Before we get into the substance of the program. So i want to welcome everybody to this session on behalf of the virginia humanity, producer of the virginia festival of the book. Many of you know this is the 25th anniversary of the start of this fabulous program. My first order of business is to ask you all to please silence your cell phones. Now, having done so, this is a moment of reckoning, however, although you can silence your cell phones, i gather you dont absolutely need to turn them off being you are being requested to tweet about this event at vabookfest. I also want to thank this Event Sponsor and host, the host for this event is uva Lgbt Committee for faculty and staff. As most of you know the festival is free of charge but its not tree of cost, so we request that you go back online after this event or after the festival to make a contribution or to pick up one of the giving envelopes from the information desk and support this festival so it can be sustained for many more ye
Across her fifteen novels among them Appalachian classics and a recent road trip tale set partially in the Florida Keys no one has tapped into Southern truths quite like the Virginia-raised author. Just ask the legion of writers who praise her for guiding their own stories