Fall Literary Festival Takes Place Sept. 30

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – A Fall Literary Festival will take place  from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sept. 30 to give readers and writers the opportunity to learn more about writing, experience new writing styles and meet published writers.

Lit Youngstown, St. John’s Episcopal Church, the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County, and the McDonough Museum of Art are sponsors of the festival.

“Anyone who enjoys books, great stories, poetry, publishing, writing is welcome, and we have a fantastic day planned for them,” said Karen Schubert, director of Lit Youngstown.

The $25 registration fee includes lunch catered by Cultivate Co-Op Cafe, afternoon coffee and cake catered by Selah Restaurant, access to three sessions on writing and publishing, admission to poetry readings by Susana Case, Margo Taft Stever, Nin Andrews, and Denise Duhamel, a historical fiction reading by Robert Olmstead, and the screening of a short film by Kelly Bancroft.

Duhamel, whose works of poetry include the National Book Critics Circle Award finalist “Blowout,” teaches at Florida International University.

Olmstead is a three-time Ohioana Award winner known for his “Coal Black Horse” trilogy, set during the Civil War. He teaches at Ohio Wesleyan University.

Duhamel and Olmstead have both won fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. They will be joined on a panel devoted to aspects of publishing by Susana Case and Margo Taft Stever, the editors of Slapering Hol Press in Sleepy Hollow, N.Y. Case is a professor and program coordinator at the New York Institute of Technology in New York City. Stever is the founder of The Hudson Valley Writers’ Center.

Andrews of Poland is the author of six poetry collections, including her newest, “Miss August,” and “Why God Is a Woman,” which won the 2016 Ohioana Award.

Bancroft, recipient of an Ohio Arts Council individual artist award, has been published in numerous journals. A short documentary based on her family research was selected for this year’s Cleveland International Film Festival.

Barzak is author of five books, including “One for Sorrow,” made into “Jamie Marks is Dead,” a Sundance feature film. He teaches fiction writing iat YSU.

Sessions and readings take place at the Main Library, St. John’s, and the McDonough Museum of Art. No registration fee will be charged to those attending the sessions at the library. Registration and a full schedule of sessions and readers are available at LitYoungstown.org. For more information, email [email protected].

Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.