Writers & Readers Days
July 26 & 27, 2024
The Virginia Highlands Festival’s tradition of celebrating Appalachian literature focuses on established and emerging writers, poets, and authors who share our diverse culture with the world. Literature is a circle of communication, and readers are the integral completion of that circle. To honor the full embrace of Appalachian Literature from inspiration to page to insight, we celebrate writers and readers with this event.
“Writers & Readers Days calls to a community of people who crave to hear accomplished and aspiring writers discuss their research, methods, and motives in telling their stories. We leave the day inspired and enthusiastic with new friends and mentors.” – Greg Lilly
2024 Schedule
2024 brings you two days of immersion into the art of communicating your stories
Friday, July 26, 2024
8:00- 8:30
Registration
8:30- 9:15
Welcome and Presenter Introductions
9:15-10:00
Featured Speaker: Steven James
“The Untouched Moment”
10:00 - 10:15
Break
10:15-11:45
Fiction - Characters
John Copenhaver
“Writing Across Difference: Responsibly Writing Characters Different from You”
10:15-11:45
Craft of Writing
Steven James
“Pivots and Payoff: How to Write an Unforgettable Ending Every Time”
10:15-11:45
Poetry
Darnell Arnoult
“Memory and the Tiny Narrative”
11:45 -1:00
Lunch and Book signings
1:00-2:30
Nonfiction
Jo Allison
“The Necessities and the Niceties of Nonfiction”
1:00-2:30
Storytelling
Steven Jame
“Dusting off your Memories: Four Steps to Crafting Personal Experience Stories”
1:00-2:30
Short Stories
Darnell Arnoult
“Short Assignments: The Path to Fiction”
2:30-2:45 Break
2:45-4:15
Fiction - Mystery
John Copenhaver
“How to Write An Award-winning Mystery”
2:45-4:15
Storytelling (continued)
Steven James
“Dusting off your Memories: Four Steps to Crafting Personal Experience Stories”
2:45-4:15
Children’s Literature
Victoria Fletcher
“Got a Children’s Book?”
Saturday, July 27, 2024
Coming Soon, Along with Full Descriptions and Presenter Bios
2023 Events
Onsite registration will be offered from 8 – 9 a.m. at the Executive Auditorium of the SW VA Higher Ed Center on the days of the event.
Two-day tickets: $70 Workshops on Friday, July 28, & Sessions on Saturday, July 29
Single-day tickets: $40 Workshops on Friday, July 28, or Sessions on Saturday, July 29
2023 Writers & Readers Days
Presenters
George Ella Lyon
Former Kentucky Poet Laureate George Ella Lyon writes in multiple genres for readers of all ages. Her most recent titles are Back to Light (poems) and Time to Fly (picture book). Lyon’s poem “Where I’m From” has gone around the world as a writing prompt.
A native of Harlan County, George Ella writes in many genres for readers of all ages. Among her books are With a Hammer for My Heart, a novel; Don’t You Remember? a memoir; Many-Storied House: Poems, and Voices of Justice: Poems About People Working for a Better World. Recent picture books include Trains Run! written with her son Benn Lyon, and Time to Fly. Her eighth poetry collection, Back to the Light, came out in 2021 from the University Press of Kentucky and was a runner-up for the Weatherford Award.
Her books have been chosen for the Appalachian Book of the Year award, the Aesop Prize, American Library Association’s Schneider Family Book Award, the Jane Addams Honor Book, the Golden Kite Award, the New York Public Library’s Best Book for Teens list and the Parents’ Choice Silver Medal. She is an Al Smith Fellowship recipient and a recent inductee into the Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame.
(photo credit: Kevin Nance)
Hannah Harvey
Dr. Hannah Harvey is a nationally-known Appalachian storyteller whose energy is contagious.
Her work has been featured on a variety of platforms, from The National Storytelling Festival to Yale University’s Psychiatric Grand Rounds, and in three courses on storytelling and folklore with The Great Courses and Audible.
Hannah uses her Ph.D. in Performance Studies to craft stories from contemporary oral history and ancient folklore, and she loves finding those nuggets of deep truth and cultural identity welling up from folk traditions and everyday tales. Hannah has led workshops internationally and won teaching awards, but her greatest teaching moments happen with her family. Her stories about strong folk heroines and contemporary coal miners come from the rich cultural heritage of her native home in the mountains of northeast Tennessee.
