THE 2013 SCHEDULE IS STILL UNDER WRAPS, BUT CHECK THIS PAGE LATER IN THE SPRING. MEANWHILE, YOU CAN WHET YOUR APPETITE BY READING THE LINEUP FROM THE 2012 FESTIVAL BELOW!

 

 

 

Printed schedules will be available at the Burnsville Town Center, and on the days of the Festival, posted on the windows there.

 

FRIDAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 7, 2012
9-11:45 AM FRI = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Fiction Writing Workshop with SUZANNE ADAIR
(Advanced Registration and Fee Required)
See Workshop page for details and registration information.

9-9:45 AM FRI = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

TOWN CENTER LEGACY ROOM
Monika Shroeder
Lecture and Q&A
Saraswati's Way – Inspiration and Challenges of Writing a Novel set in India In this presentation the author of the middle grade novelSaraswati's Way will tell the back-story of writing a book about a 12-year old boy in contemporary India. Akash, the book’s protagonist, ends up as a street child in the New Delhi train station. Supported by photos from the setting, the presentation shows the conditions of street children in India and discusses child labor and poverty in India.

TOWN CENTER AREA C

Tim Peeler
Americana: The No-Tell Motel Reading and Q&A from Checking Out, a book of poems about my eleven years in the motel business

FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH SANCTUARY
Mark de Castrique
Lecture/Q&A
Foundations for Creating a Story -  Looking at my books as to where the ideas came from but how the basic story structure is the same.

 

TOWN HALL
Chris Schweizer
Mini-workshop for kids and teens

Writing Comics (and a little drawing, too)
Writing comics is much easier when you have a structural foundation upon which to build your stories. Cartoonist Chris Schweizer, author of The Crogan Adventures graphic novel series, will help you get started.

 

A Reading, Discussion, and Q&A

10-10:45 AM FRI = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =  = =

TOWN CENTER LEGACY ROOM
PANEL: LANDSCAPES OF FAITH with
Joseph Bathanti, Mallory McDuff, and Richard Chess
Authors speak to the role spirituality has played in their lives and writings with regard to attaining it, practicing it, struggling to keep it, losing and/or regaining it.

TOWN CENTER AREA C
Monika Shroeder
Lecture and Q&A
After the War was Lost – Bringing Post-War Germany to Life with Two Novels for Young Readers
The author of the YA historical fiction novels My Brother's Shadow (Farrar, 2011) set in Berlin 1918, and The Dog in the Wood (Boyds Mills, 2009) set in east-Germany 1945, demonstrates how family memoirs and primary and secondary sources influenced the creation of fictional characters and plot, and discusses the importance of historical accuracy. Participants gain insight into the research/writing process of two novels about the impact of war on children, which offer ample topics for discussion and curriculum connections.

DESIGN GALLERY
Keith Flynn
Reading, Singing, Q&A
Colony Collapse Disorder: Keith Flynn reads from his forthcoming collection. And sings!

APPALACHIAN JAVA
Wiley Cash
Reading/Lecture
A Land More Kind Than Home, or Why I Write About the Mountains - In 2003, I left the mountains of North Carolina for graduate school in Louisiana. After a few months I found that I was desperately homesick. Because of this, I began rereading the work of North Carolina authors, and I realized that if I wrote my own North Carolina novel I could return "home" whenever I sat down at my desk.

FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH SANCTUARY
Rose Senehi
LECTURE/Q&A - Contemporary Mountain Fiction Wrapped up in History, Suspense, and Romance
Senehi will discuss how she wove the story of Render Unto the Valley with layers of historically accurate details, mountain culture, conservation issues, and a family saga.

 

 

COURTHOUSE COURTROOM
Sherry Lovett
Transformative Stories of the Celtic Past- From the stories of the Celtic mist emerge fairies, dragons, and heroes. Let the magic of spoken word carry you to the landscape of imagination where transformation is made possible.

 

A Story Is a Map of the World: Mythology, Folklore, and Children's Literature

1:30-4:30 PM FRI ============================================
Writing History Workshop with ELIZABETH HUNTER
(Advanced Registration and Fee Required)
See Workshop page for details and registration information.

