The Mountain Heritage Literary
Festival
June 15-17, 2012
Dear Friends of the Mountain Heritage Literary Festival,
Denton and I are so excited about the 2012 Mountain Heritage Literary Festival, and we know you will be too when you hear about all the wonderful folks who will be here to make the weekend special and help coax us all a little farther along on the writer’s path. This is the second year Denton and I have worked together to plan the festival, and I have to say, we have a good time coming up with a festival schedule to entertain and challenge you. We look forward to seeing ya’ll the same way we look forward to seeing family.
We are particularly excited to announce that Ron Rash will be our keynote speaker this year. As a poet, short story writer, novelist, and teacher, Ron inspires us all with his work ethic, his versatility, his dedication to craft, and all the international stamps on his luggage. Silas and Denton were just as proud to have Ron at the very first festival as we are now that he’s internationally famous, winning the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award and getting the nod from Hollywood on his New York Times bestselling novel Serena, which will be adapted for film. We are also fortunate to have Barbara Bates Smith with us this year. She will add to the celebration of Ron Rash’s work by performing her play The Lincolnites, which she adapted from one of the stories in Ron’s prize-winning collection Burning Bright. We are thrilled to contribute to the celebration of Ron’s work and talents, all so well-deserved.
Our master classes this year are led by a team of outstanding utility players. Almost everyone writes in multiple genres. Teaching fiction, we have Joseph Bathanti, who grew up in Pittsburg and has lived long in the mountains of NC where he teaches at Appalachian State University. Joseph is as adept at fiction as he is poetry, essay, and playwriting. Michael Chitwood is equally versatile, and will be our poetry instructor. Jim Minick, also with books in three genres, will teach creative nonfiction. And we are delighted to have Lisa Soland back this year as a master class instructor teaching writing for the stage. You will remember Lisa’s motivating presentation last year in one of our concurrent sessions. We welcome some other familiar faces. George Ella Lyons will deliver the Jesse Stuart Lecture, and Sue Massek will give the tribute concert preceding the keynote. Pamela Duncan will fill the role of guest writer-in-residence, happy to talk writing with any one at any reasonable hour.
Once again, our featured artist is a familiar face at the Mountain Heritage Literary Festival. Alice Hale Adams has myriad gifts and talents, and we want to shine a spotlight on her mixed media novel and her mixed media found poetry. Alice’s art work is a perfect marriage of visual desert with rich (and sometimes spicy) storytelling. As you walk through Avery Hall, you’ll find artwork from the J. Frank White Academy students, also made from recycled materials
Back by popular demand, Tasha Thomas and Dawn Mitchell from the Spartanburg Writing Project will lead a pre-conference workshop for K-12 teachers on Friday morning.
And lastly, we are holding our inaugural Cumberland Gap Writers Studio in collaboration with Table Rock Writers Workshop. Writers who, after three days of inspiring workshops, panels, and presentations want to stay and write all day and share the writing at night, have the opportunity to live in the LMU dorms, take advantage of the LMU facilities and landscape, and write and share from Sunday until Thursday. Writers who attend both the festival and the studio will receive a discount. Come get inspired, then stay and continue to be creative!
Silas House said it best when he said, “This is a festival that is completely down-home, accessible and fun– traits that Appalachians have rightly been known for. Instead of fancy meals, at the Mountain Heritage Literary Festival you'll be fed the food your grandmother might have prepared for you. You'll breathe in the crisp air of the Cumberland Mountains and be treated to traditional music strummed on an autoharp. There will be plenty of music to be heard, perhaps plays to be seen, and good fellowship to be had.” And that hasn’t changed.
Lincoln Memorial University
Cumberland Gap Parkway
P.O. Box 2005
Harrogate, TN 37752
Phone:
423.869.6432 or 800.325.0900, ext. 6432
Funded in part by The Max and Victoria Dreyfus Foundation, Inc.
