The 2023 schedule is subject to – and probably will – change. Before you come to the festival, please be sure to check back here for updates.
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.
Over 50 free author presentations plus 5 low-cost writing workshops.
2023 Festival Schedule
7 - 9 p.m.
Town Center
Free Event | No Registration Needed
Telling Our Own Story: Cherokee Self-Representation in Contemporary Media
Historically in film, literature, galleries, and textbooks, Native stories have been told by non-Native voices. In this panel, we’ll hear from citizens of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI), North Carolina’s only federally recognized tribe, who are contributing to the international movement for Indigenous self-representation in media through writing, podcasting, visual art, and cultural perpetuation.
Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle (Eastern Band Cherokee)
Award-winning Author of Even as We Breathe
Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle (Eastern Band Cherokee) lives in Qualla, NC and is the author of Even As We Breathe. She sits on the Board of Directors for the Museum of the Cherokee Indian and is President of the North Carolina Writers Network. She is also an Appalachian Futures Series editor for the University Press of Kentucky.
Shana Bushyhead Condill (Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians)
Museum of the Cherokee Indian Executive Director
Shana Bushyhead Condill (Eastern Band of Cherokee) has worked in the museum and cultural field for over twenty years. As Executive Director of the Museum of the Cherokee Indian, Condill furthers a career-spanning commitment to cultivating Native representation and self-representation in public spaces, advocating for the intentional combining of mainstream best practices with Native best practices in cultural preservation.
Nola Pina (Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians)
Museum of the Cherokee Indian Lead Cultural Specialist
Nola Pina (Eastern Band Cherokee) grew up and still currently resides in the on the Qualla Boundary. As a Lead Cultural Specialist at the Museum of the Cherokee Indian, Nola enjoys demonstrating and teaching finger-weaving (she is a first-generation finger weaver herself), as well as storytelling and leading tours through the permanent exhibit.
Rhiannon ‘Skye’ Tafoya (Eastern Band Cherokee and Santa Clara Pueblo)
Visual artist
Rhiannon ‘Skye’ Tafoya (Eastern Band Cherokee and Santa Clara Pueblo) employs printmaking, digital design, and basketry techniques in creating her artist’s books, prints, and paper weavings. Both of her Tribal heritages, cultures, and lineages are manifested in her two- and three-dimensional artworks that range in size from a few inches to a few feet.
Sheyahshe Littledave (Eastern Band Cherokee)
Writer/podcaster
Sheyahshe Littledave (Eastern Band Cherokee) is passionate about storytelling and writing to highlight the Indigenous experience. Her work includes publication in National Geographic, NPR, and writing children’s books. In 2021, she became the co-host of "We are Resilient: An MMIW True Crime Podcast," dedicated to telling the untold stories of Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women.
Friday 9:00 - 11:45 a.m.
*** SOLD OUT***Poetry Writing Workshop @ Yancey County Library
Kenneth Chamlee - Seriously Important – Poems That Make Us Laugh
Enjoying poems that make us smile, chuckle, or even spew beer is a vital antidote to the daily news cycle-of-crisis. This workshop will review what makes us laugh and the tools for writing humor in poetry. Kenneth Chamlee will share examples from his recent collection If Not These Things, then lead participants through craft and idea-generation exercises designed to prompt poems of wit and wisdom.
Sponsored by Mountain Air Community Fund
Playwriting Workshop @ Parkway Playhouse Theater
Kyle R. Thomas - Page to Stage: Adapting Existing Works for the Theatre
This workshop will focus in large part on what makes the theatre unique for adaptations. We will explore works that were both successfully and unsuccessfully adapted for the stage, and also the criteria for selecting what material fits and what does not.
Sponsored by Mountain Air Community Fund
Friday 9:00 - 9:45 a.m.
(YA Fiction) Lauren Yero - Climate-Engaged Fiction for a New Generation of Readers @ Town Center
Climate-engaged fiction isn’t new. But as the world continues to be shaped by climate change in more and more profound ways, the genre of “cli-fi” has risen in prominence. In this session, debut author, Lauren Yero, will discuss how writers are taking this genre in surprising directions. She’ll also read from her climate-engaged YA novel Under This Forgetful Sky, discussing her own path to publication along with the challenges and joys of writing in this genre.
(Fiction) Meagan Lucas - Bottled Lightning: How Ideas Became Stories for Here in the Dark @ Town Hall
A writer is first an observer: watching for lightning; but the strikes on their own don’t make for a story – they must first be funneled through and molded by the writer’s own hauntings and obsessions. Award-winning author, Meagan Lucas, will share where she finds the best ideas, explain how a spark becomes a story, and read selections from her new grit-lit/rural noir collection, Here in the Dark.
(Memoir) Sebastian Matthews - Beyond Repair: Living in a Fractured State @ Plott Hound Books
In this session Sebastian will be sharing the composition process involved in conceiving, writing, editing, and then structuring Beyond Repair: Living in a Fractured State, a memoir in micro essays. Q&A will follow.
Friday 10:00 - 10:45 a.m.
(YA) Hope Larson- Salt Magic @ Town Center
Hope Larson will do a short reading from Salt Magic, give an overview of her work, and describe how a graphic novel goes from an idea to a book on the shelf. She'll also do a drawing demo and take questions from the audience.
(Poetry) Dr. Len Lawson - The History of Black Mental Health in South Carolina @ First Baptist Church
The history of mental health in South Carolina dates back to the 19th century when legislators first determined that patients should be prioritized in the state. However, issues of segregation have created disparities among white and black mental health patients. This presentation examines a history of African American mental health from the Antebellum and Civil Rights Eras to the present state of mental health. Dr. Lawson will also show how these issues contributed to his latest poetry collection entitled Negro Asylum for the Lunatic Insane, published by Main Street Rag Publishing. He will read from this collection and answer audience questions.
(Memoir) Anne Tazewell - A Good Spy Leaves No Trace @ Town Hall
Author Anne Tazewell will talk about the genesis for her book A Good Spy Leaves No Trace: Big Oil, CIA Secrets, And A Spy Daughter's Reckoning, hitting highlights of the personal and political story that unfolds in this historical nonfiction memoir.
Friday 11:00 - 11:45 a.m.
(Memoir) Dr. Lori Leachman - The King of Halloween and Miss Firecracker Queen @ Town Center
When writing memoir, how does anyone remember exactly a conversation from ten, twenty or thirty years ago, much less the exact detail and progression of an event? How are these dilemmas addressed in creative writing? What is truth? And whose truth is it? How does truth differ from fact? Join Dr. Leachman for a dialogue about how to approach these issues in memoir writing.
(Nonfiction) Marcie Cohen Ferris - Edible North Carolina: A Conversation with Marcie Cohen Ferris @ Town Hall
In Edible North Carolina: A Journey Across a State of Flavor, editor Marcie Cohen Ferris brings together a stellar roster of important journalists, farmers, chefs, entrepreneurs, scholars, and food activists—as well as photographer Baxter Miller—to create a compelling and deeply informed portrait of the contemporary food landscape in North Carolina. In breadth, depth, and diversity, the volume’s ambitious documentary portrait of the state’s food histories, cultures, and economies is without parallel. Ranging from elegy to manifesto, the writing, interviews, illustrations, and recipes harness a fascinating range of voices and perspectives in this eye-opening journey across North Carolina’s distinctive regions and waters. No state, Ferris argues, better illuminates the complexities that make up American food, flavor, and identity than North Carolina. Marcie will be joined by Maia Surdam, Historian, Baker, Educator, Gardener.
