This schedule is subject to – and probably will – change. Before you come to the festival, please be sure to check back here for any updates.
Printable schedules will be available online shortly before the festival.
Printed schedules will be available at the Town Center, the Yancey Common Times Journal office, and all the Avery-Mitchell-Yancey Libraries shortly before the festival.
Keep in touch!
WORKSHOP SCHEDULE
Poetry Workshop with Tyree Daye, Friday at 9:00
Sorry – SOLD OUT
Science Fiction Workshop with Jacqui Castle, Friday at 2:00
Memoir Workshop with Tessa Fontaine, Saturday at 9:00
Non-Fiction Workshop with Georgann Eubanks, Saturday at 2:00
COMPLETE SCHEDULE
Thursday, September 5

7:00 p.m. — Red Herring Puppets — Town Center Legacy Room
MY GRANDFATHER’S PRAYERS is a theatrical performance based on the remarkable life of Cantor Izso Glickstein (1889-1947), a fourth-generation Jewish Cantor, child prodigy, and operatic tenor whose life spanned the Russian pogroms, Hungary’s White Terror and two World Wars. He was the Uber-Cantor at the largest synagogue in both Europe and New England and Leonard Bernstein’s earliest mentor. His powerful golden voice expresses the passion and determination of a people holding on to faith and tradition through the violent diaspora of the 20th century. Izso’s remarkable story of thriving despite adversity, is told by his granddaughter, Lisa Sturz, a professional puppeteer, using shadow puppets, scrolling backgrounds, marionettes, digital composites and poetic text to connect with her grandfather and explore her own Jewish ancestry, artistry, spirituality and social responsibility. Free performance. The performance is intended for adults and mature teens.
Friday, September 6
9-11:45 am
POETRY WORKSHOP: Tyree Daye — Yancey County Library
“Writing the I– Giving Our Poems Identity”
When I was younger and living in Zebulon, North Carolina during the summer we would visit the local pools in Raleigh. We’ d play a game that many have played; we’d go underwater to see who could hold their breath the longest. Many years later, I realized that this game we played as children has a lot to do with the architecture of a poem and the way we move from Identity to the Subconscious where many of our images come from. Workshop Topic: I’ve entitled this workshop: “Writing the I– Giving Our Poems Identity”. The workshop will be framed around the essay Invisible Architecture (2000) by Barbara Guest and Coming to the “I” by Vievee Francis, an interview with the Indiana Review. The moment the poet comes up for air (consciousness vs subconscious), the poem starts to develop identity. The moment the poet submerges in the subconscious, the images of the poem begin to develop. The poet’s personal narrative and the symbols in the poem frame the structure and emotional connection to images.
Advance Registration Required – Workshop – $35
Sorry – SOLD OUT
9-9:45 am
Allan Wolf – Town Center
Metaphors Be With You: Poems From Space
A multi-media presentation, featuring puppets, power point slides, music, and, of course, Allan
Wolf’s engaging award-winning poetry. An interactive out-of-this-world introduction to our solar
system and beyond. Wolf brings each planet to life with its own memorable personality. Saturn
is a fashionista. Jupiter is a bodybuilder. Neptune sings the blues. Pluto and its moon, Charon,
dance like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Elderly rockets reminisce at the Rusty
Rockets Retirement home. Members of the audience become robots that rule the world. This
presentation is based on Allan’s new book titled, The Day the Universe Exploded My Head:
Poems to Take You Into Space and Back Again ( Candlewick Press).
Elaine Neil Orr – Nu Wray Inn
Fiction: Swimming Between Worlds
In this session, I will talk about the shift from memoir to fiction and how fiction let’s me “take the roof off” and make up stories about the worlds I love the most, and populate them with people struggling to understand their place in a morally complex universe. I will read and take questions from the audience.
