and telling us what we can still do to mitigate the disaster. Goodell is also the author of “The Water Will Come,” “Big Coal,” and “How to Cool the Planet.” His talk was sponsored by Robert & Lucy Beck, who sponsor an environment themed book each festival.
But not all authors are headliners: some are young, recently published writers from different parts of the world. Their work is judged in an event at the Fall festival called “New American Voices.” In 2018, Fall for the Book and GMU’s Institute for Immigration Research created an award 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. Three jurors judge all entries for the New American Voices Award, choose three finalists and award the prize to one of them at the Fall for the Book festival. At the recent festival, the suspense was intense as the three finalists read from their work and talked about their journey. They were all captivating. The winner, who receives $5,000, was Shubha Sunder, who came from India to study in the U.S. and now lives in Boston. Her book, “Optional Practical Training,” named for the OPT program offered to F-1 students who want to stay in the U.S. for a year long work experience, provides a new take on the immigrant story.
Another event held this Fall with a local theme was a discussion with Christina Hillsberg, who wrote “Agents of Change.” The book follows women who went to work for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from 1950 onward, and how they confronted the all boys club that was the CIA. Many in the audience were former CIA officers living in the area, who nodded as she detailed the harassment, discrimination and adrenaline surges that came with the job.
Like many non-profits in the arts and humanities, funding for Fall for the Book was slashed recently; it lost ten percent of its budget. To learn more about the Fall for the Book events year-round (hint: there is an event coming up in February) and to help support this non-profit by becoming a “friend,” see: www.fallforthebook.org.
Fall 2026 authors: https://fallforthebook.org/authors2026/\