Full Schedule of the 3rd Annual Mountain Heritage Literary Festival 2008

Back in March, I received an email from Silas House inviting me to this event. Sadly, I could not attend this year. Now it is upon us. What is it? The 3rd annual Mountain Heritage Literary Festival.

The schedule is currently listed on the website as follows and is subject to change:

The Mountain Heritage Literary Festival
June 13-15, 2008

Tentative MHLF Schedule (subject to change)Friday, June 13
12 noon-2 p.m.-Registration -Abraham Lincoln Library and Museum
Familiar faces Liz Lamont and Mary Allen welcome you to the festival. Stop in here for your packets and residence hall keys. Don't forget to sign up for the participant readings. Time slots are limited.

2-2:05 p.m.-Official Welcome-Arnold Auditorium, Abraham Lincoln Library and Museum
Sherilyn Emberton, LMU Vice President for Academic Affairs, welcomes you to our beautiful and historic campus.

2:05-2:45 p.m.-Opening Remarks-Arnold Auditorium, Abraham Lincoln Library and Museum
Festival Director Silas House opens the festival with a look at what it means to be someone who goes through the day with their eyes-and arms-open as a writer.

3-3:45 p.m.-Writing Prompts-Carnegie-Vincent Library, 2nd Floor
-Fiction with Mark Powell - Brooks Reading Room
-Poetry with Maurice Manning - Murray Alumni Lounge
-Nonfiction with George Ella Lyon - Medical Library classroom
-Songwriting with Kate Larken - DCOM Study Room

Refreshments in the 2nd floor lobby

4-5 p.m.-Concurrent Sessions

1. Does it balance? Does it fly? - Brooks Reading Room
   Brooke Calton looks at techniques for revising a novel. For a writer in the midst of revising a novel the process can be endless, frustrating, illuminating, and addictive. The reader should not see the hours that go into the novel; they should only be captivated by the story in motion. In this seminar we will discuss the challenges that are raised when revising a novel. Calton will present techniques that are meant to offer ways to face these challenges outside of the book, before you actually change anything within the text. Suggested for fiction writers.
2. "Tale-telling and Sanging"-Festival Tent (rain plan: Medical Library classroom)
   Anne Shelby gathers everyone in for an old-timey tale-telling, featuring her strong and brave Molly Whuppie character. Someone might even break into a song. Suggested for young adult, poetry, songwriters.

5:10-6:30 p.m.-Play-Arnold Auditorium, Abraham Lincoln Library and Museum-
On Agate Hill, adapted and performed by Barbara Bates Smith
Join the creator of Ivy Rowe in her latest one-woman show, a tour-de-force based on the celebrated latest novel from Lee Smith that follows the wild and poetic life of Molly Petree, a "spitfire" whom we first meet on a ghostly plantation during the Reconstruction and travel with from a strict boarding school to the rugged mountains of Western North Carolina. Bates Smith is joined by Jeff Sebens on hammered dulcimer in music that builds the tension, causes you to tap your foot, and moves you, too.

6:45-7:45 p.m.-Supper-University Dining Hall

8-9 p.m.-Concert-Arnold Auditorium, Abraham Lincoln Library and Museum
Sheila Kay Adams and Jim Taylor bring us their raw and beautiful ancient tones with haunting vocals and claw hammer banjoes. Knowing Sheila Kay, she's liable to throw in a great story or two.

9-9:30 p.m.-Reception/Signing-Front Lobby, Abraham Lincoln Library and Museum
Get your books or CDs signed by Sheila Kay and Jim while munching on some late-night Appalachian snacks.

Saturday, June 14
7:30-9 a.m.-Early Morning Hike-Meeting in Abraham Lincoln Library and Museum parking lot
Meet your guide, Mary Allen, at the parking lot and she will organize carpools and lead everyone on a short two-mile drive to the Daniel Boone trailhead where you'll start a peaceful, easy hike to the saddle of the Cumberland Gap on the actual Wilderness Road, cut by Daniel Boone in the late 1700s. This quiet and inspirational walk is perfect for waking up your writing mind and discovering your Appalachian heritage. Our volunteers will be there with coffee, juice, and muffins to fix you up before you hit the trail (Rain or shine).

8:15-9:15-Breakfast-University Dining Hall
A full Southern breakfast. Come hungry.

10 a.m.-12 noon-Concurrent Sessions-Master Classes-Library, Carnegie-Vincent Library, 2nd Floor
-Fiction with Mark Powell - Brooks Reading Room
-Poetry with Maurice Manning - Murray Alumni Lounge
-Nonfiction with George Ella Lyon - Medical Library classroom
-Songwriting with Kate Larken - DCOM Study Room

12:15-1:15 p.m.-Awards Dinner-University Dining Hall
Join us for a delicious lunch topped off by our literary contest award announcements. Awards will be given for the short story, poetry, essay, and children's writing contests that are sponsored every year by the Mountain Heritage Literary Festival.