Sponsored by Plott Hound Books
(Fiction) Peter McDade - Fictional Music @ First Baptist Church
Songs by Honeybird has an accompanying soundtrack of eight original songs, written and recorded by author Peter McDade and some of his talented musician friends. Peter will describe how the process of creating the music affected the writing of the novel, the connection between drumming and writing, and what he learned about the way music and fiction can interact.
(Fiction) Scott Gould - Who’s Saying What…in The Hammerhead Chronicles @ Plott Hound Books
Scott Gould’s latest novel, The Hammerhead Chronicles, features seven narrators who take turns telling a story that explores the effects of grief, racism, homophobia, revenge, love, and loss in a small, fictitious South Carolina town. Gould will read sections from the novel and discuss the juggling act required to write a book with so many distinct voices. (He may also bow in the direction of Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying a time or two.) Questions and comments will be warmly welcomed.
Friday 12:00 - 12:30 p.m.
Book Signing @ Town Center
Morning authors: Kenneth Chamlee, Lauren Yero, Meagan Lucas, Sebastian Matthews, Hope Larson, Dr. Len Lawson, Anne Tazewell, Dr. Lori Leachman, Marcie Cohen Ferris, Peter McDade, Scott Gould.
Friday 12:30 - 2:00 p.m. BREAK FOR LUNCH
Friday 2:00 - 4:45 p.m.
***SOLD OUT***Nonfiction Writing Workshop @ Yancey County Library
Marjorie Hudson - Using Fiction techniques in Creative Nonfiction
Dialogue, scene, narrative voice, these are just a few of the fiction techniques writers can use in creative nonfiction. How do we balance factual accuracy and creativity? This is a hands-on workshop, so bring your writing journal and five double spaced pages of your work in progress.
Sponsored by Mountain Air Community Fund
Friday 2:00 - 2:45 p.m.
(Memoir) Dr. Benjamin Gilmer - The Other Dr. Gilmer @ Town Center
This will be a reading and discussion about The Other Dr. Gilmer, an Appalachian true crime story-based on one of the most popular This American Life episodes of all time. Dr. Gilmer will use this mesmerizing story to explore a creative pathway to advocacy, highlighting the injustice of mass incarceration of people experiencing mental illness. Together we will look at how writing and media can be used as powerful tools for social justice.
Sponsored by Susan Larson
(Poetry) Hilda Downer - Wiley’s Last Resort @ Town Hall
Poetry Reading and Discussion of Wiley's Last Resort. Hilda will provide an overview of the subject of her book based on the antics of Wiley (aka the late Jim Webb) and the cultural/environmental events held at his primitive campground, Wiley's Last Resort; how this Kentucky poet, activist, and radio personality served as a hero for the Appalachian people.
(Poetry) Maureen DuRant - Tis a Silly Place @ First Baptist Church
When trying to reconcile his position during the Troubles in Northern Ireland, Ulster poet Derek Mahon asserted, “One of the damnable things about it was that you couldn’t take sides.” Taking sides is a challenge for most of us--in families, marriages, and moments where you don’t know whether to laugh or cry so you surrender to both. Laugh and cry with Maureen Oehler DuRant as she reads from her poetry collection Skirmishes on the Okie-Irish Border.
Sponsored by Press 53
(Fiction) Robert Gipe - The Canard County Trilogy @ First Baptist Fellowship Hall
Robert Gipe will read from his novels about contemporary life in southern Appalachia, and discuss art, activism, community organizing, writing, and whatever else attendees want to talk about.
Sponsored by Plott Hound Books
Friday 3:00 - 3:45 p.m.
(Nonfiction) Corban Addison - Hog Fight: A Courtroom War over Civil Rights, Environmental Justice, and the True Cost of America’s Bacon @ Town Hall
Between 2013 and 2020, more than five hundred residents of rural eastern North Carolina—most of them Black people of modest means—fought to hold Smithfield Foods, the world’s largest pork producer, accountable in court for polluting their air, water, and ancestral land. Join Corban Addison, author of Wastelands, to hear about their inspiring journey.
*** Cancelled ***(Nonfiction) Matthew Raiford - Bress n Nyam with CheFarmer Matthew Raiford @ Town Center
Matthew Raiford, the celebrated CheFarmer, author, owner of Strong Roots 9 at Gilliard Farms, and Graduate of The Culinary Institute of America and The University of California- Santa Cruz Center of Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems (CASFS) Apprenticeship Program, joins us for a discussion of his celebrated cookbook, Bress N Nyam: Gullah Geechee Recipes from a Sixth Generation Farmer, a collection of 100 heirloom recipes from the dynamic CheFarmer working the lands of his great-great-great grandfather at Gilliard Farms in Coastal Georgia. Sponsored by Homeplace Beer Co and Hog Hollow
(Nonfiction) Brent Martin - The Photographic Essay Process: Researching, Writing, and Exploring the life of Japanese photographer George Masa @ First Baptist Church
In this 45 minute session Brent Martin will present and discuss his writing process and the collection of photographs for his book, George Masa's Wild Vision: A Japanese Immigrant Imagines Western North Carolina. Brent will discuss his creative process for writing the book, along with a talk and presentation about the book's photographs and journeys made revisiting Masa's photographic landscapes almost one hundred years later.
(Nonfiction) Denise Kiernan & Joe D’Agnese - He Said, She Said @ First Baptist Fellowship Hall
Join New York Times Bestselling author, Denise Kiernan, and her husband, Joseph D’Agnese, for a far-ranging discussion of all things publishing. This much-lauded couple will answer questions on a host of topics that they have been asked for decades. Bring some of your own!
(Memoir) Maia Toll - Letting Magic In @ Plott Hound Books
Join author Maia Toll as she shares Letting Magic In, a memoir of her journey from Brooklyn to Ireland, from searching to finding a sense of spirit and identity. Maia will read briefly from the book and chat about some of it's themes—seeking a sense of life’s purpose, crafting a personal narrative to lend perspective to life’s ups and (inevitable) downs, and using metaphors from the natural world to help you recognize, and respond to, patterns in your own life. For those curious about writing from personal memories, Maia will touch upon her writing process and the understandings she gained from revisiting her own past.
Sponsored by Tyner Construction
Friday 4:00 - 4:45 p.m.
(YA) Hope Larson - Be That Way @ Town Center
Hope Larson will do a short reading from her forthcoming YA hybrid book, Be That Way, and give an in-depth talk on the creative process behind the project, which blends prose, illustration, and comics.
(Nonfiction) Shuly Xóchitl Cawood- The Power of Short, the Beauty of Brief @ First Baptist Church
Shuly Xóchitl Cawood is a big fan of writing small: poetry and brief personal essays. But what makes a short piece of writing work? How can a writer say more with less? Shuly will talk about why and how a tiny piece can have a large impact on a reader, and she will share some of her go-to tools for writing brief as well as share examples from her latest collections of flash essays (What the Fortune Teller Would Have Said) and poetry (Trouble Can Be So Beautiful at the Beginning and Something So Good It Can Never Be Enough).
