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The 27th annual F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Festival
The Festival will be a new venue this year:
Montgomery College Theatre Arts Building
51 Mannakee St, Rockville MD, 20850
Festival Theme: "Mental Illness in Fiction."

2023 Honoree 
Jonathan Franzen

Photo credit
2018(c)Shelby Graham
JonathanFranzen2018(c)Shelby Graham.jpg

Jonathan Franzen, author of four of the most acclaimed novels of recent decades - The Corrections (2001), Freedom (2010), Purity (2015), and Crossroads (2021) - and one of the most visible and intensely debated writers in the United States, will receive the F. Scott Fitzgerald Award for Achievement in American Literature at the 27th annual F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Festival on October 21, 2023. He will speak in Rockville and will read from his work. Discussing “The Art of Fiction” and the 2023 Festival’s theme, “Mental Illness in Fiction,” with Franzen will be award-winning fiction writer David Means.

Also on October 21, Ron Charles, of the Washington Post's "Book World," host of "The Book Report" on CBS-TV's Sunday Morning, and also host of "The Totally Hip Video Book Review," will give the Festival’s keynote talk, “A Life in Books.”

Leading local writers, including Ethelbert Miller, Margaret Talbot, Louis Bayard, and Tope Folarin, will lead Fiction and Non-Fiction Workshops; and local historian Eileen McGuckian will lead a tour of “Fitzgerald’s Haunts in Rockville."



The 2023 multi-event Festival will begin virtually on May 23 at 6 p.m. when Fitzgerald authority David Page will deliver a talk on Fitzgerald’s roots in St. Paul.

Later events will include a celebration of Fitzgerald’s birthday on October 3, and the presentation of the winners and runners-up in the annual Student Short Story and Adult Short Story Contests in October.

On Friday evening, October 20, a program of “Tributes to Jonathan Franzen,” will take place at the Writer’s Center in Bethesda. Full information for all of these events will be posted on this website as it becomes available.

2023 FITZGERALD AWARD Honoree 

Jonathan Franzen
Keynote Talk

  Ron Charles

“A Life in Books”

2023 Art Contest

Contest rules now online.

May 2023 Events 

ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING
& TALK on Fitzgerald

2023
Writing Workshops

Learn more about this year's workshops.

2023
FESTIVAL OVERVIEW

ABOUT THE FESTIVAL

The F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Festival was established in 1996 to celebrate the centenary of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s birth, in Rockville, Maryland, the city where Fitzgerald, his wife, and his daughter are buried. The Festival seeks to honor the works of F. Scott Fitzgerald and those of prominent American literary artists and to support, encourage, and assist aspiring and emerging writers and students interested in the literary arts. Originally a one-day event, the Festival now includes programs on three or four days. The F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Festival is co-sponsored by the City of Rockville and the F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Conference, Inc.

2023
FESTIVAL OVERVIEW

2022
FESTIVAL OVERVIEW

Read an overview of 2022 and learn more about the  Festival.

FESTIVAL
NEWS

Get up to date information about the F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Festival below.

DONATE OR
BE A MEMBER 

Help fund the Festival, become a Member and enjoy special membership benefits!

THE WRITER'S CENTER

Visit the website of one of our festival partners, The Writer's Center.

CONTACT US

F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Conference, Inc.

Rockville City Hall

111 Maryland Avenue

Rockville, MD  20850

fscottfestival1@gmail.com 

301-309-9461

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We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Your donations are tax deductible.
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