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 excited to announce that Maurice Manning will be our keynote speaker this year.  Maurice has held a long association with our festival, and we’re honored to have him return this year and to be inspired by his thoughts about our region and our literature.  Maurice’s work continues to be rightfully recognized on a national level, but his dedication to our region remains unwavering.  In the fall he will begin a new position at Transylvania University that will allow him to live year-round in Kentucky.  We welcome him back home and are thrilled to contribute to the celebration of his homecoming.  We’re also thrilled to welcome grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Matraca Berg as this year’s keynote musician.  Matraca has written songs for all of the best Nashville musicians.  Her 2011 album The Dreaming Fields has been widely acclaimed. We are also fortunate to have Barbara Bates Smith performing from the works of Ron Rash, Lee Smith and Allan Gurganus.

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.

We hope to see you in Harrogate this summer. In the meantime, if you have any questions about our festival please feel free to contact either Denton or me: denton.loving@LMUnet.edu | 423.869.6432; darnell.arnoult@LMUnet.edu | 615.715.3956.

Darnell Arnoult,
Co-Director, MHLF

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.