Sponsored by Press 53
(Nonfiction) Wyatt Waters - The Watercolor Road @ First Baptist Church Fellowship Hall
Wyatt Waters will share his experiences traveling The Watercolor Road — rambling and wandering through the southern trail in a 16-foot Casita travel trailer behind his Pastormobile to explore and present this place he calls home in plein air watercolor. Wyatt roams the rural and urban, country roads and highways, oceans and forests, BBQ joints and local diners — expressing his visceral connection to each locale with his vivid images. His pictorial explorations span from the Arkansas plateaus to the Louisiana bayous, the Blue Ridge Mountains to the low country marshes of South Carolina, across southern farmlands and down to the balmy Florida Keys — with all points in between. His travels deliver an impressive collection of 133 paintings, 21 essays, and an array of adages that depicts both the South and his relentless trek to be a better painter as a mindset rather than a destination.
Book Buzz @ Plott Hound Books
Rant and rave about the books that you really like and really hate. Book lovers of all stripes and dots can add their two cents to the enthusiastic discussion. What's not to like about getting the chance to spout off about your favorite books and pick up a few recommendations for more?
Friday 5:00 - 5:30 p.m.
Book Signing @ Town Center
Afternoon authors: Jason Mott, Marjorie Hudson, Dr. Benjamin Gilmer, Hilda Downer, Maureen DuRant, Robert Gipe, Corban Addison, Matthew Raiford, Brent Martin, Denise Kiernan, Joe D’Agnese, Maia Toll, Hope Larson, Shuly Xóchitl Cawood, Wyatt Waters
Friday 7:30 p.m.
Appalachian Playwriting Festival
Parkway Playhouse is hosting its inaugural Appalachian Playwriting Festival on September 8-10, 2023. This festival will feature staged readings of new plays written by three Playwrights that celebrate Appalachian Culture - including CMLitFest playwriting workshop leader, Kyle Thomas. Discounted tickets to the Appalachian Playwriting Festival are available for CMLitFest authors, volunteers, and attendees on Friday night, Sept 8th & Sunday, Sept 10th. Use code CMLF2023 for 10% off. https://parkwayplayhouse.com/tickets/get-tickets/
*** SOLD OUT***
Enjoying poems that make us smile, chuckle, or even spew beer is a vital antidote to the daily news cycle-of-crisis. This workshop will review what makes us laugh and the tools for writing humor in poetry. Kenneth Chamlee will share examples from his recent collection If Not These Things, then lead participants through craft and idea-generation exercises designed to prompt poems of wit and wisdom.
Sponsored by Mountain Air Community Fund
Playwriting Workshop @ Parkway Playhouse Theater
Kyle R. Thomas - Page to Stage: Adapting Existing Works for the Theatre
This workshop will focus in large part on what makes the theatre unique for adaptations. We will explore works that were both successfully and unsuccessfully adapted for the stage, and also the criteria for selecting what material fits and what does not.
Sponsored by Mountain Air Community Fund
Friday 9:00 - 9:45 a.m.
(YA Fiction) Lauren Yero - Climate-Engaged Fiction for a New Generation of Readers @ Town Center
Climate-engaged fiction isn’t new. But as the world continues to be shaped by climate change in more and more profound ways, the genre of “cli-fi” has risen in prominence. In this session, debut author, Lauren Yero, will discuss how writers are taking this genre in surprising directions. She’ll also read from her climate-engaged YA novel Under This Forgetful Sky, discussing her own path to publication along with the challenges and joys of writing in this genre.
(Fiction) Meagan Lucas - Bottled Lightning: How Ideas Became Stories for Here in the Dark @ Town Hall
A writer is first an observer: watching for lightning; but the strikes on their own don’t make for a story – they must first be funneled through and molded by the writer’s own hauntings and obsessions. Award-winning author, Meagan Lucas, will share where she finds the best ideas, explain how a spark becomes a story, and read selections from her new grit-lit/rural noir collection, Here in the Dark.
(Memoir) Sebastian Matthews - Beyond Repair: Living in a Fractured State @ Plott Hound Books
In this session Sebastian will be sharing the composition process involved in conceiving, writing, editing, and then structuring Beyond Repair: Living in a Fractured State, a memoir in micro essays. Q&A will follow.
Friday 10:00 - 10:45 a.m.
(YA) Hope Larson- Salt Magic @ Town Center
Hope Larson will do a short reading from Salt Magic, give an overview of her work, and describe how a graphic novel goes from an idea to a book on the shelf. She'll also do a drawing demo and take questions from the audience.
(Poetry) Dr. Len Lawson - The History of Black Mental Health in South Carolina @ First Baptist Church
The history of mental health in South Carolina dates back to the 19th century when legislators first determined that patients should be prioritized in the state. However, issues of segregation have created disparities among white and black mental health patients. This presentation examines a history of African American mental health from the Antebellum and Civil Rights Eras to the present state of mental health. Dr. Lawson will also show how these issues contributed to his latest poetry collection entitled Negro Asylum for the Lunatic Insane, published by Main Street Rag Publishing. He will read from this collection and answer audience questions.
(Memoir) Anne Tazewell - A Good Spy Leaves No Trace @ Town Hall
Author Anne Tazewell will talk about the genesis for her book A Good Spy Leaves No Trace: Big Oil, CIA Secrets, And A Spy Daughter's Reckoning, hitting highlights of the personal and political story that unfolds in this historical nonfiction memoir.
Friday 11:00 - 11:45 a.m.
(Memoir) Dr. Lori Leachman - The King of Halloween and Miss Firecracker Queen @ Town Center
When writing memoir, how does anyone remember exactly a conversation from ten, twenty or thirty years ago, much less the exact detail and progression of an event? How are these dilemmas addressed in creative writing? What is truth? And whose truth is it? How does truth differ from fact? Join Dr. Leachman for a dialogue about how to approach these issues in memoir writing.
(Nonfiction) Marcie Cohen Ferris - Edible North Carolina: A Conversation with Marcie Cohen Ferris @ Town Hall
In Edible North Carolina: A Journey Across a State of Flavor, editor Marcie Cohen Ferris brings together a stellar roster of important journalists, farmers, chefs, entrepreneurs, scholars, and food activists—as well as photographer Baxter Miller—to create a compelling and deeply informed portrait of the contemporary food landscape in North Carolina. In breadth, depth, and diversity, the volume’s ambitious documentary portrait of the state’s food histories, cultures, and economies is without parallel. Ranging from elegy to manifesto, the writing, interviews, illustrations, and recipes harness a fascinating range of voices and perspectives in this eye-opening journey across North Carolina’s distinctive regions and waters. No state, Ferris argues, better illuminates the complexities that make up American food, flavor, and identity than North Carolina. Marcie will be joined by Maia Surdam, Historian, Baker, Educator, Gardener.
Sponsored by Plott Hound Books
(Fiction) Peter McDade - Fictional Music @ First Baptist Church
Songs by Honeybird has an accompanying soundtrack of eight original songs, written and recorded by author Peter McDade and some of his talented musician friends. Peter will describe how the process of creating the music affected the writing of the novel, the connection between drumming and writing, and what he learned about the way music and fiction can interact.