Critics have called her work “very funny” (Theatre Guide London) and “deeply moving” (Classical Voice of North Carolina).
Richard Rose
Rick Rose served as Producing Artistic Director of the Barter Theatre from 1992-2019. He recently directed the world premiere of the musical We’ll Meet Again, which he helped develop over seven years through Barter’s Appalachian Festival of Plays and Playwrights, a program he founded to help Appalachian playwrights. He has assisted playwrights around the nation through his 45 year career. Rick is also known for his stage adaptations of classic books.
Mary Munsey
Mary Munsey taught elementary, middle, and high school choral for 18 years and currently directs the music department at Virginia Highlands Community College.
She has had a varied career in music performance, playing several instruments and singing. Her songwriting has been featured for many years nationally and locally, including performances at Nashville’s Bluebird Café, the Grand Ole Opry, Ralph Stanley’s Festival, and many more. Her awards include winner of the Woody Guthrie International Folk Songwriting Contest, the Neuse River Songwriting Contest, and the Smokey Mountain Songwriting Competition.
Rick Van Noy
Rick Van Noy is the author of Sudden Spring: Stories of Adaptation in a Climate-Changed South and A Natural Sense of Wonder: Connecting Kids with Nature Through the Seasons, winner of the Reed environmental writing award. His river memoir will be published in 2024. He is a professor of English at Radford University.
Jo Allison
Jo Allison is the author of a mystery series set in the 1910s, one accurate enough in its depiction of place that editors of a major publishing house sought her out to write Storied and Scandalous St. Louis: A History of Breweries, Baseball, Prejudice, and Protest (2021). She is currently writing a series set in World War One. Once a reporter in the Midwest and then an economics professor at Emory & Henry College, she retired to work at bringing together her love of fiction and her passion for history.
Felicia Mitchell
Poet and writer Felicia Mitchell, who recently retired as Professor of English at Emory & Henry College, is the author of A Mother Speaks, A Daughter Listens: Journeying Together Through Dementia and Waltzing with Horses. Her poems have been published widely in journals and are included in anthologies such as Mountains Piled Upon Mountains: Appalachian Nature Writing in the Anthropocene and Storms of the Inland Sea: Poems of Dementia and Dementia Caregiving.
Felicia Mitchell
Video
Karen Spears Zacharias
Karen Spears Zacharias is the author of numerous books, both fiction and non-fiction. She was named West Virginia's Appalachian Heritage Writer in 2018 by Shepherd University and West Virginia's Center for the Book. Karen was awarded the Weatherford Award for Best in Appalachian Fiction by Kentucky's Berea College for her novel Mother of Rain. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, NPR, Huffington Post and Newsweek.
She holds a MA in Appalachian Studies from Shepherd University and a MA in Creative Media Studies from the University of West Scotland. While she hails from Hawkins County, Tennessee, she and her husband Tim live in Deschutes County, Oregon, where she volunteers with programs designed to help veterans and Gold Star families.
Karen Spears Zacharias
Video
Bekah Harris
Bekah Harris is the International Bestselling author of the Iron Crown Faerie Tales and the Lost Cove Darklings. A native of Tennessee, the haunting beauty of Appalachia inspires her young adult fiction. In addition to her love of writing, Bekah is also a high school English teacher and freelance editor.
Janie Hull
Dr. Janie Hull has over 30 years of experience promoting research-based literacy skills in classrooms and is Visiting Assistant Professor in Emory & Henry College’s Department of Education Teacher Education Program. She has conducted training, workshops, and presentations for educators, locally and nationally, to advocate best practices in promoting literacy.
Sally Jones
Sally Jones is a Public Services Librarian at Washington County Public Library in Abingdon. She worked in academia before transitioning to public libraries. She manages most public services for adults at the library, as well as programming.
Sally started the library’s book discussion group in 2019 and has seen it grow exponentially since then. She is in charge of curating book discussion kits for local book groups, and currently the library has over 60 kits available for check out
Onsite registration will be offered from 8 – 9 a.m. at the Executive Auditorium of the SW VA Higher Ed Center on the days of the event.
Two-day tickets: $70 Workshops on Friday, July 28, & Sessions on Saturday, July 29
Single-day tickets: $40 Workshops on Friday, July 28, or Sessions on Saturday, July 29
Read Local
Spotlighting regional authors discussing, selling, and signing their books throughout the festival (July 21-30, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. each day) at the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center.
Discover the stories of the Appalachian Highlands and meet the authors.