F. Scott Fitzgerald, author of The Great Gatsby and one of the most celebrated voices in American fiction, is buried right here in Rockville. His grave at St. Mary’s Cemetery tells a story in itself: after the Catholic Church initially refused him burial there because he had lapsed from the faith, Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda were laid to rest at Rockville Union Cemetery in the 1940s. Decades later, their daughter Scottie successfully petitioned to have them reinterred in the Fitzgerald family plot at St. Mary’s, where they remain today. Their gravestone bears the final line of The Great Gatsby: “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

Image credit: JayHenry, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

That connection between past and present is exactly what draws readers, writers, and literary fans to Rockville each fall for the F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Festival. This year’s festival takes place on Saturday, October 24 at Montgomery College’s Science Building, beginning with a breakfast reception at 8:30 a.m. and concluding with a bus tour of Fitzgerald’s Rockville haunts at 4:00 p.m.

The day’s schedule includes:

• Film Screening of This Boy’s Life: The cinematic adaptation of a memoir by this year’s F. Scott Fitzgerald Award honoree, Tobias Wolff, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, followed by a Q&A with Wolff himself.
• Writing Workshops: Several early-afternoon sessions led by prominent writers, including Tobias Wolff.
• Keynote by Deborah Tannen: “Can We Talk: How Ways of Talking Can Make or Break a Relationship”
• Award Ceremony: Presenting Tobias Wolff with the F. Scott Fitzgerald Award in American Literature.
• Book Signing: Tobias Wolff and Richard Bausch will sign copies of their books.

Image credit: F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Festival Conference, Inc. via Facebook

Fitzgerald completed four novels during his lifetime, published a fifth posthumously, and wrote more than 160 short stories, all shaped by his gift for vivid, evocative prose. His career peaked during the Jazz Age, but as the Depression took hold, his readership and health declined sharply. He died in 1940 at forty-four from a heart attack, his body weakened by years of heavy drinking. Fewer than thirty people attended his funeral.

Today, Fitzgerald’s reputation has been fully restored, and his work continues to resonate. The festival is both a celebration of his legacy and a recognition of new voices carrying American literature forward.

Registration is $35 ($30 for seniors) and can be purchased on the F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Festival website. Come explore Rockville’s literary roots and spend the day with some of the finest voices in American fiction.