(Fiction) Scott Gould - Who’s Saying What…in The Hammerhead Chronicles @ Plott Hound Books
Scott Gould’s latest novel, The Hammerhead Chronicles, features seven narrators who take turns telling a story that explores the effects of grief, racism, homophobia, revenge, love, and loss in a small, fictitious South Carolina town. Gould will read sections from the novel and discuss the juggling act required to write a book with so many distinct voices. (He may also bow in the direction of Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying a time or two.) Questions and comments will be warmly welcomed.
Friday 12:00 - 12:30 p.m.
Book Signing @ Town Center
Morning authors: Kenneth Chamlee, Lauren Yero, Meagan Lucas, Sebastian Matthews, Hope Larson, Dr. Len Lawson, Anne Tazewell, Dr. Lori Leachman, Marcie Cohen Ferris, Peter McDade, Scott Gould.
Friday 12:30 - 2:00 p.m. BREAK FOR LUNCH
Friday 2:00 - 4:45 p.m.
***SOLD OUT***
Dialogue, scene, narrative voice, these are just a few of the fiction techniques writers can use in creative nonfiction. How do we balance factual accuracy and creativity? This is a hands-on workshop, so bring your writing journal and five double spaced pages of your work in progress.
Sponsored by Mountain Air Community Fund
Friday 2:00 - 2:45 p.m.
(Memoir) Dr. Benjamin Gilmer - The Other Dr. Gilmer @ Town Center
This will be a reading and discussion about The Other Dr. Gilmer, an Appalachian true crime story-based on one of the most popular This American Life episodes of all time. Dr. Gilmer will use this mesmerizing story to explore a creative pathway to advocacy, highlighting the injustice of mass incarceration of people experiencing mental illness. Together we will look at how writing and media can be used as powerful tools for social justice.
Sponsored by Susan Larson
(Poetry) Hilda Downer - Wiley’s Last Resort @ Town Hall
Poetry Reading and Discussion of Wiley's Last Resort. Hilda will provide an overview of the subject of her book based on the antics of Wiley (aka the late Jim Webb) and the cultural/environmental events held at his primitive campground, Wiley's Last Resort; how this Kentucky poet, activist, and radio personality served as a hero for the Appalachian people.
(Poetry) Maureen DuRant - Tis a Silly Place @ First Baptist Church
When trying to reconcile his position during the Troubles in Northern Ireland, Ulster poet Derek Mahon asserted, “One of the damnable things about it was that you couldn’t take sides.” Taking sides is a challenge for most of us--in families, marriages, and moments where you don’t know whether to laugh or cry so you surrender to both. Laugh and cry with Maureen Oehler DuRant as she reads from her poetry collection Skirmishes on the Okie-Irish Border.
Sponsored by Press 53
(Fiction) Robert Gipe - The Canard County Trilogy @ First Baptist Fellowship Hall
Robert Gipe will read from his novels about contemporary life in southern Appalachia, and discuss art, activism, community organizing, writing, and whatever else attendees want to talk about.
Sponsored by Plott Hound Books
Friday 3:00 - 3:45 p.m.
(Nonfiction) Corban Addison - Hog Fight: A Courtroom War over Civil Rights, Environmental Justice, and the True Cost of America’s Bacon @ Town Hall
Between 2013 and 2020, more than five hundred residents of rural eastern North Carolina—most of them Black people of modest means—fought to hold Smithfield Foods, the world’s largest pork producer, accountable in court for polluting their air, water, and ancestral land. Join Corban Addison, author of Wastelands, to hear about their inspiring journey.
*** Cancelled ***
Matthew Raiford, the celebrated CheFarmer, author, owner of Strong Roots 9 at Gilliard Farms, and Graduate of The Culinary Institute of America and The University of California- Santa Cruz Center of Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems (CASFS) Apprenticeship Program, joins us for a discussion of his celebrated cookbook, Bress N Nyam: Gullah Geechee Recipes from a Sixth Generation Farmer, a collection of 100 heirloom recipes from the dynamic CheFarmer working the lands of his great-great-great grandfather at Gilliard Farms in Coastal Georgia. Sponsored by Homeplace Beer Co and Hog Hollow
(Nonfiction) Brent Martin - The Photographic Essay Process: Researching, Writing, and Exploring the life of Japanese photographer George Masa @ First Baptist Church
In this 45 minute session Brent Martin will present and discuss his writing process and the collection of photographs for his book, George Masa's Wild Vision: A Japanese Immigrant Imagines Western North Carolina. Brent will discuss his creative process for writing the book, along with a talk and presentation about the book's photographs and journeys made revisiting Masa's photographic landscapes almost one hundred years later.
(Nonfiction) Denise Kiernan & Joe D’Agnese - He Said, She Said @ First Baptist Fellowship Hall
Join New York Times Bestselling author, Denise Kiernan, and her husband, Joseph D’Agnese, for a far-ranging discussion of all things publishing. This much-lauded couple will answer questions on a host of topics that they have been asked for decades. Bring some of your own!
(Memoir) Maia Toll - Letting Magic In @ Plott Hound Books
Join author Maia Toll as she shares Letting Magic In, a memoir of her journey from Brooklyn to Ireland, from searching to finding a sense of spirit and identity. Maia will read briefly from the book and chat about some of it's themes—seeking a sense of life’s purpose, crafting a personal narrative to lend perspective to life’s ups and (inevitable) downs, and using metaphors from the natural world to help you recognize, and respond to, patterns in your own life. For those curious about writing from personal memories, Maia will touch upon her writing process and the understandings she gained from revisiting her own past.
Sponsored by Tyner Construction
Friday 4:00 - 4:45 p.m.
(YA) Hope Larson - Be That Way @ Town Center
Hope Larson will do a short reading from her forthcoming YA hybrid book, Be That Way, and give an in-depth talk on the creative process behind the project, which blends prose, illustration, and comics.
(Nonfiction) Shuly Xóchitl Cawood- The Power of Short, the Beauty of Brief @ First Baptist Church
Shuly Xóchitl Cawood is a big fan of writing small: poetry and brief personal essays. But what makes a short piece of writing work? How can a writer say more with less? Shuly will talk about why and how a tiny piece can have a large impact on a reader, and she will share some of her go-to tools for writing brief as well as share examples from her latest collections of flash essays (What the Fortune Teller Would Have Said) and poetry (Trouble Can Be So Beautiful at the Beginning and Something So Good It Can Never Be Enough).
Sponsored by Press 53
(Nonfiction) Wyatt Waters - The Watercolor Road @ First Baptist Church Fellowship Hall
Wyatt Waters will share his experiences traveling The Watercolor Road — rambling and wandering through the southern trail in a 16-foot Casita travel trailer behind his Pastormobile to explore and present this place he calls home in plein air watercolor. Wyatt roams the rural and urban, country roads and highways, oceans and forests, BBQ joints and local diners — expressing his visceral connection to each locale with his vivid images. His pictorial explorations span from the Arkansas plateaus to the Louisiana bayous, the Blue Ridge Mountains to the low country marshes of South Carolina, across southern farmlands and down to the balmy Florida Keys — with all points in between. His travels deliver an impressive collection of 133 paintings, 21 essays, and an array of adages that depicts both the South and his relentless trek to be a better painter as a mindset rather than a destination.