Sponsored by Mary Ann Claud
Lena Epps Brooker – First Baptist Church
Memories of An American Indian Girl
The author will share the reasons for writing her memoir, Hot Dogs on the Road-An American Indian Girl’s Reflections on growing up brown in a black and white world, and also reveal her hopes for the book. Why the book is organized into sections of personal stories will be discussed as well as the people and support that sustained her through periods of innocence, pain, tears and triumphs experienced as an American Indian girl growing up in the Jim Crow era of segregation in southeastern North Carolina. Selected readings from the book will be given and questions may be asked at the conclusion of the readings.
Sponsored by Katherine McCarty & George Nero
10-10:45 am
Jennie Liu and Joanne O’Sullivan – Town Center
YA Gets Real
Trends come and go, fantasy worlds are built and crumble, but contemporary teen stories with vivid, relatable characters never go out of style. Jennie Liu and Joanne O’Sullivan talk about the characters teens flock to and fall for and about and real-life issues they face. Join these authors for a conversation that gets real about contemporary teens
Jacquelyn Dowd Hall – NuWray Inn
National Humanities Award-winning historian Jacquelyn Dowd Hall will discuss and read from her new book. Sisters and Rebels: A Struggle for the Soul of America follows the divergent paths of three astonishing sisters who were estranged from each other and yet forever entangled by their mutual obsession with the South. Born into a former slaveholding family, Elizabeth, Grace, and Katharine Lumpkin were taught from childhood to venerate the Confederacy and uphold white supremacy. Elizabeth, the eldest, never strayed far from that upbringing. But in lives lived on both sides of the Mason Dixon line, Grace and Katharine fought to break free. Panning out to recover an embattled progressive tradition organic to the South and zooming in on the fraught ties of sisterhood, Sisters and Rebels joins a passionate conversation about how to face up to America’s original sin and remake the South into a place to call home.
Mylene Dressler – Snap Dragon
Can You See Me?: Imagination and the Literary Gothic
Join award-winning novelist Mylene Dressler on a journey into the art and meaning of the modern ghost story. How are gothic tales like The Last To See Me moving beyond simple “scares” and into deeper questions about what it means to live, love, and be lastingly human? Discussion with a reading to follow.
Sponsored by Something Special Gifts/Monkey Business Toy Store
11-11:45 am
Jaki Shelton Green – Town Center
North Carolina Poet Laureate, Jaki Shelton Green will read poetry from her publications and new poems from her forthcoming manuscript.
Lisa Gardiner – Town Hall
Finding Hope in Odd Places: How Stories of Disaster Can Help Us Tackle Climate Change
Consider how we can learn from past experiences with disaster, play to our strengths, and avoid our blind spots to become more resilient with author L.S. Gardiner and stories from Tales from an Uncertain World: What Other Assorted Disasters Can Teach Us About Climate Change.
Sponsored by Kat Turczyn
Valerie Nieman – NuWray Inn
Poetry: Behind the Mask
Each day we go about our routine lives, but inside we are superheroes or explorers, pirates or rock stars, hiding our secret identities behind the mask of an unassuming face and daily clothes. One way to enter this secret world is to write a persona poem – persona meaning mask – in which we give a voice to an alternate identity. Join Valerie Nieman, author of Leopard Lady: A Life in Verse, for an exploration of hidden realms of the self. Suitable for all ages!
Sponsored by Little Switzerland Books and Beans
Terry Roberts – Snap Dragon
Join novelist Terry Roberts as he discusses his most recent novel, The Holy Ghost Speakeasy and Revival. Roberts will describe the origins of this novel–which follows the adventures of a traveling evangelist and bootlegger during Prohibition–and share the creative process that led to its final form.
12-12:30 pm
Book Signing – Morning Authors
12:30-2 pm
BREAK FOR LUNCH
2-4:45 pm
SCIENCE FICTION WORKSHOP: Jacqui Castle – Yancey County Library
Science Fiction: World-Building
How do you build a believable futuristic world while holding onto momentum and avoiding the trap of over-telling? Bring a notepad or a work in progress as we discuss techniques for fleshing out your scenes, drawing inspiration from modern innovation and current trends, and building your science fiction or speculative fiction landscape. Advance Registration Required – Workshop – $35