Representatives from literary reviews and publishers from across North Carolina, Louisiana, Tennessee, Georgia and South Carolina turned out March 8 and 9 for UNCG’s first Southeastern Literary Magazine and Small Press Festival writes Michelle Hines, Univsrity Relations for UNCG: 

Jim Clark, MFA Writing Program director, and Terry Kennedy, the program’s assistant director, organized the event. They plan to continue the festival, funded in part by a $2,500 N.C. Arts Council grant, growing it gradually over the next five years.

“There’s a fall festival in Atlanta,” Clark said as he watched budding writers browse a plethora of publications in the Elliott Center’s Maple Room. “What I’d like to see is this turn into the Greensboro Festival of the Book.”

Clark envisions an outdoor festival held under the covered walkway outside the McIver Building. Tents would line the lawn, shading dozens and dozens of publishers, writers and editors.

“We think it’s a great beginning. We’re very excited by the magazines that came down. Terry has worked night and day on this for months.”

This year’s festival included a keynote reading by poets Fred Chappell and Kathryn Stripling Byer, a book fair, panel discussions, readings, signings, workshops for aspiring writers and editors and master classes in fiction and poetry. Venues included the EUC, Jackson Library, Tate Street Coffee and the UNCG Faculty Center.

In addition to the Arts Council, the festival was co-sponsored by the Center for Creative Writing in the Arts, The Greensboro Review, Backwards City Review, the University Libraries, Poetry GSO, the Greensboro Public Library, Spring Garden Press and the Writers’ Group of the Triad.

Source: University of North Carolina at Greenboro

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