Book Buzz @ Plott Hound Books
Rant and rave about the books that you really like and really hate. Book lovers of all stripes and dots can add their two cents to the enthusiastic discussion. What's not to like about getting the chance to spout off about your favorite books and pick up a few recommendations for more?
Friday 5:00 - 5:30 p.m.
Book Signing @ Town Center
Afternoon authors: Jason Mott, Marjorie Hudson, Dr. Benjamin Gilmer, Hilda Downer, Maureen DuRant, Robert Gipe, Corban Addison, Matthew Raiford, Brent Martin, Denise Kiernan, Joe D’Agnese, Maia Toll, Hope Larson, Shuly Xóchitl Cawood, Wyatt Waters
Friday 7:30 p.m.
Appalachian Playwriting Festival
Parkway Playhouse is hosting its inaugural Appalachian Playwriting Festival on September 8-10, 2023. This festival will feature staged readings of new plays written by three Playwrights that celebrate Appalachian Culture - including CMLitFest playwriting workshop leader, Kyle Thomas. Discounted tickets to the Appalachian Playwriting Festival are available for CMLitFest authors, volunteers, and attendees on Friday night, Sept 8th & Sunday, Sept 10th. Use code CMLF2023 for 10% off. https://parkwayplayhouse.com/tickets/get-tickets/
Saturday 9:00 - 11:45 a.m.
*** SOLD OUT ***Memoir Writing Workshop @ Yancey County Library
Sebastian Matthews - Seven Tricks to Writing Personal Narrative
In this workshop we'll explore a variety of approaches to writing memoir and other creative nonfiction forms, including ways to begin, strategies for revision, and scene-building techniques. We'll also discuss and practice collage methods, writing off photos, and the use of cinematic techniques.
Sponsored by Mountain Air Community Fund
Saturday 10:00 - 10:45 a.m.
(Fiction) Shuly Xóchitl Cawood- The Power of Short, the Beauty of Brief @ Town Center
Shuly Xóchitl Cawood is a big fan of writing small: poetry and brief personal essays. But what makes a short piece of writing work? How can a writer say more with less? Shuly will talk about why and how a tiny piece can have a large impact on a reader, and she will share some of her go-to tools for writing brief as well as share examples from her latest collections of flash essays (What the Fortune Teller Would Have Said) and poetry (Trouble Can Be So Beautiful at the Beginning and Something So Good It Can Never Be Enough).
Sponsored by Press 53
(Nonfiction) Wyatt Waters - The Watercolor Road @ Town Hall
Wyatt Waters will share his experiences traveling The Watercolor Road — rambling and wandering through the southern trail in a 16-foot Casita travel trailer behind his Pastormobile to explore and present this place he calls home in plein air watercolor. Wyatt roams the rural and urban, country roads and highways, oceans and forests, BBQ joints and local diners — expressing his visceral connection to each locale with his vivid images. His pictorial explorations span from the Arkansas plateaus to the Louisiana bayous, the Blue Ridge Mountains to the low country marshes of South Carolina, across southern farmlands and down to the balmy Florida Keys — with all points in between. His travels deliver an impressive collection of 133 paintings, 21 essays, and an array of adages that depicts both the South and his relentless trek to be a better painter as a mindset rather than a destination.
(Nonfiction) Erica Abrams Locklear & Robert Gipe - Appalachia on the Menu and on the Page @ First Baptist Church
Erica Abrams Locklear and Robert Gipe will discuss Appalachian food and food ways as they occur in regional literature and reflect on current efforts inside and outside the region to elevate respect for and pride in mountain cuisine.
(Nonfiction) Brent Martin - The Photographic Essay Process: Researching, Writing, and Exploring the life of Japanese photographer George Masa @ First Baptist Fellowship Hall
In this 45-minute session Brent Martin will present and discuss his writing process and the collection of photographs for his book, George Masa's Wild Vision: A Japanese Immigrant Imagines Western North Carolina. Brent will discuss his creative process for writing the book, along with a talk and presentation about the book's photographs and journeys made revisiting Masa's photographic landscapes almost one hundred years later.
(Poetry) Kenneth Chamlee - A Laughing Matter: Make Lighter Poems Part of Your Braid @ Plott Hound Books
A totally heavy collection of poems can be a trudge for the reader. Using selections from his recent books If Not These Things and The Best Material for the Artist in the World, Kenneth Chamlee will show how weaving humor and wonder through a collection can balance darker poems and give an audience necessary “breathing space.”
Saturday 11:00 - 11:45 a.m.
(Poetry) Dr. Len Lawson - The History of Black Mental Health in South Carolina @ Town Center
The history of mental health in South Carolina dates back to the 19th century when legislators first determined that patients should be prioritized in the state. However, issues of segregation have created disparities among white and black mental health patients. This presentation examines a history of African American mental health from the Antebellum and Civil Rights Eras to the present state of mental health. Dr. Lawson will also show how these issues contributed to his latest poetry collection entitled Negro Asylum for the Lunatic Insane, published by Main Street Rag Publishing. He will read from this collection and answer audience questions.
(YA Fiction) Lauren Yero - Climate-engaged fiction for a new generation of readers @ Town Hall
Climate-engaged fiction isn’t new. But as the world continues to be shaped by climate change in more and more profound ways, the genre of “cli-fi” has risen in prominence. In this session, debut author Lauren Yero will discuss how writers are taking this genre in surprising directions. She’ll also read from her climate-engaged YA novel Under This Forgetful Sky, discussing her own path to publication along with the challenges and joys of writing in this genre.
*** Cancelled ***(Nonfiction) Matthew Raiford - Bress n Nyam with CheFarmer Matthew Raiford @ First Baptist Church
Matthew Raiford, the celebrated CheFarmer, author, owner of Strong Roots 9 at Gilliard Farms, and Graduate of The Culinary Institute of America and The University of California- Santa Cruz Center of Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems (CASFS) Apprenticeship Program, joins us for a discussion of his celebrated cookbook, Bress N Nyam: Gullah Geechee Recipes from a Sixth Generation Farmer, a collection of 100 heirloom recipes from the dynamic CheFarmer working the lands of his great-great-great grandfather at Gilliard Farms in Coastal Georgia. Sponsored by Homeplace Beer Co and Hog Hollow
(Children) Darren Farrell - WISH, ROAR AND BLOW!" A special interactive story time with author-illustrator Darren Farrell @ First Baptist Fellowship Hall
Join author-illustrator Darren Farrell as he reads from four of his most exciting books! Think about what it means to give away something good as you investigate GIVE THIS BOOK AWAY! Close your eyes, warm up your cheeks and help Mr Farrell blow on a magical dandelion as you ignite a harrowing adventure in DANDELION MAGIC! See if you can spot ROBBER R and recite the entire LETTER TOWN ZOO from A-to-Z as you explore LETTER TOWN and giggle along as a boy and an octopus enact the silliest bedtime routine possible in THANK YOU, OCTOPUS! Parents and children alike will be all-in for this interactive event!