2:30-3:15 PM FRI = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

TOWN CENTER LEGACY ROOM
George and Elizabeth Ellison
Lecture and Readings of Poetry from Permanent Camp with music by Lee Knight www.leeknightmusic.com

TOWN CENTER AREA C
Stephanie Perkins & Beth Revis
Discussion and Q&A - Writing and Editing Young Adult Novels - Perkins and Revis will discuss how to craft novels, with special focus on planning, editing, and revising. This question-and-answer based session will provide you with the chance to ask the writers how they make the books you read, from idea to finished product.

DESIGN GALLERY
Vicki Lane
Reading, Discussion, and Q&A - Writing on Home Ground: The Story the WNC Landscape Tells
Daffodils and boxwoods at the edge of the woods, old logging roads, and multiflora rose – all have a tale to tell. I’ll read pertinent excerpts from my books, discuss the stories in the landscape, and leave time for Q&A.

APPALACHIAN JAVA
Wayne Caldwell
Reading and Q&A - Requiem by Fire and a new novel, working title Memoirs of an Unambitious Lawyer

COURTHOUSE COURTROOM
Sherry Lovett
Stories for the Authentic Self – Be Who You Imagine Yourself to Be - From where does power come? Stories help answer the question. Through the lives of a strange girl, a seal woman, and a widow, power and autonomy reveal themselves in imaginative ways.

3:30-4:15 PM FRI = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

TOWN CENTER LEGACY ROOM
Charles Vess
Lecture and slide presentation - A Personalized History of Fantastic Art
Illuminating three major aesthetic themes that influenced the look of Fantastic Art today: British Fairy Tale Art, American Pulp Illustration, and European Visionary Art

TOWN CENTER AREA C
TBA

DESIGN GALLERY
TOMMY HAYS
A Reading

APPALACHIAN JAVA
Bookclub Buzz - A free-for-all discussion of every book you loved or hated or that made you quit your bookclub and start another one!   Moderated by Deana ("the Queena") Blanchard.

4:30-5:15 PM FRI = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

TOWN CENTER LEGACY ROOM
Susan Reinhardt
Lecture - My Cat Was an Alcoholic and Other Subjects Suitable for Successful Humor Writing
Learn how to turn funny events into essays that sell. Think Dave Barry. Erma. Lewis Grizzard and some of the newer humor writers such as David Sedaris and Celia Rivenbark.

DESIGN GALLERY
Sharon Webb
Lecture/Discussion - Growing Up With Crazy is a motivational presentation based on the widespread concept of “know what you write and write what you know”. My childhood was filled with tales of female ancestors who reputedly had the gift of “the sight.” These stories were the main inspiration for my novel Talking To Shadows.

5:30-6 PM FRI = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

TOWN CENTER LEGACY ROOM
Book-signing and Meet the Afternoon-Session Authors

7:30 PM FRI = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Remember 1969's Naked Came the Stranger?  No?  How about Dave Barry's 1996 Naked Came the Manatee?  (The manatee was named "Booger" of course.)  Well, Brian Lee Knopp, best known (lately, anyway) for authoring Mayhem in Mayberry: Misadventures of a P.I. in Southern Appalachia, convinced twelve regional writers to collaborate on a murder mystery. Join all the authors to celebrate the making of this mountain masterpiece.  Featuring Brian Lee Knopp (reading for John P. McAfee), Susan Reinhardt, Vicki Lane, Tommy Hays, Wayne Caldwell, Fred Chappell, Dan Barron (reading for Alan Gratz), Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle, Gene Cheek, Linda Marie Barrett, and Tony Earley.

 

"Naked Came the Leaf Peeper is a delight, laugh-out-loud funny and appealingly irreverent. North Carolina literature will never, ever be the same." -- Ron Rash, author of Serena

 
SATURDAY MORNING, SEPT. 8, 2012

9-11:45 AM SAT = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Poetry Workshop with FRED CHAPPELL
(SOLD OUT)

9:00 - 9:45 AM SAT  = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

TOWN CENTER LEGACY ROOM
Amy Goodman & Denis Moynihan
Session 1 of 2 Landscapes of Social Justice
Democracy Now's Amy Goodman and Denis Moynihan kick off their 125-city book tour with a lecture and discussion on the relationship between literature and investigative journalism.

