Indie Lit Festival
1-2 October 2021
The Frostburg State University Center for Literary Arts, in partnership with the Allegany County Library System and the Lewis J. Ort Library, is excited to announce that the fifteenth annual Western Maryland Indie Lit Festival will take place on Oct. 1-2 in online spaces.
This event celebrates the writers, publishers, and readers of small press and independent publishing. The weekend features readings, roundtable discussions, and practical “how to” sessions. Although we love our customary book fair, keep an eye out for promotion of indie publishers in our Facebook group and on other social media.
Schedule
Friday, October 1
7 PM: Indie Lit Kickoff Reading with Rick Campbell
Watch the reading on YouTube.
Campbell’s newest book is Provenance (Blue Horse Press.) Other titles include Gunshot, Peacock, Dog (Madville Publishing); The History of Steel (All Nations Press); Dixmont, (Autumn House Press and Black Bay Books); The Traveler’s Companion (Black Bay Books); Setting The World In Order (Texas Tech UP) which won the Walt McDonald Prize; and A Day’s Work (State Street Press). Campbell directed Anhinga Press for over 20 years, co-founded the Florida Literary Arts Coalition and its Other Words Conference. He teaches at Sierra Nevada University’s MFA Program and lives on Alligator Point, FL.
Saturday, October 2
Each of the Saturday panels, discussions and craft talks can be found on our YouTube channel.
10 AM: Edward Doyle-Gillespie
Doyle-Gillespie is a longtime Baltimore resident and police detective. He has written three books of poetry, and another book is forthcoming. His talk will focus on the intersection of race and literature.
11 AM: Brad Barkley, "Floaty-Groundy: A Way of Thinking About Character and Plot"
Barkley is the author of the novel, Money, Love (Norton), a Barnes and Noble "Discover Great New Writers" selection and a "BookSense 76" choice. Money, Love was named one of the best books of 2000 by the Washington Post and the Library Journal. Brad was named one of the “Breakthrough Writers You Need To Know” by Book Magazine. His novel Alison's Automotive Repair Manual (St. Martin’s) was also a "BookSense 76" selection. He has published two collections of short stories, Circle View (SMU Press) and Another Perfect Catastrophe (St. Martin’s). His short fiction has appeared magazines including Southern Review, Georgia Review, the Oxford American, Glimmer Train, Book Magazine, and the Virginia Quarterly Review, which twice awarded him the Emily Balch Prize for Best Fiction. His work was anthologized in New Stories from the South: The Year's Best, 2002. His first YA novel, Scrambled Eggs At Midnight (Penguin) was a summer 2006 “Booksense 76” choice. His second YA novel, Dream Factory, was also “BookSense 76” selection, a Library Guild “Book of the Month, pick” and was voted the Texas Institute of Arts and Letters “Best Young Adult Book” for 2007. Brad has won four Individual Artist Awards from the Maryland State Arts Council and a Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.
12 PM: Tony Russo, "Compelling Stories about Ordinary People"
Telling compelling stories about ordinary people has been Tony Russo's specialty for the entirety of his journalism career. Whether profiling artists, community leaders, or combat veterans, he has a knack for helping people connect to personal stories. In addition to writing about the craft beer revolution, Tony wrote and hosted "This Is War," a narrative podcast documenting the personal stories of combat veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. His most recent work, Dragged Into the Light: Truthers, Reptilians, Super Soldiers, and Death Inside an Online Cult looks into how one nondescript woman was able to tap into the rising paranoia that birthed the conspiracy theory culture. Tony lives on Maryland's Eastern Shore with his wife and the only of his four daughters who has yet to move out. Together they keep their dog and cats comfortable.
1 PM: Reading: Sally Rosen Kindred
Sally Rosen Kindred reads from her latest book of poems, WHERE THE WOLF, as part of the 15th annual Western Maryland Independent Literature Festival. WHERE THE WOLF was named winner of the 2020 Diode Editions Book Prize, was just published this June. Her previous books are Book of Asters (2014) and No Eden (2011), both from Mayapple Press. Sally Rosen Kindred's chapbooks include Garnet Lanterns (Anabiosis Press, 2006) and Darling Hands, Darling Tongue (Hyacinth Girl Press, 2013) and Says the Forest to the Girl, which came out in 2018 from Porkbelly Press. She has received two Individual Artist Awards from the Maryland State Arts Council. Recent poems have appeared in The Gettysburg Review, Shenandoah, Poetry Northwest, The Massachusetts Review, Missouri Review's Poem-of-the-week Web Feature, and Kenyon Review Online. She teaches creative writing for the Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth and will be teaching this fall for The Poetry Barn. A native of North Carolina, she lives in Maryland.
2 PM: Gerry Lafemina, "Lyrics and the Lyric Poem"
Gerry LaFemina believes poetry is the highest art form; believes everyone should rock out with a guitar at least once--even if they can't play; believes teaching is a calling; believes the New York City subways are beautiful (even if they smell bad); believes in love, bigfoot and other mythic creatures; believes in the power of a good meal, a good night's sleep, good whiskey, and good friends; believes in top-down driving and fast music; believes laughter is a type of prayer.... A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, LaFemina holds an MFA in Poetry from Western Michigan University as well as an MA in Literature with an emphasis on Twentieth-century Literature from WMU. He has taught at Kirtland Community College, West Virginia University, Wheeling Jesuit University and Sarah Lawrence College. The former director of the Frostburg Center for Literary Arts and a former Board Member of the AWP, he is an Associate Professor of English at Frostburg State Univeristy, and a Poetry Mentor in the Calrow Univeristy low-residency MFA program.
This craft talk is sponsored by Savage Mountain Punk Arts.
3 PM: Reading: Kestrel
Join poets Kevin Chesser, Robert Lynn, Susan Manchin, and Bonnie Proudfoot for a reading as part of the 15th Annual Western Maryland Independent Literature Festival. These four Kestrel contributors hail from and write about Appalachia. Chesser is a writer and musician and a frequent collaborator with the Travelin' Appalachian Revue. Lynn was awarded the 2021 Yale Younger Poets Prize. Susan Manchin is an MFA candidate at Bennington College, where she is the recipient of the Mardah Chami Poetry Scholarship. Bonnie Proudfoot's novel Goshen Road was longlisted for the 2021 PEN/Hemingway Award for best debut novel.
