Last week marked the 20th annual Fall For The Book Festival, which is held every year on the beautiful campus of George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. The festival traditionally draws big name authors as well as politicos from just across the river in our nation’s capitol. This year’s festival was no different, with heavy hitters like Congressman and iconic civil rights activist John Lewis and YA Lit superstar Angie Thomas, whose NYT Bestseller (The Hate U Give) was just making its first appearance on the silver screen as the festival opened its doors.

Speaking of “opening its doors”, I was lucky enough to join YA author Brigid Kemmerer (Letters to the Lost; More Than We Can Tell) on the main stage to kick off the entire festival with our panel titled “Unhappy in their Own Way.” The panel was wide-ranging in its scope, veering from the writing process to the boundaries of young adult literature and touching on almost everything in between including our decisions as authors to run our respective protagonists through the proverbial ringer with the life-alterations situations we placed them in.

In short, the whole experience was an absolute blast. Not only did I get the chance to meet Brigid Kemmerer and talk shop with her in front of a very large and captive audience, but I was also reminded of the brightness of our future in discussing my work and literature in general with the brilliant students at George Mason.

The Fall For The Book Festival takes place every year at the beginning of October. If you’re anywhere near the Washington, DC area next year around that time I highly recommend you pulling off the old Beltway and taking a nice book break.