Sponsored by Monkey Business Toy Shop
(Memoir) Dr. Lori Leachman - The King of Halloween and Miss Firecracker Queen @ Plott Hound Books
When writing memoir, how does anyone remember exactly a conversation from ten, twenty or thirty years ago, much less the exact detail and progression of an event? How are these dilemmas addressed in creative writing? What is truth? And whose truth is it? How does truth differ from fact? Join Dr. Leachman for a dialogue about how to approach these issues in memoir writing.
Saturday 12:00 - 12:30 p.m.
Book Signing @ Town Center
Morning authors: Sebastian Matthews, Shuly Xóchitl Cawood, Wyatt Waters, Robert Gipe, Erica Abrams Locklear, Brent Martin, Kenneth Chamlee, Dr. Len Lawson, Lauren Yero, Matthew Raiford, Darren Farrell, Dr. Lori Leachman
Saturday 12:30 - 2:00 p.m. BREAK FOR LUNCH
Saturday 1:00 - 2:45 p.m.
Documentary Film Screening
Michael Frierson - Fred Chappell: I am One of You Forever @ Town Center
Fred Chappell’s journey from mountain farm boy to North Carolina poet laureate winds through pulp magazines, Duke University, critical praise, popular indifference and “more alcohol than I like to think about.” It is a story of a writer finding his way to success by staying true to his Appalachian roots.
Saturday 2:00 - 4:45 p.m.
*** SOLD OUT ***Fiction Writing Workshop @ Yancey County Library
Meagan Lucas - Getting Your Foot in the Door: How to Write and Sell a Short Story
Mastering the short story is a great way to build skill and confidence, and get timely feedback, while connecting with the writing community. Meagan Lucas, award-winning writer and editor, will discuss the structure of these stories and lead writers – with examples and exercises - through the stages of crafting a short story. She will also discuss submission calls, publishing culture, rejection, and how to stand out in the slush pile.
Sponsored by Mountain Air Community Fund
Saturday 2:00 - 2:45 p.m.
(Fiction) Marjorie Hudson w/Scott Gould - Indigo Field @ Town Hall
A free-flowing conversation about Hudson’s new novel Indigo Field, “a mesmerizing story of buried secrets and heart-wrenching struggles: a story of racial boundaries and those who cross them with hope and love and yearning … among the best of contemporary Southern fiction.” -- Minrose Gwin
Sponsored by Press 53
(Fiction) Peter McDade - Fictional History @ First Baptist Church
There’s a historical mystery at the heart of Songs By Honeybird, but for the fictional history to work, author Peter McDade first needed to research the early 1960s in Macon, Georgia. Peter will describe how his time as a History MA student helped shape the novel, and what he learned about the role history—real and imagined—can play in fiction.
(Memoir) Maia Toll - Letting Magic In @ First Baptist Fellowship Hall
Join author Maia Toll as she shares Letting Magic In, a memoir of her journey from Brooklyn to Ireland, from searching to finding a sense of spirit and identity. Maia will read briefly from the book and chat about some of it's themes—seeking a sense of life’s purpose, crafting a personal narrative to lend perspective to life’s ups and (inevitable) downs, and using metaphors from the natural world to help you recognize, and respond to, patterns in your own life. For those curious about writing from personal memories, Maia will touch upon her writing process and the understandings she gained from revisiting her own past.
Sponsored by Tyner Construction
Saturday 3:00 - 3:45 p.m.
(Memoir) Dr. Benjamin Gilmer - The Other Dr. Gilmer @ First Baptist Fellowship Hall
This will be a reading and discussion about The Other Dr. Gilmer, an Appalachian true crime story-based on one of the most popular This American Life episodes of all time. I will use this mesmerizing story to explore a creative pathway to advocacy, highlighting the injustice of mass incarceration of people experiencing mental illness. Together we will look at how writing and media can be used as powerful tools for social justice.
Sponsored by Susan Larson
(Memoir) Anne Tazewell - A Good Spy Leaves No Trace @ Town Hall
Author Anne Tazewell will talk about the genesis for her book A Good Spy Leaves No Trace: Big Oil, CIA Secrets, And A Spy Daughter's Reckoning, hitting highlights of the personal and political story that unfolds in this historical non fiction memoir.
(Poetry) Maureen DuRant - Tis a Silly Place @ Plott Hound Books
When trying to reconcile his position during the Troubles in Northern Ireland, Ulster poet Derek Mahon asserted, “One of the damnable things about it was that you couldn’t take sides.” Taking sides is a challenge for most of us--in families, marriages, and moments where you don’t know whether to laugh or cry so you surrender to both. Laugh and cry with Maureen Oehler DuRant as she reads from her poetry collection Skirmishes on the Okie-Irish Border.
Sponsored by Press 53
Saturday 4:00 - 4:45 p.m.
(Nonfiction) Corban Addison - Hog Fight: A Courtroom War over Civil Rights, Environmental Justice, and the True Cost of America’s Bacon @ Town Center
Between 2013 and 2020, more than five hundred residents of rural eastern North Carolina—most of them Black people of modest means—fought to hold Smithfield Foods, the world’s largest pork producer, accountable in court for polluting their air, water, and ancestral land. Join Corban Addison, author of Wastelands, to hear about their inspiring journey.
(Fiction) Scott Gould -Who’s Saying What…in The Hammerhead Chronicles @ Town Hall
Scott Gould’s latest novel, The Hammerhead Chronicles, features seven narrators who take turns telling a story that explores the effects of grief, racism, homophobia, revenge, love, and loss in a small, fictitious South Carolina town. Gould will read sections from the novel and discuss the juggling act required to write a book with so many distinct voices. (He may also bow in the direction of Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying a time or two.) Questions and comments will be warmly welcomed.
(Poetry) Hilda Downer - Wiley’s Last Resort @ First Baptist Church
Poetry Reading and Discussion of Wiley's Last Resort. Hilda will provide an overview of the subject of my book based on the antics of Wiley (aka the late Jim Webb) and the cultural/environmental events held at his primitive campground, Wiley's Last Resort; how this Kentucky poet, activist, and radio personality served as a hero for the Appalachian people.
(Nonfiction) Marcie Cohen Ferris - Edible North Carolina: A Conversation with Marcie Cohen Ferris @ First Baptist Fellowship Hall
In Edible North Carolina: A Journey Across a State of Flavor, editor Marcie Cohen Ferris brings together a stellar roster of important journalists, farmers, chefs, entrepreneurs, scholars, and food activists—as well as photographer Baxter Miller—to create a compelling and deeply informed portrait of the contemporary food landscape in North Carolina. In breadth, depth, and diversity, the volume’s ambitious documentary portrait of the state’s food histories, cultures, and economies is without parallel. Ranging from elegy to manifesto, the writing, interviews, illustrations, and recipes harness a fascinating range of voices and perspectives in this eye-opening journey across North Carolina’s distinctive regions and waters. No state, Ferris argues, better illuminates the complexities that make up American food, flavor, and identity than North Carolina. Marcie will be joined by Ronni Lundy, Journalist, food writer, bookseller.
