KR LAUNCHES FIRST ANNUAL LITERARY FESTIVAL

Please note: Tickets for The Denham Sutcliffe Memorial Lecture: An Evening with Margaret Atwood are no longer available. We anticipate that some seating will open up on the night of the event, which will be distributed on a first come-first served basis.

This fall, the first annual Kenyon Review Literary Festival will be held in Gambier, Ohio. Scheduled for November 9-10, the festival complements the sixth annual Kenyon Review Award for Literary Achievement, which will take place on November 8 in New York City. The award recipient this year is Margaret Atwood, whose poetry, fiction, criticism, and children's books have achieved critical and popular success, garnering dozens of awards from literary, cultural and social institutions throughout the world.

Highlighted by a keynote presentation by Atwood, who will travel to Gambier after the award dinner, the festival is designed to bring literature home with seminars, readings, and more, available to Ohio residents. The festival will also host the Midwest Literary Magazine & Small Press Fair in conjunction with the Council of Literary Magazines & Presses (CLMP), offering great discounts on literary magazines and attracting editors throughout the region to meet writers and readers. In the months leading up to the festival, a special community outreach program—Knox Reads— will be held.

You can start planning for the Festival now with this schedule:

• Saturday, September 15
  Kick-off of Knox Reads! Start reading Oryx and Crake and join us for the discussions in October and November.
  


• Tuesday, October 16
  7:00 PM Community Discussion of Oryx and Crake led by John Chidester, Director, Public Library of Mount Vernon and Knox County. Location: Public Library of Mount Vernon and Knox County.
  


• Wednesday, November 7
  Noon-1:00 PM “Putting Canada on the Map:  Atwood’s Sense of Place,” a Brown Bag Chat with Deborah Laycock, Associate Professor of English, Kenyon College. Location: Public Library of Mount Vernon and Knox County.
  


• Thursday, November 8
  6:00-10:00PM Gala Dinner and Auction / Kenyon Review Award for Literary Achievement presented to Margaret Atwood. Location: Four Seasons Restaurant, New York City.


• Friday, November 9 All events at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio.
  6:00-7:15PM Stone Soup Supper, Weaver Cottage
  A simple supper of soup, salad and bread made with local ingredients; donations will be accepted to defray the cost of the meal.
  7:30-9:30PM Writers Harvest, Gund Ballroom
  An annual public reading event organized and run by Kenyon Review Student Associates to raise awareness of hunger in our community. All proceeds raised are donated to local charities.
  10:00PM Canadian Film Festival - TBA, Olin Auditorium


• Saturday, November 10 All events at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio.
  10:00AM-5:00PM CLMP Midwest Lit Mag Fair / Used Book Sale, Gund Ballroom
  10:00-11:00 AM Cocoa & Poetry for Kids with Kenyon Review Associates, Kenyon College Bookstore
  11:00AM-12:00PM Panel Discussion–Publishing: Getting Past the Gate Moderator: David Lynn, Editor, The Kenyon Review; Panelists: Peter Campion, Editor, Literary Imagination; Jerry Kelly, Publisher, XOXOX Press; Patricia Kirkpatrick, Poetry Editor, Water-Stone Review; Jodee Stanley, Editor, Ninth Letter; Daniel Torday, former Editor at Esquire Magazine
  1:10-2:00PM Seminars The History of The Kenyon Review, Tom Stamp, Kenyon College Historian and Keeper of Kenyoniana; “My Mind is a Wide Pink Map”: Atwood’s Canadas, Deborah Laycock, Associate Professor of English, Kenyon College; The Real Science Behind Oryx and Crake, Siobhan Fennessy, Associate Professor of Biology, Kenyon College
  2:10-3:00PM Coffeehouse Readings by Ohio Authors David Baker, author of eleven books including Midwest Eclogue; Kathy Fagan, author of three books of poems including The Charm; Lee Martin, author of six novels including The Bright Forever, a finalist for the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction; Natalie Shapero, a poet published in Southwest Review, 32 Poems, The Kenyon Review, and other literary publications
  3:10-4:00PM Panel Discussion–MFA Programs: Weighing the Pros and Cons Moderator: Kathy Fagan, Professor of English, The Ohio State University; Panelists: Lawrence Coates, Associate Professor of Creative Writing, Bowling Green State University; Stephen Haven, Director, MFA in Creative Writing, Ashland University; Sonya Huber-Humes, Assistant Professor of Creative Writing, Georgia Southern University; Lee Martin, Director of Creative Writing, The Ohio State University
  4:10-5:00PM Editor Roundtables Don Bogen, Poetry Editor, The Cincinnati Review; Peter Campion, Editor, Literary Imagination; Robert Fogarty, Editor, Antioch Review; Jerry Kelly, Publisher, XOXOX Press; Geeta Kothari, Fiction Editor, The Kenyon Review; Jodee Stanley, Editor, Ninth Letter; David Young, Co-Editor, FIELD and Oberlin College Press
  8:00PM The Denham Sutcliffe Memorial Lecture: An Evening with Margaret Atwood, Rosse Hall Made possible by support from The Denham Sutcliffe Memorial Lecture Series, Kenyon College Faculty Lectureships and the Ohio Arts Council
  9:00PM Booksigning and Reception, Rosse Hall/Storer Hall
  10:00PM Canadian Film Festival - Away from Her, Olin Auditorium
  
  Please note: Tickets for The Denham Sutcliffe Memorial Lecture: An Evening with Margaret Atwood are no longer available. We anticipate that some seating will open up on the night of the event, which will be distributed on a first come-first served basis.

For more information, please email us. We'll get back to you promptly.

We are grateful to our funders and promotional partners: the Ohio Arts Council,The Denham Sutcliffe Memorial Lecture Series, Kenyon College Faculty Lectureships, the Community Foundation of Mount Vernon & Knox County, the Public Library of Mount Vernon and Knox County, WMVO 1300AM, The Mount Vernon News, Paragraphs Bookstore, Sips, the Knox County Art League, and the Knox County Convention & Visitors Bureau.