The City of Staunton‘s first-ever, very own book festival will unite readers of all ages and genres on Saturday in downtown and bring 50 authors to the Queen City.
“I know people don’t think so, but Staunton is a very literary area,” said Sandi Cararo, owner of The Book Dragon in downtown Staunton. “Not just counting the fact we have Mary Baldwin [University] here, but we have Bridgewater [College], we have JMU, we have VMI, we have multiple colleges around us and, of course, we have the [American] Shakespeare Center and there’s never been a book festival here.”
Cararo chairs the committee with members Heather Cole of Staunton, Cliff Garstang of Augusta County, Christian Vanes and David Simms who organized Staunton’s Queen City Word Fest.
Virginia authors Jodi Meadows and Maleeha Siddiqui will headline Saturday’s event, which begins with author panels at 10 a.m., 11 a.m. and noon at Staunton Public Library. Meadows, the author of “My Lady Jane,” which an Amazon television series is based on, and Siddiqui will participate in the panel at noon.
From 1 to 5 p.m. at 110 W. Beverley Street, next to Book Dragon, the festival’s 50 participating authors will be available for meet-and-greet and with copies of their books for sale. Authors of fiction, romance, horror, historical fiction and comic books are scheduled to attend.
“We’re excited. There should be something for everybody there,” Cararo said.
Books will be available for give-away at 110 West Beverley Street. Adults are asked to take one book each and children are asked to take one book each. A comic book give-away will include comic books for all ages from children to adults. Cararo said that as a bookstore owner, Book Dragon receives galley copies of books and they will be available for give-away.
“So this is a good way for us to give some things back,” Cararo said.
The book give-aways are an opportunity for everyone, especially children to take a book home for their personal libraries.
“We’re excited to have so many local authors participating in the event and sharing their love for writing. We hope that everyone who loves books, reading and local businesses comes out and supports the authors. Come to a panel discussion, meet the participating authors, maybe buy a few books — they make great holiday gifts,” Cole, who has published two nonfiction books about U.S. presidents born in Virginia and Ohio, said.
In January 2020, Cararo, who organized Charlottesville’s Virginia Book Festival for 16 years, began entertaining the idea of Queen City Word Fest as a goal. But, then the COVID-19 pandemic came and Cararo continued to make notes about Staunton‘s festival.
She began to make inquiries in fall 2023 to make a Staunton festival a reality and created a committee in January 2024. After she and committee members agreed that spring 2024 was too soon to plan and authors are usually unavailable during summers, they decided on an October date to coincide with National Book Month. October 19 was open locally and the streets are still closed on weekends in October in Staunton for Dine-Out Downtown.
According to Cararo, the plan is to attract even more authors next year and to eventually plan for Queen City Word Fest to be a two-day event: one day of author panels and a second day of meet-and-greet with the authors. Authors who attended in 2024 will be invited back with their new books in 2025.
Cararo said Staunton‘s book festival is intentionally a non-juried event. She and committee members did not read all of each author’s books.
“A lot of festivals, be they a book festival or a crafts festival, they do juried [events], and that can sometimes leave out people, and our goal was to not do that,” Cararo, who lives in Staunton and opened The Book Dragon in July 2019, said.
Cararo said that individuals who attend Saturday do not have to be readers. Authors enjoy chatting with the public.
She said she finds it interesting when young readers meet the authors of their favorite books.
“They look at them like they’re these mythological creatures because they don’t get to see or meet an author often.”
Staunton has needed its own book festival for some time.
“We’re excited to be able to bring this to Staunton. I believe that it’s something that the community will like,” Cararo said.
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Rebecca Barnabi