Sponsored by Plott Hound Books
Book Buzz @ Plott Hound Books
Rant and rave about the books that you really like and really hate. Book lovers of all stripes and dots can add their two cents to the enthusiastic discussion. What's not to like about getting the chance to spout off about your favorite books and pick up a few recommendations for more?
Saturday 5:00 - 5:30 p.m.
Book Signing @ Town Center
Afternoon authors: Jason Mott, Meagan Lucas, Dr. Michael Frierson, Marjorie Hudson, Peter McDade, Maia Toll, Anne Tazewell, Dr. Benjamin Gilmer, Maureen DuRant, Corban Addison, Scott Gould, Hilda Downer, Marcie Cohen Ferris
Saturday 7:00 p.m.
Keynote with author Jason Mott
Make plans to join us for an intimate in-conversation program with National Book Award Winner, author Jason Mott. Moderated by AMY Regional Director Amber Westall Briggs, this keynote program is one you’ll not want to miss. Additional details to be released soon.
Sponsored by Susan & Bubba Crutchfield
Saturday 7-9pm Book Signing to follow
*** SOLD OUT ***
In this workshop we'll explore a variety of approaches to writing memoir and other creative nonfiction forms, including ways to begin, strategies for revision, and scene-building techniques. We'll also discuss and practice collage methods, writing off photos, and the use of cinematic techniques.
Sponsored by Mountain Air Community Fund
Saturday 10:00 - 10:45 a.m.
(Fiction) Shuly Xóchitl Cawood- The Power of Short, the Beauty of Brief @ Town Center
Shuly Xóchitl Cawood is a big fan of writing small: poetry and brief personal essays. But what makes a short piece of writing work? How can a writer say more with less? Shuly will talk about why and how a tiny piece can have a large impact on a reader, and she will share some of her go-to tools for writing brief as well as share examples from her latest collections of flash essays (What the Fortune Teller Would Have Said) and poetry (Trouble Can Be So Beautiful at the Beginning and Something So Good It Can Never Be Enough).
Sponsored by Press 53
(Nonfiction) Wyatt Waters - The Watercolor Road @ Town Hall
Wyatt Waters will share his experiences traveling The Watercolor Road — rambling and wandering through the southern trail in a 16-foot Casita travel trailer behind his Pastormobile to explore and present this place he calls home in plein air watercolor. Wyatt roams the rural and urban, country roads and highways, oceans and forests, BBQ joints and local diners — expressing his visceral connection to each locale with his vivid images. His pictorial explorations span from the Arkansas plateaus to the Louisiana bayous, the Blue Ridge Mountains to the low country marshes of South Carolina, across southern farmlands and down to the balmy Florida Keys — with all points in between. His travels deliver an impressive collection of 133 paintings, 21 essays, and an array of adages that depicts both the South and his relentless trek to be a better painter as a mindset rather than a destination.
(Nonfiction) Erica Abrams Locklear & Robert Gipe - Appalachia on the Menu and on the Page @ First Baptist Church
Erica Abrams Locklear and Robert Gipe will discuss Appalachian food and food ways as they occur in regional literature and reflect on current efforts inside and outside the region to elevate respect for and pride in mountain cuisine.
(Nonfiction) Brent Martin - The Photographic Essay Process: Researching, Writing, and Exploring the life of Japanese photographer George Masa @ First Baptist Fellowship Hall
In this 45-minute session Brent Martin will present and discuss his writing process and the collection of photographs for his book, George Masa's Wild Vision: A Japanese Immigrant Imagines Western North Carolina. Brent will discuss his creative process for writing the book, along with a talk and presentation about the book's photographs and journeys made revisiting Masa's photographic landscapes almost one hundred years later.
(Poetry) Kenneth Chamlee - A Laughing Matter: Make Lighter Poems Part of Your Braid @ Plott Hound Books
A totally heavy collection of poems can be a trudge for the reader. Using selections from his recent books If Not These Things and The Best Material for the Artist in the World, Kenneth Chamlee will show how weaving humor and wonder through a collection can balance darker poems and give an audience necessary “breathing space.”
Saturday 11:00 - 11:45 a.m.
(Poetry) Dr. Len Lawson - The History of Black Mental Health in South Carolina @ Town Center
The history of mental health in South Carolina dates back to the 19th century when legislators first determined that patients should be prioritized in the state. However, issues of segregation have created disparities among white and black mental health patients. This presentation examines a history of African American mental health from the Antebellum and Civil Rights Eras to the present state of mental health. Dr. Lawson will also show how these issues contributed to his latest poetry collection entitled Negro Asylum for the Lunatic Insane, published by Main Street Rag Publishing. He will read from this collection and answer audience questions.
(YA Fiction) Lauren Yero - Climate-engaged fiction for a new generation of readers @ Town Hall
Climate-engaged fiction isn’t new. But as the world continues to be shaped by climate change in more and more profound ways, the genre of “cli-fi” has risen in prominence. In this session, debut author Lauren Yero will discuss how writers are taking this genre in surprising directions. She’ll also read from her climate-engaged YA novel Under This Forgetful Sky, discussing her own path to publication along with the challenges and joys of writing in this genre.
*** Cancelled ***
Matthew Raiford, the celebrated CheFarmer, author, owner of Strong Roots 9 at Gilliard Farms, and Graduate of The Culinary Institute of America and The University of California- Santa Cruz Center of Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems (CASFS) Apprenticeship Program, joins us for a discussion of his celebrated cookbook, Bress N Nyam: Gullah Geechee Recipes from a Sixth Generation Farmer, a collection of 100 heirloom recipes from the dynamic CheFarmer working the lands of his great-great-great grandfather at Gilliard Farms in Coastal Georgia. Sponsored by Homeplace Beer Co and Hog Hollow
(Children) Darren Farrell - WISH, ROAR AND BLOW!" A special interactive story time with author-illustrator Darren Farrell @ First Baptist Fellowship Hall
Join author-illustrator Darren Farrell as he reads from four of his most exciting books! Think about what it means to give away something good as you investigate GIVE THIS BOOK AWAY! Close your eyes, warm up your cheeks and help Mr Farrell blow on a magical dandelion as you ignite a harrowing adventure in DANDELION MAGIC! See if you can spot ROBBER R and recite the entire LETTER TOWN ZOO from A-to-Z as you explore LETTER TOWN and giggle along as a boy and an octopus enact the silliest bedtime routine possible in THANK YOU, OCTOPUS! Parents and children alike will be all-in for this interactive event!
Sponsored by Monkey Business Toy Shop
(Memoir) Dr. Lori Leachman - The King of Halloween and Miss Firecracker Queen @ Plott Hound Books
When writing memoir, how does anyone remember exactly a conversation from ten, twenty or thirty years ago, much less the exact detail and progression of an event? How are these dilemmas addressed in creative writing? What is truth? And whose truth is it? How does truth differ from fact? Join Dr. Leachman for a dialogue about how to approach these issues in memoir writing.
Saturday 12:00 - 12:30 p.m.
Book Signing @ Town Center
Morning authors: Sebastian Matthews, Shuly Xóchitl Cawood, Wyatt Waters, Robert Gipe, Erica Abrams Locklear, Brent Martin, Kenneth Chamlee, Dr. Len Lawson, Lauren Yero, Matthew Raiford, Darren Farrell, Dr. Lori Leachman
Saturday 12:30 - 2:00 p.m. BREAK FOR LUNCH
Saturday 1:00 - 2:45 p.m.
