Indie Lit Festival
25-27 September 2025
Frostburg State University Center for Literary Arts, the Allegany County Library System, the Lewis J. Ort Library, Savage Mountain Punk Arts, Frostburg Parks & Rec, and Mountain City Traditional Arts will host the 19th annual Western Maryland Independent Literature Festival (Indie Lit).
This event celebrates the writers, publishers, and readers of small press and independent publishing. If you read and/or write, this event is for you!
Participants and presenters are joining us from places far afield. Come along, too!
Thursday 9/25:
Poetry Slam at Clatter (15 S. Broadway), 7 PM. This event is sponsored by Savage Mountain Punk Arts
Friday 9/26:
Indie Lit Kickoff Reading featuring Lee Horikoshi Roripaugh at Main Street Books (2 E. Main St.), 7 PM
Indie Lit Kickoff Reading featuring Lee Horikoshi Roripaugh at Main Street Books (2 E. Main St.), 7 PM
Followed by rock and roll with The Downstrokes at the Deep End (16 W. Main St.)
Saturday 9/27:
Readings, Workshops, and Panels in City Place (14 S. Water St), Mountain City Traditional Arts (25 E. Main St.) and the Frostburg Public Library (65 E. Main St.), 11-5
Small + Indie Press / Writer + Artist Book Fair,
City Place, 14 S. Water St., Saturday 11-5
Center for Literary Arts / Information / Backbone Mountain Review, Air and Nothingness Press, Crisis Chronicles Press, Does it Have Pockets, Kestrel, Lefty Blondie, Lewis J. Ort Library, Old Scratch Press / Instant Noodles, ONE ART: a journal of poetry, Red Tales, Samsara, SMPA Table (books and zines), Writers Association of Northern Appalachia, Chuck Joy—this will also be a place for folk to sign up for the open mic, Kari Ann Ebert—impromptu typewriter poetry, Bob Kunzinger, Kenton Kilgore, Lynne Schmidt, Michele Battiste, Mahoney Reads, and Nicole Yurcaba
Open Mic Hosted by Chuck Joy at Clatter, 6 PM-?
Friday's reading and all of the Saturday events are free and open to the public.
THANK YOU! This year’s fest has been made possible by the generosity of Gerry LaFemina, Mercedes LaFemina, SMPA, Mary Wolodkin, Kalan McCann, Jonathan Felton and the folk at Clatter, Jennifer Porter and the booksellers at Main Street Books, Renee Warnick Mason, Caitlin Molter and the Allegany County Library System, The Lewis J. Ort Library, Kara Rogers-Thomas and Mountain City Traditional Arts, Brian Vought, Frostburg Parks & Rec., the Allegany Arts Council, the City of Frostburg, the Dean of the College of Humanities, Arts & Sciences, and the FSU Department of Communication and Literature
Keep an eye out for updates and spotlights on folk who will be with us in our Facebook group and on other social media.
