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Portion of April 26, 2021 letter from the F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Festival President.
Dear Friends, Supporters, and Members of the F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Festival,
On the brink of good times – celebrating F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 125th birthday and the Fitzgerald Festival’s 25th year – we invite you to participate in an evening that will usher in this year’s Festival, an evening especially for our members but open to all. We are proud to announce that this year’s F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Festival’s honoree is John Edgar Wideman, who will be with us in a series of activities, culminating in the main event on October 30, the theme of which is “Are All Stories True?” For the second year, all of the Festival’s events will be virtual.
Our Home page provides links to details about the several events of the Festival in the fall: September 17, a discussion of Wideman’s Brothers & Keepers with Wideman scholar D. Quentin Miller; September 24 (FSF’s birthday), “Gatsby in Connecticut,” a showing of a documentary about an influential period in the author’s life, followed by a discussion with its producer Robert Williams and Fitzgerald scholar Walter Raubicheck; October 21, the announcement of and readings by the winners and runners-up of the Fitzgerald Student Short Story Contest and of the Fitzgerald Adult Short Story Contest; October 29, an evening co-sponsored by the Writer’s Center in honor of John Edgar Wideman; and October 30: a full day of Festival activities.
John Edgar Wideman follows 24 of our nation’s greatest writers as the 2021 winner of the F. Scott Fitzgerald Award for Achievement in American Literature. Wideman, whose new collection of stories is You Made Me Love You, is the author of eight novels, five short story collections, and four non-fiction works which have won the PEN/Faulkner Award (twice), the PEN/Malamud Award, and nominations as finalist twice for the National Book Award. Events on October 30 will also include a keynote address, “Weekly Deadlines: A Personal History of The Washington Post Book World” by Michael Dirda; a Master Class by Wideman; six Writing Workshops, for which reservations are needed; an introduction of Wideman by Walton Muyumba and Wideman’s acceptance speech. The day will also feature events for high school students chosen as Fitzgerald Scholars by their teachers. For complete, up-to-date information about the Fitzgerald Festival, please consult our home page, www.fscottfestival.org.
The Fitzgerald Festival is made possible by our sponsors (the City of Rockville, the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County), by our partners (the Writer’s Center, Montgomery Public Libraries, Montgomery County Public Schools, Friends of the Library, Montgomery County, and Peerless Rockville), but most importantly by you. On behalf of the F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Festival Board, I hope that this finds you all safe and sound in these difficult times. We hope that you will become a Member (Member form on this page) and that we will “see” you in the fall.
Gary Berg-Cross, President
F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Conference, Inc.
You may make a donation or become a member by completing the above form online and paying via PayPal or printing out a filled in form and then mailing your check with your contact information to F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Conference, Inc.; Rockville City Hall; 111 Maryland Ave.; Rockville, MD 20850
Please make checks payable to the F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Conference, Inc. Thank you.
We look forward to “seeing” you at the Festival, virtual this year, but we hope, as in the past 24 years, in-person in years to come.
Thank you for your support.