Close to 300 guests attended the first NoVa (Northern Virginia) Teen Book Festival, which took place on Saturday, March 8 at Washington-Lee High School in Arlington.

Danielle Ellison, a bookseller at One More Page Books and the author of Salt, organized the festival with co-coordinator Nico Piro, a librarian at Arlington Central Library, and a team of event planners and other volunteers.

The day before the festival opened, 22 of 23 participating authors divvied up visits to nine area high schools for Q&A sessions. Then on Saturday, doors opened at 9:30 a.m. for the main event. Phyllis Naylor Reynolds, author of the Alice series, delivered the opening keynote, and four main panels plus breakout sessions – all named after rock and pop song titles – followed. Issues of identity and destiny were discussed in the “Who Are You?” panel; “The Scientist” looked at the morality of science and the consequences of trying to defy nature; "Survivor” examined how dire circumstances and high-stakes situations unite and shape characters; and the fourth panel pondered the appeal of “Bad Boys.”

After Marie Lu (the Legend series) delivered her closing keynote, an all-author signing finished out the day. Below, a sampling of photos from the event.