Lit Youngstown Fall Literary Festival

Lit Youngstown’s 7^th annual Fall Literary Festival will take place October 19-21, with offerings of 50 sessions by nearly 150 presenters from throughout the U.S. Evening events are free and open to the public, and access to the daytime programming requires registering before September 1.

This year’s featured presenters are poet and essayist Ross Gay, novelist and journalist Alison Stine, and memoirist and essayist Jill Christman. Gay, a Youngstown native, will read from his newest essay collection Inciting Joy, an Ohioana Library Award winner, Friday, October 20 at 7:00pm at St. John’s Episcopal Church on Wick Ave. Stine and Christman will read from their books, followed by a Q&A by Ohio novelist Jen Knox, Saturday, October 21 at 7:00pm at Culturati Studios, 350 E. Federal St.

The in-person conference will open Thursday, October 19 at the McDonough Museum of Art, 525 Wick Ave., with a performance by the #notwhite collective of Pittsburgh, a group of traveling visual artists and spoken word performers. The three evening programs are free and open to the public, as is an interview with Gay by Michigan poet Jennifer Sperry Steinorth, Friday, October 20 at 1:00pm at the Public Library of Youngstown & Mahoning County main library on Wick Ave.

Friday and Saturday concurrent daytime sessions in Bliss Hall theaters and classrooms will cover a wide range of topics in the literary arts, such as reading, writing, teaching, translating, understanding, and publishing literary works. The bookfair in the McDonough will feature two dozen small presses, journals, programs and booksellers.

This year, a special Saturday track for K-12 language arts educators will give educators an opportunity to share their strategies for developing engaged readers and writers in the classroom, for understanding science-based reading guidelines, and other topics such as AI and author visits.

Attending daytime sessions requires registering before September 1. General registration costs $60, with discounts for students and part-time faculty, and sponsorships for those in economic hardship. More information is available at www.LitYoungstown.org.