On Saturday, August 12, author George Saunders received the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction at the National Book Festival in Washington, DC. The following morning he visited Oak Hill Cemetery, where his novel Lincoln in the Bardo takes place. Saunders toured the grounds with Oak Hill Archivist Laura Thoms. He looked at historical documents from 1862, discussed his process of writing LITB, and committed to donating to our Archive: a map of how he imagined the cemetery (very different from our actual grounds), as well as a personal account of his LITB writing process. Saunders promised to come back to Oak Hill for a public talk as well as some events around the 2025 Metropolitan Opera premiere of the opera of Lincoln in the Bardo. It was an honor and a joy to walk the grounds with him. We are grateful to Sara Karrer and Clay Smith at the Library of Congress and everyone at the National Book Festival who made this visit possible. Click on this link to read what Saunders wrote about the visit.
August 20, 2023
George Saunders Visits Oak Hill Cemetery