TOWN CENTER AREA C
Tim Peeler
Behind District 12: The Henry River Mill Village - A reading of poems about and discussion of the Henry River Mill Village, a ghost town located a mile from my house, where they shot The Hunger Games.

FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH SANCTUARY
Wiley Cash
Q&A
The Long, Strange Journey to A Land More Kind Than Home
Cash will talk about the experience of writing A Land More Kind Than Home and take questions on the process of getting an agent, finding a publisher, and promoting a book.

10 AM - 5 PM SAT = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

 

 

10 - 10:45 AM SAT = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Amy Goodman & Denis Moynihan
Session 2 of 2 - Landscapes of Social Justices
Q&A

TOWN CENTER AREA C
Chris Schweizer
Lecture and Q&A
Cartoonist Chris Schweizer will discuss the process of researching, writing, designing, and drawing his historical adventure graphic novel series The Crogan Adventures. The most recent of these books, Crogan’s Loyalty, is about two brothers fighting on opposite sides of the American Revolution. While working on the book, Schweizer repeatedly visited the North Carolina mountains, which served as the visual inspiration for the story’s setting.

DESIGN GALLERY
Suzanne Adair
Lecture - Camp Follower, Regulated for Murder, and the Significance of North Carolina in the Revolutionary War

APPALACHIAN JAVA
Chris J. Hartley
Lecture - Driving Old Dixie Down: George Stoneman's 1865 Raid
This is the story of Stoneman's 1865 Raid, one of the longest cavalry raids in the Civil War and in U.S. military history. Over the course of two months in the spring of 1865, Major General George Stoneman led about 4000 mounted Union men on a mission of strength and endurance. Traveling well-over 1,000 miles on horseback, Stonemen and his men invaded numerous Confederate communities in the southeast, including the mountains of North Carolina, leaving the area shattered and ultimately slowing postwar recovery efforts. Yet aside from the scattered historical markers along North Carolina's highways, one of the most important Civil War events to touch the Southeast has all but disappeared from the minds of many.

 

Reading and discussion - The Color of Love: A Mother's Choice in the Jim Crow South  

11 - 11:45 AM SAT = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

TOWN CENTER LEGACY ROOM
Robert Morgan
Reading - Terroir: Poems of the Earth - Poems from the volume Terroir and discuss the craft of poetry and the sense of place.

TOWN CENTER AREA C
Libby Bagby
Lecture and Q&A
The Plott of The Story - Was it fate or destiny that was steering Libby Bagby's car in 2002 when she stopped to assist an injured dog lying beside a country road? After rescuing, rehabilitating, and adopting this lucky canine, Libby learned it was a Plott hound, NC's official state breed. Most Tar Heels know of our state bird, tree, and flower, but what do you know of our state dog? Come learn from author/presenter Libby Bagby, who has researched the Plott breed for ten years, has traveled to 39 NC counties sharing her Plott's rescue story, and has taught Plott history to over 13,000 participants.

DESIGN GALLERY
Marlin Barton
Reading from his new novel The Cross Garden, followed by a discussion of the ways it was influenced by his teaching at a juvenile detention facility.


FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH SANCTUARY
Dawn Gilchrist-Young
Reading
The Tender Branch -  I will describe the generosity of the Mailer Center, their goal in awarding a $10,000 prize and a month writing in Provincetown to a teacher, and read a section of the story.

12-12:30 PM SAT= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

TOWN CENTER LEGACY ROOM
Book-signing and Meet the Morning-Session Authors

12:30-1:30 PM SAT = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

 
2:30-5:15 PM SAT=========================================
Writing Narrative Nonfiction Workshop with BRIAN LEE KNOPP

(SOLD OUT)

2:30 - 3:15 PM SAT= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

TOWN CENTER LEGACY ROOM
Tony Earley
A Reading

TOWN CENTER AREA C
Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle
Reading/Informal Lecture, and Q&A
This session will focus on balancing your day job with your writing passion. We will discuss ways in which the writer's world can inform your classroom teaching, regardless of grade level. I will present specific projects and philosophies that have integrated well into the class room and examine how you can apply them in your own class.

