Behind the Scenes: Fall for the Book 2009

By Best of Mason Director Nicole Ocran

Fall for the Book is one of the biggest and most anticipated literary events of the season. Starting off as a small, two-day festival eleven years ago, George Mason University and the City of Fairfax has joined together again to host the festivities spanning Northern Virginia, D.C. and Maryland. This annual weeklong celebration of reading, arts and literature features appearances by bestsellers and up-and-comers, poets and journalists, and photographers and filmmakers.

This year, E.L. Doctorow will be receiving the Fairfax Prize for lifetime achievement in fiction and Sherman Alexie will receive the Mason Award for extraordinary contributions to bringing literature to a wide audience.

An event where close to 10,000 people attend is not easy to plan. Behind the authors, poets and speakers who come to the festival are the planners and organizers who devote a year’s worth of work to putting the event together. Ruth Goodwin, festival manager, sat down with VoxPop's Best of Mason to talk about what sets Mason's literary festival apart from any other in the area and more.

For information about the festival, visit http://www.fallforthebook.org.