Check it out: Local music from a balcony, Slam Richmond revitalizes poetry and thrash for a good cause.

 

Richmond author draws on relationship between daughter, horse for book.

 

 

Meet Scott Firestine, director of the Appomattox Regional Library System in Hopewell.

 

Cooking and writing: Those are the two things Maya Angelou says she loves best. In her essay collection "Hallelujah! The Welcome Table," she weaves stories around food and family recipes. Listen to Maya Angelou's distinctive voice!

 

Gennifer Choldenko won't tell you her age or how much money she makes, two questions kids always ask. Listen to an audio interview with the author, as well as a sample reading.

 

Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda travels the state, teaching and engaged in creating. The Virginia poet laureate lets her imagination run wild with poetry, painting and art. Listen to a reading and watch a slideshow.

 

Novelist Lee Smith wrote her latest novel "On Agate Hill" to deal with the pain of her son's death. Listen to a Q&A interview and watch video of the author reading from her novel.

 

Lester Blackiston, 75, is a poet, man about town, and streetfighter. During his life he collected works of Richmond artists and has given them to Longwood University. Watch a video of the poet and listen to him read from his work.

 

"I Got Somebody in Staunton," William Henry Lewis' 2005 award-winning collection of short stories, has been chosen for Go Read's fifth annual community-reading program. When he visited Richmond, the author recorded both an audio interview with book editor Jann Malone and a video in which he reads an excerpt from "In the Swamp," one of the short stories in his collection.