Documentary Film Screening
Michael Frierson - Fred Chappell: I am One of You Forever @ Town Center
Fred Chappell’s journey from mountain farm boy to North Carolina poet laureate winds through pulp magazines, Duke University, critical praise, popular indifference and “more alcohol than I like to think about.” It is a story of a writer finding his way to success by staying true to his Appalachian roots.
Saturday 2:00 - 4:45 p.m.
*** SOLD OUT ***
Mastering the short story is a great way to build skill and confidence, and get timely feedback, while connecting with the writing community. Meagan Lucas, award-winning writer and editor, will discuss the structure of these stories and lead writers – with examples and exercises - through the stages of crafting a short story. She will also discuss submission calls, publishing culture, rejection, and how to stand out in the slush pile.
Sponsored by Mountain Air Community Fund
Saturday 2:00 - 2:45 p.m.
(Fiction) Marjorie Hudson w/Scott Gould - Indigo Field @ Town Hall
A free-flowing conversation about Hudson’s new novel Indigo Field, “a mesmerizing story of buried secrets and heart-wrenching struggles: a story of racial boundaries and those who cross them with hope and love and yearning … among the best of contemporary Southern fiction.” -- Minrose Gwin
Sponsored by Press 53
(Fiction) Peter McDade - Fictional History @ First Baptist Church
There’s a historical mystery at the heart of Songs By Honeybird, but for the fictional history to work, author Peter McDade first needed to research the early 1960s in Macon, Georgia. Peter will describe how his time as a History MA student helped shape the novel, and what he learned about the role history—real and imagined—can play in fiction.
(Memoir) Maia Toll - Letting Magic In @ First Baptist Fellowship Hall
Join author Maia Toll as she shares Letting Magic In, a memoir of her journey from Brooklyn to Ireland, from searching to finding a sense of spirit and identity. Maia will read briefly from the book and chat about some of it's themes—seeking a sense of life’s purpose, crafting a personal narrative to lend perspective to life’s ups and (inevitable) downs, and using metaphors from the natural world to help you recognize, and respond to, patterns in your own life. For those curious about writing from personal memories, Maia will touch upon her writing process and the understandings she gained from revisiting her own past.
Sponsored by Tyner Construction
Saturday 3:00 - 3:45 p.m.
(Memoir) Dr. Benjamin Gilmer - The Other Dr. Gilmer @ First Baptist Fellowship Hall
This will be a reading and discussion about The Other Dr. Gilmer, an Appalachian true crime story-based on one of the most popular This American Life episodes of all time. I will use this mesmerizing story to explore a creative pathway to advocacy, highlighting the injustice of mass incarceration of people experiencing mental illness. Together we will look at how writing and media can be used as powerful tools for social justice.
Sponsored by Susan Larson
(Memoir) Anne Tazewell - A Good Spy Leaves No Trace @ Town Hall
Author Anne Tazewell will talk about the genesis for her book A Good Spy Leaves No Trace: Big Oil, CIA Secrets, And A Spy Daughter's Reckoning, hitting highlights of the personal and political story that unfolds in this historical non fiction memoir.
(Poetry) Maureen DuRant - Tis a Silly Place @ Plott Hound Books
When trying to reconcile his position during the Troubles in Northern Ireland, Ulster poet Derek Mahon asserted, “One of the damnable things about it was that you couldn’t take sides.” Taking sides is a challenge for most of us--in families, marriages, and moments where you don’t know whether to laugh or cry so you surrender to both. Laugh and cry with Maureen Oehler DuRant as she reads from her poetry collection Skirmishes on the Okie-Irish Border.
Sponsored by Press 53
Saturday 4:00 - 4:45 p.m.
(Nonfiction) Corban Addison - Hog Fight: A Courtroom War over Civil Rights, Environmental Justice, and the True Cost of America’s Bacon @ Town Center
Between 2013 and 2020, more than five hundred residents of rural eastern North Carolina—most of them Black people of modest means—fought to hold Smithfield Foods, the world’s largest pork producer, accountable in court for polluting their air, water, and ancestral land. Join Corban Addison, author of Wastelands, to hear about their inspiring journey.
(Fiction) Scott Gould -Who’s Saying What…in The Hammerhead Chronicles @ Town Hall
Scott Gould’s latest novel, The Hammerhead Chronicles, features seven narrators who take turns telling a story that explores the effects of grief, racism, homophobia, revenge, love, and loss in a small, fictitious South Carolina town. Gould will read sections from the novel and discuss the juggling act required to write a book with so many distinct voices. (He may also bow in the direction of Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying a time or two.) Questions and comments will be warmly welcomed.
(Poetry) Hilda Downer - Wiley’s Last Resort @ First Baptist Church
Poetry Reading and Discussion of Wiley's Last Resort. Hilda will provide an overview of the subject of my book based on the antics of Wiley (aka the late Jim Webb) and the cultural/environmental events held at his primitive campground, Wiley's Last Resort; how this Kentucky poet, activist, and radio personality served as a hero for the Appalachian people.
(Nonfiction) Marcie Cohen Ferris - Edible North Carolina: A Conversation with Marcie Cohen Ferris @ First Baptist Fellowship Hall
In Edible North Carolina: A Journey Across a State of Flavor, editor Marcie Cohen Ferris brings together a stellar roster of important journalists, farmers, chefs, entrepreneurs, scholars, and food activists—as well as photographer Baxter Miller—to create a compelling and deeply informed portrait of the contemporary food landscape in North Carolina. In breadth, depth, and diversity, the volume’s ambitious documentary portrait of the state’s food histories, cultures, and economies is without parallel. Ranging from elegy to manifesto, the writing, interviews, illustrations, and recipes harness a fascinating range of voices and perspectives in this eye-opening journey across North Carolina’s distinctive regions and waters. No state, Ferris argues, better illuminates the complexities that make up American food, flavor, and identity than North Carolina. Marcie will be joined by Ronni Lundy, Journalist, food writer, bookseller.
Sponsored by Plott Hound Books
Book Buzz @ Plott Hound Books
Rant and rave about the books that you really like and really hate. Book lovers of all stripes and dots can add their two cents to the enthusiastic discussion. What's not to like about getting the chance to spout off about your favorite books and pick up a few recommendations for more?
Saturday 5:00 - 5:30 p.m.
Book Signing @ Town Center
Afternoon authors: Jason Mott, Meagan Lucas, Dr. Michael Frierson, Marjorie Hudson, Peter McDade, Maia Toll, Anne Tazewell, Dr. Benjamin Gilmer, Maureen DuRant, Corban Addison, Scott Gould, Hilda Downer, Marcie Cohen Ferris
Saturday 7:00 p.m.
Keynote with author Jason Mott
Make plans to join us for an intimate in-conversation program with National Book Award Winner, author Jason Mott. Moderated by AMY Regional Director Amber Westall Briggs, this keynote program is one you’ll not want to miss. Additional details to be released soon.
Sponsored by Susan & Bubba Crutchfield
Saturday 7-9pm Book Signing to follow