Literary festival to be held in Fayette County
Organizers of a new Fayette County festival want participants to have “the write stuff.”
The first ever Pennsylvania Literary Festival will be held May 30 through June 1 at Uniontown Mall.
David Slusarick, director of development of the Pennsylvania Literary Festival, said the idea for the event came from the fact that Fayette County Television (FCTV) wanted to do a book television show similar to the types of programs that run on C-SPAN. After discussing the idea with some friends, the festival was born.
The event has also received backing from the Deputy Secretary for Education or State Librarian, Stacey Alrich, who will serve as the festival’s Honorary Event Chairman.
“We had two of our author friends approach us about the idea of doing an author convention where writers could come together. The two ideas kind of blended,” said Slusarick. “We are going to be doing a full scale literary festival with writers coming across the state.”
The festival promises to have something for readers and writers of all ages.
“We are going to be broadcasting some of the events. There will be a lot of authors doing readings. There will be a lot of interesting classes and workshops,” said Slusarick.
Some of the workshop topics include “The First Page is the Worst Page,” “Library Resources,” “The Shortest Stories Ever,” “Writing Deep POV,” “Public Speaking” and “Digging Up Your Roots: Genealogy.”
In addition to the workshop, various authors will have readings, including Carla Anderton, Marian Szczepanski, Lawrence C. Connolly, Margo Wilson and many more.
The keynote speaker of the event is author John Dixon.
“He is the writer of the novel ‘Phoenix Island’ that inspired the CBS Show ‘Intelligence’ and it is pretty popular,” said Slusarick. “He will be spending most of the weekend with us.”
According to Dixon’s website, jondixonbooks.com, “Phoenix Island” tells the story of a 16-year-old champion boxer, Carl, who is sent to Phoenix Island, a place for delinquents with “no home, no family and no future.” As Carl learns, the facility is more than what meets the eye.
The television show stars Josh Holloway and Marg Helgenberger.
Children will also have many opportunities to participate in the festival.
The Fayette Chamber of Commerce will sponsor a writing contest for students in kindergarten through 12th grade.
Students are asked to select a photograph and write either a fictional or non-fictional essay based on the photo. Three students in each grade division will receive a prize, and one grand prize winner will be awarded. All entries must be postmarked before May 16.
In addition to the essay contest, there will also be a children’s costume contest, cake bake, children’s story time, “Once Upon a Toon” and “Dino Detectives.”
“My personal hope is that if we can showcase reading and writing as activities that are fun for people of all ages that test scores will improve as the Department of Education suggests and in that case everyone wins,” said Matthew Dowling, director of operations for the Pennsylvania Literary Festival. “Reading is the foundation of learning.”
For a full schedule of events and more information, go online to www.palitfest.com.