Robert Goolrick

Robert Goolrick’s gloriously gothic first novel, A Reliable Wife, still maintains a firm footing on the New York Times bestseller list — and now Goolrick himself takes a place of honor at the 2010 Fall for the Book Festival, one of the first authors to sign on for this year’s event. Goolrick has written two books: the highly praised memoir The End of the World as We Know It: Scenes from a Life and the mega-selling fiction debut that the Washington Post called “a gothic tale of such smoldering desire it should be read in a cold shower” and “a bodice ripper of a hundred thousand pearly buttons, ripped off one at a time with agonizing restraint.”

The date and place of Goolrick’s reading will be determined soon; please bookmark Fall for the Book’s webpage here for updated information or join our mailing list to the left on the homepage to have news delivered directly to your inbox. Plenty of author announcements are still to come for the six-day festival, scheduled September 19-24 at George Mason University’s Fairfax Campus and at venues throughout Northern Virginia, D.C. and Maryland.

Also added to the festival line-up:

• Poet Kate Greenstreet, with her second full-length collection, The Last 4 Things.
• Kathleen Grissom, with her debut historical novel, The Kitchen House.
• Children’s book author Jamey M. Long, whose most recent books include A Possum’s Day at School and A Possum’s Land Down Under.

Thanks to a generous grant from the Claude Moore Charitable Foundation, Fall for the Book is forging ahead to develop a series of high-profile literary events at George Mason University’s new Hylton Center for the Arts in Prince William County. While specific programming is still in the planning stages, the Claude Moore Literary Series will be geared toward celebrating the county’s cultural and ethnic diversity, and the festival plans to work closely with the local government officials, schools, libraries, and other organizations to meet the needs of the county’s population.

“As a result of various partnerships in recent years, Fall for the Book has hosted events throughout Fairfax County, in Arlington and Alexandria, and in DC and Maryland,” said festival director William Miller. “This new initiative in Prince William County offers us myriad opportunities to continue broadening our reach — both geographically and culturally — and to serve an even wider community.”

The new literary series will take place during the 2010 festival, scheduled September 19-24. All events will be free and open to the general public. To receive updated information on this series or on our full schedule of events, register at www.fallforthebook.org.