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 22nd. For Arts This Week, we spoke with the director of the Center, Kalela Williams.
For Women’s History Month this year, librarians at UVA recommend a variety of books written by women, ranging from science fiction to memoir to Greek myths. “Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia Butler” by Susana M. Morris (Amistad, 2025) In tracing the interior world of science fiction legend Octavia E. Butler through her writing, journals, archives, and interviews, Susana M. Morris generates a fascinating character study as well as a gripping story of struggle and persistence set against late-20th-century U.S. cultural history.
Since 2008, the Library of Congress has hosted a “Conversations with African Poets and Writers Series,” bringing award-winning writers such as Chimamanda Adichie or Abdulrazak Gurnah from across the continent and diaspora to share their work. The latest guest is University of Virginia religious studies professor Oludamini Ogunnaike. A Nigerian American academic and poet, he published his poetry collection, “The Book of Clouds,” in 2024.
The vault and the stacks at the University of Virginia’s Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library hold romantic accoutrements that put chocolate-covered strawberries and a bottle of champagne to shame. In celebration of Valentine’s Day, UVA Today took a look at love letters, lithographs, poetry and first edition books, among other items, that document love that was sometimes hidden.
This February marks 100 years since the first national commemoration of Black history in the United States. The Association for the Study of Negro Life and History launched Negro History Week (spearheaded by Carter G. Woodson) in 1926. Sixty years later, U.S. Congress designated February as Black History Month. Below, several UVA librarians recommend books, databases, and videos that investigate the significance of the Black experience throughout American history and beyond.
In late January 2021, nearly 800 million shares of video game retailer GameStop changed hands as amateur investors inspired by the WallStreetBets subreddit snatched up its stock, sending prices soaring by as much as 51%. That “short squeeze” – in which the amateur investors targeted hedge fund managers who were betting financially against the flagging retailer – is the inspiration for a novel by University of Virginia alumnus Frank Hamlin.
Join us for an evening with A.D. Carson, who will read from his new memoir, Being Dope: Hip Hop and Theory through Mixtape Memoir. An audience Q&A will follow. This in-person event will be free and open to the public. We recommend arriving early for the best seating.
With the arrival of the new year comes reflection on the past one, and 2025 was a year ripe for reflection. While it is impossible to condense a year into one defining moment or cultural trend, 2025 felt marked by an explosion of advances in artificial intelligence technology. The increased presence of AI technologies in everyday life — from enabling pervasive surveillance and data collection to spreading political misinformation and stoking partisan division — have resulted in people labeling 2025 as “dystopian” online.
The new year may have just begun, but 2026 is already set to be a busy year in pop culture. From music to movies to books, UVA Today talked to University of Virginia experts in pop culture to see what upcoming releases they are looking forward to the most. Here’s the list.
In 1811, Thomas Egerton, who primarily printed military texts, published a novel about two sisters and their widowed mother, “Sense and Sensibility.” It was written anonymously, “by a lady.” More than 200 years later, readers know that lady as Jane Austen, one of the best-known writers in the English language. “Sense and Sensibility” alone has been adapted more than 10 times for stage, screen and radio, while dozens of movies, TV shows and web series are based on other Austen titles, like “Pride and Prejudice” and “Emma.”
With her newest cookbook, “Chesnok,” in hand, 2014 University of Virginia alumna Polina Chesnakova returned to Charlottesville, the place where her interest in writing about food began to simmer. What started as curiosity about food and identity led her from a pre-med track to a double major in Eastern European studies and religious studies, and eventually to experiment with food writing.
When Kevin Moffett woke up one morning in September, he didn’t expect to see his debut novel, “Only Son,” on the National Book Award longlist. He hadn’t even realized the book – due out Nov. 4 – was eligible for the honor. “It was an absolute surprise. It wasn’t even in my mind; I’m not someone who wakes up in the morning and says, ‘Let’s look at the award finalists today.’ So, I just got this bit of happiness from it,” said Moffett, an assistant professor of creative writing at the University of Virginia.
