Second Annual
Fall Literary Festival
September 21-22, 2018
This year’s festival will feature accomplished visiting writers, a book fair, and panels on many aspects of the literary arts. Proposals are now being accepted. Registration will open July 15 with an early bird rate.
CALL FOR PROPOSALS
Lit Youngstown seeks proposals for presentations at our annual Fall Literary Festival to be held September 21-22, 2018 at Youngstown State University in Ohio.
The two-day festival will feature an acclaimed faculty of visiting writers including Nin Andrews, Lesley Nneka Arimah, Jeanne Dutton, Jon Kerstetter, Jacqueline Lipton, Dave Lucas, Craig Paulenich, and Judith Vollmer. Events will include a book fair, readings, craft talks, workshops and panel discussions.
General Information
Sessions will be 50 minutes. Proposals may include panel and roundtable discussions, readings, or workshops. Group and individual proposal submissions are welcome. Individual proposals will be grouped into panels by the conference organizers.
Conference presenters must register for the conference. Accepted presenters will be offered the presenter rate of $35.
Please click here to access the Proposal Submission Form.
Presentation Topics
We seek proposals from a diverse cross section of voices and experiences. All genres are welcome and encouraged.
Possible topics for proposals include:
- Navigating the publishing industry
- Creative readings
- Creative writing pedagogy
- Balancing writing with work, family, and social groups
- Community-based writing
- Creative writing outreach
- Residencies, conferences and other opportunities
- Developing best practices in your craft
- Collaboration and mentoring
- Responsibly engaging diverse voices and perspectives
- MFA programs
- Writing about identity and marginalized experiences
- Literary topics in all genres
- Writing for mass media: journalism, blogging, podcasts, radio, etc.
- Comics & graphic novels
- Film & new media
- Hybrid & short forms
- Storytelling
- Strategies for teaching and researching writing
- Engaging and sustaining a writing life
Please click here to access the Proposal Submission Form.
Proposals will be accepted until Saturday, June 30, 2018. Acceptances will be announced by July 15, when registration will open.
Lawrence Coates, historical fiction writer, was a First Wednesday Series reader and is the author of Food for Thought selection The Garden of the World. His novella, Camp Olvido, was recently optioned for a film. Read more about the book 
The next book discussion will take up Phenomenal Women: Twelve Youngstown Stories. This collection of oral histories, edited and published by Lit Youngstown, is in the stacks at the public library and branches, and is available for $16 at Three Sheep Gallery & Workshop, Tyler History Center and at upcoming Lit Youngstown events.
Adam Hughes is the author of four full-length collections, most recently Allow the Stars to Catch Me When I Rise (Salmon Poetry, 2017) and Deep Cries Out to Deep (Aldrich Press, 2017). He resides in the foothills of Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains.
University and Cuyahoga Community College. Her work has appeared most recently online in Rascal. Her chapbook, The Intimate Verge, was published by Pudding House Publications in 2008. Her work reveals an obsession with the sky and tends to stick to the classic themes of sex and death.
From there, we presented at the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith, under the invitation of Professor Christian Anton Gerard. Three Fort Smith students performed the Phenomenal Women staged reading.
Nancy Christie is the author of the fiction collection, Traveling Left of Center and Other Stories (a runner-up in the 2016 Shelf Unbound Competition), the inspirational book, The Gifts Of Change and numerous short stories including one that was shortlisted for Pulp Literature’s 2016 The Raven Short Story Contest. She is also the founder of “Celebrate Short Fiction” Day and host of the monthly Monday Night Writers group in Canfield, OH. Her “Rut-Busting” Workshop for Writers helps participants identify their objectives, overcome self-imposed barriers and get out of their
Lincoln University and an M.S. in Urban Studies from Cleveland State. His novel Snake Walkers won the Bronze Award for General Fiction in ForeWord Magazine’s Book of the Year contest, and was honored by the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. A Long Way Back received numerous awards, including first place in the Independent Publishers of New England. A novella titled Something About Ann, and a series of short stories related to A Long Way Back including the award winning The Last Time I Saw Willie, will be available in 2017. Prewitt lives in Shaker Heights. 