Thanks to everyone who helped to make this year's VCU Cabell First Novelist Award Night one of the best attended in the award's 12-year history. Approximately 270 people from around VCU and the wider Richmond community gathered together to hear critically lauded new novelist Ramona Ausubel read from her winning book, No One Is Here Except All of Us. Following the reading, locally based writer Tina Griego led a discussion among Ausubel and her agent, PJ Mark, and her editor at Riverhead Books, Sarah McGrath.

The discussion and Q&A session brought forward important questions. Some were timeless: questions of inspiration and work ethic and of how a writer makes decides when to take the advice of readers. Other questions were more timely, touching upon changes in the publishing world and the rise of e-books. After the event, the long lines at the Barnes & Noble table to buy books and to get them signed was further evidence of the value that people continue to see in reading.

Photographs from the event can be found on the VCU Libraries Flickr stream and on the VCU Libraries Facebook wall. To learn more about Ramona Ausubel's novel, read her interview in Style Weekly. And don't miss the video interview on Virginia This Morning.