It’s with heavy hearts that the NoVa TEEN Book Festival Committee announces the cancellation of the 2021 NoVa TEEN Book Festival.
This year has been full of difficult choices and impossible circumstances. Our decision in March to cancel the 2020 festival was distressing and fraught. After more than six months of planning, with so much effort, time, and resources invested in creating the best possible festival, we knew without a doubt that it would not be safe for us to continue.
In any normal year, September is the month that the NoVa TEEN Committee begins planning for the next year’s festival by contacting publicists, working with sponsors, exhibitors and vendors, and getting incredibly excited about the authors and books we will feature. This year, the Committee met with uncertainty and concern. What will the world look like in March of 2021?
For six years NoVa TEEN Book Festival has provided unique opportunities for fans and authors to meet face to face, with interactive panels, small group discussions, games and author signings. Connecting readers, librarians and educators with Young Adult authors and their wonderful books has been our primary goal as a festival. We have also committed to providing a safe and positive experience for all our attendees and guests.
After weeks of discussions, the NoVa TEEN Book Festival Committee concluded that we are not able to fulfill the mission of our festival to provide a safe and positive environment that creates a community of connection and sharing between our attendees and guests in 2021.
We encourage you to continue supporting your local independent bookstores, and especially the amazing One More Page Books, in Arlington, VA. All of the books by NoVa TEEN Authors publicized on our website are available for purchase through One More Page Books.
Though we do not know what the world will look like in the coming months, we do know that our joy of Young Adult literature will not diminish, and our need for stories from every voice is more critical now than ever.
Read with your whole heart, and know that NoVa TEEN Book Festival will return.
