The F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Festival is in its 30th year of not only honoring authorial talent, but bringing that talent to Maryland. The festival, which happens mainly on Saturday, October 18th, at Montgomery College in Rockville, will feature Percival Everett, recipient of the 2025 F. Scott Fitzgerald Award for Achievement in American Literature. Past honorees include Jesmyn Ward, Barbara Kingsolver, and John Updike.

Everett won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the Kirkus Prize for Fiction for his 2024 New York Times bestselling novel, James. A true tour de force, the action-packed reimagining of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a harrowing, darkly humorous tale told through the eyes of the enslaved Jim. Everett’s earlier satirical novel Erasure was adapted into the film “American Fiction.” He is Distinguished Professor of English at USC and will be in conversation with author Madison Smartt Bell.

The theme of this year’s festival is “You’re 100, Old Sport!” Georgetown University professor and NPR book critic Maureen Corrigan will deliver the keynote address, titled “‘…or is the book unpopular’: The Great Gatsby at 100.”

Fitzgerald published Gatsby in 1925. While the renowned author was born in Minnesota, he visited Montgomery County, Maryland, throughout his life because his father’s family lived there. Fitzgerald is buried at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Rockville alongside his wife, Zelda, their daughter, Scottie, and members of his extended family.

Every year, the festival sponsors a short-story contest. On Thursday, October 9th, at Rockville Memorial Library, meet this year’s winners and hear them read their entries. Then, on Friday, October 17th, gather at the Writer’s Center in Bethesda for readings in honor of Everett featuring Bell, Samuel Ashworth, and Afabwaje Kurian.

Registration is required for the main events on October 18th. Learn more about all the festival events here.

Liza Achilles is the author of Two Novembers: A Memoir of Love ’n’ Sex in Sonnets (Beltway Editions, 2024). Her writing has appeared in the Independent, Exacting Clam, Tofu Ink Arts Press, and Beltway Poetry Quarterly, among other publications. The Blog for the Discerning Reader at lizaachilles.com features great modern books. She lives near Washington, DC, and works as a freelance writer/editor, literary speaker, blogger, graphic designer, and web designer.