DESIGN GALLERY
Richard Chess
A Reading

APPALACHIAN JAVA
Joy Boothe, Cathy Larson Sky, Anne Maren-Hogan, and Dawn Gilchrist-Young
New Voices from the Mountains - Up and coming writers read from their works.
Session 1 of 2

FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH SANCTUARY
Tommy Hays
A Reading

TOWN HALL
Mark de Castrique
Lecture/Q&A
Writing Whom You Know  - How real people can populate and enhance a fictional story

3:30 - 4:15 PM SAT= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

TOWN CENTER LEGACY ROOM
Rose Senehi
Lecture and Q&A - A Sense of Place
Senehi will discuss the universal theme of love of the land and the sense of place to which readers enjoy escaping.

TOWN CENTER AREA C
Charles Vess
Slide Presentation and Q&A - Presenting the Artist Himself
A quick journey through my life with slides showing work from high school, college, NYC, and on into the work I do today out of my studio, GreenManPress in Abingdon, Virginia.

DESIGN GALLERY
Chris J. Hartley
Lecture - Driving Old Dixie Down: George Stoneman's 1865 Raid
This is the story of Stoneman's 1865 Raid, one of the longest cavalry raids in the Civil War and in U.S. military history. Over the course of two months in the spring of 1865, Major General George Stoneman led about 4000 mounted Union men on a mission of strength and endurance. Traveling well-over 1,000 miles on horseback, Stonemen and his men invaded numerous Confederate communities in the southeast, including the mountains of North Carolina, leaving the area shattered and ultimately slowing postwar recovery efforts. Yet aside from the scattered historical markers along North Carolina's highways, one of the most important Civil War events to touch the Southeast has all but disappeared from the minds of many.

MARY JANE'S BAKERY & CAFE'
Keith Flynn
Poetry and music performance
A set of poetry and songs that blur the boundaries of traditional song structures fusing blues, gospel, swing, reggae and rock.

TOWN HALL
Book Club Buzz - Discussing the past and present works of 2012 LitFest authors.
Moderated by Deana "the Queena" Blanchard

4:30 - 5:15 PM SAT = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

TOWN CENTER LEGACY ROOM
Catherynne M. Valente
Reading and Q&A:  What's a Wyverary?

TOWN CENTER AREA C
Sharon Webb
Lecture/Discussion - Growing Up With Crazy is a motivational presentation based on the widespread concept of “know what you write and write what you know”. My childhood was filled with tales of female ancestors who reputedly had the gift of “the sight.” These stories were the main inspiration for my novel Talking To Shadows.

DESIGN GALLERY
Vicki Lane
Reading, Discussion, and Q&A - Where is Marshall County, NC Anyway? -- Changing Names to Protect the Innocent
Why would a writer use some real place names and change others? I’ll read pertinent excerpts from my books, discuss how and why I changed some names and not others, and leave time for Q&A.

TOWN HALL
Mallory McDuff
Informal Lecture, Reading, and Q&A
Using Nonfiction on a Religious Road Trip - What happens when writing nonfiction changes your own story as a writer? Mallory McDuff traveled with her two children across the US to document stories of churches caring for creation. The research revealed a narrative of faith in place that included her own beliefs as well. She will share from her two nonfiction books: “Natural Saints” (OUP, 2010) and “Sacred Acts” (New Society Publishers, 2012).

 

FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH SANCTUARY
Joy Boothe, Cathy Larson Sky, Anne Maren-Hogan, and Dawn Gilchrist-Young
New Voices from the Mountains - Up and coming writers read from their works.
Session 2 of 2

5:30-6 PM SAT = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

TOWN CENTER LEGACY ROOM
Book-signing and Meet the Afternoon-Session Authors

7 PM SAT = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =