2024 festival

At the University of Mississippi, April 4-6, 2024

Contest Results

See the winners of our 2023 Undergraduate Writing Contest

VIDEO

Recording of 2023 Keynote Speaker Margaret Renkl

FEstival Schedule

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Festival Schedule

April 20 – 23, 2023

Our Thursday open mic event will be held at MTSU's Phillips Bookstore just east of the center of campus: 1768 MTSU Blvd, Murfreesboro, TN 37130.

Friday and Saturday’s events will all be held in the Keathley University Center near the center of campus: 1524 Military Memorial, Murfreesboro, TN 37130.

Interactive MTSU Campus Map

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Thursday, April 20

Open Mic Night Social Conference welcome and kick off featuring open mic readers

Phillips Bookstore

Friday, April 21

Registration and Check-in with All-Day Festival Bookfair

Keathley University Center

Session A
Jennifer Chesek
A Creative Nonfiction Writer’s Must-Have Tech Tools

Keathley University Center 322

Session B
Karen B. Golightly 
Who Can You Rely On? Using an Unreliable Narrator in Your Fiction

Keathley University Center 324

Third Place Winners Reading

Theatre, Keathley University Center

Session A
Jane Marcellus
Metaphor in Memoir

Keathley University Center 322

on your own

Second Place Winners Reading

Theatre, Keathley University Center

Session B
Amie Whittemore
From Selfie to Poetry: Writing the Self-Portrait Poem

Keathley University Center 324

Session A
Julian R. Vaca
Write, Don’t Wait!

Keathley University Center 322

on your own

Destiny Birdsong
Plenary Address

(Book Signing to follow)

Theatre, Keathley University Center

Saturday, April 22

All-Day Festival Bookfair

Keathley University Center

SLFA Executive Board Breakfast Meeting

McCallie

Session A
Cameron L. Mitchell
Making the Impossible

Keathley University Center 322

Session B
C. Kay “Andy” Landis
You’ve Got the Music in You

Keathley University Center 324

Session A
Mike James
The Adaptive Voice

Keathley University Center 322

on your own

First Place Winners Reading

Theatre, Keathley University Center

Session B
Ezekiel Black
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Prosody

Keathley University Center 324

Session A
Claudia Barnett
What if He Sold Her Arm? An Exercise in Five Parts

Keathley University Center 322

on your own

Margaret Renkl
Keynote Address

(Book Signing to follow)

Theatre, Keathley University Center