1:15-1:45 p.m.-The James Still Lecture-University Dining Hall
Bill Weinberg, a long-time friend of James Still (and one of his literary executors) offers his special insight into the LMU graduate many know as "the Dean of Appalachian Literature."

2-2:50 p.m.-Concurrent Sessions, choose one

1. Julia Watts and Larry Thacker-Brooks Reading Room
   Two of Appalachia's most interesting authors bring you their insights and short readings. Watts is the Lambda Award-winning author of Finding H.F. and seven other novels. A native of Southeastern Kentucky, she now lives in Knoxville. Larry Thacker is the author of Mountain Mysteries and is the director of student success and retention at LMU. He also writes a column for Premier Overlook and The Middlesborough Daily News.
2. Liz Lamont and Richard Saunders-Elizabeth D. Chinnock Chapel
   Come explore the rich literary tradition of LMU that includes not only James Still and Jesse Stuart, but also the lesser known-but equally important-Don West and teacher and author Henry Harrison Kroll who changed countless lives during his tenure at LMU. Recommended for nonfiction, scholarly, poetry.
3. "Say What?"-Dialogue Session with Darnell Arnoult-location TBA
   What is dialogue? What are its purposes in fiction? In this session, beloved teacher and writer Darnell Arnoult will look at ways to write stronger, more believable dialogue, use beats to weave dialogue into scene structure, discuss ways to edit dialogue down to its essential best, and use indirection to make dialogue more interesting.

3-4:p.m.-Publishing Panel-Arnold Auditorium, Abraham Lincoln Library and Museum
Get the inside scoop on the publishing world with our esteemed panel of editors and publishers. Each panelist will offer a brief statement and then the session will be turned over to your questions, so come prepared to ask anything you ever wanted to know about the publishing world. Guests include Laura Sutton, acquisitions editor at the University Press of Kentucky, Kate Larken, president of Motes Books, Sandra Ballard, editor of Appalachian Journal, and George Brosi, editor of Appalachian Heritage. Lemonade and cookies will be available.

4:15-5:15 p.m.-Front Porch Talk-Arnold Auditorium, Abraham Lincoln Library and Museum
Readings by staff members Maurice Manning, Mark Powell, George Ella Lyon and Silas House, with music by Kate Larken followed by a Q&A session where you can ask the writers anything you'd like to know about the writing life.

5:15-6:30 p.m.-Reflective Time
Use this time to get some writing done, take a walk around our beautiful campus, or just get ready for the big festivities tonight.

6:30-7:20 p.m.-Awards Banquet-University Dining Hall
We'll settle down to a delicious home-style supper and then present the Lee Smith Award for properly representing the region and the Jean Ritchie Fellowship, the largest monetary prize in Appalachian literature.

7:20-7:45 p.m.-Tribute Concert-University Dining Hall
The Johnson Sisters are one of the best a capella sister acts in Appalachia, or anywhere else for that matter. They'll offer us several songs that show up in the work of Lee Smith, and maybe even a couple to pay tribute to the legendary Jean Ritchie.

7:45-8:05-Keynote Address by Lee Smith
The author of such classics as Fair and Tender Ladies, Oral History, The Devil's Dream, and Saving Grace brings her keen insights about the current state of Appalachian literature.

8:10-9 p.m.-Writer's Market/Booksigning-University Dining Hall
Bring your books, or buy new ones from us. Lee Smith and all staff members will be available for our grand finale booksigning event. While you wait, you can browse around George and Connie Brosi's Appalachian Bookstore or check out the wares provided by Jamie Johnson's basket or the Paint Creek Potters, who create the Lee Smith Award every year.

Sunday, June 15
9-10 a.m.-Light Breakfast/Checkout-University Dining Hall
We'll have a breakfast of fruits, pastries, juices and coffee. Please return your room keys to Denton or Silas at this time.

10-10:30 a.m.-Hymn Singing-
Anne Shelby leads us in a closing fellowship of hymn-singing, silent prayer, and a message of hope to set us on our travels. Anne will be helped in the hymn-singing by Jason Howard and Jessie Lynne Keltner. We'll say our good-byes here, or you can stick around for the optional participant readings.

10:45-12 noon-Participant Readings-Elizabeth D. Chinnock Chapel
Those who signed up on the fist day will be able to read short pieces of their work at this optional event.

For more information, visit: http://www.lmunet.edu/mhlf/

This will be a weekend of wonder, by the sound of it. And in beautiful surroundings. Maybe I'll make it next year. Maybe I'll see you there, too!