Festival to Celebrate Literary Talents of Arkansas Writers, Poets and Playwrights

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Festival of Arkansas Writers

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The Creative Writing Program in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences will host the first annual Festival of Arkansas Writers on the University of Arkansas campus from April 3 to April 5, celebrating the literary talents of poets, fiction writers, memoirists and playwrights from across the state.

The event will include three readings from featured guests on April 3 and 4, as well as a reading from the winner of the James T. Whitehead Sonnet or Sestina Prize. Books from the University of Arkansas Press will also be available for purchase. All readings, which will feature one fiction writer and one poet, will be held in Giffels Auditorium, located in Old Main on the UA campus.

Monday, April 3, 8 p.m.: Jo McDougall and Alison Moore

Tuesday, April 4, 10 a.m.: Jessie Lendennie and Robert Ford

Tuesday, April 4, 8 p.m.: Andrea Hollander Budy and Pat Carr

All readings are free and open to the public. Each author will be available afterward to sign copies of his or her latest volume.

Professor Davis McCombs, director of the Creative Writing Program, said, “We are delighted to offer this one-of-a-kind event celebrating the rich literary heritage of our state. The festival will provide our students, as well as members of the local community, a unique opportunity to interact with six of Arkansas’ finest writers in both formal and informal settings. We feel honored to host such distinguished writers on our campus.”

These writers are a diverse group. They have been anthologized in various “best of” collections, been singled out for national and international acclaim and have collectively published almost 30 books.

An Arkansas native, Jo McDougall is the author of five books of poetry: “The Woman in the Next Booth,” “Towns Facing Railroads,” “From Darkening Porches,” “Dirt” and “Satisfied With Havoc.” Her work has appeared in such journals as the Georgia Review, Hudson Review, Kenyon Review, New Letters, and Salamander, and recently has been anthologized in Garrison Keillor’s “Good Poems for Hard Times.” Currently working on a memoir, “Daddy’s Money,” McDougall lives in Kansas City.

Allison Moore is the author of two books, a collection of short stories titled “Small Spaces between Emergencies,” one of the Notable Books of 1993 chosen by The American Library Association, and a novel, “Synonym for Love.” In 1994, she won the Catherine Ann Porter Prize for Fiction. She lives in Fayetteville and is completing a novel on the Orphan Trains with a grant from the Bridge Fund of Arkansas

Born in Blytheville, Arkansas, Jessie Lendennie left the U.S. in 1970 and attended King’s College, London, England. She moved to Galway, Ireland, in 1981, where she became a founding editor of The Salmon International Literary Journal and co-founder of Salmon Publishing in 1984. Since 1986 she has run the press as its editor and managing director, commissioning, editing and publishing more than 250 books. Her book-length prose poem “Daughter” was published in 1988. Her work has appeared in many anthologies and journals in Ireland and abroad.

Robert Ford is a novelist, playwright and screenwriter. His first novel, “The Student Conductor,” was a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection and was included among Booklist’s Ten Best First Novels of 2003 and Library Journal’s Best Fiction Debuts for 2003-04. Ford is married to actor/director Amy Herzberg, who heads the master of fine arts acting program at the University of Arkansas.

Andrea Hollander Budy’s third full-length poetry collection, “Woman in the Painting,” is forthcoming this fall from Autumn House Press. She is also the author of two previous books, “House Without a Dreamer,” which won the Nicholas Roerich Poetry Prize, and “The Other Life.” Recent awards include the Runes Poetry Award, the D.H. Lawrence Fellowship and a Pushcart Prize for her memoir. She is the writer-in-residence at Lyon College, where she was awarded the Lamar Williamson Prize for Excellence in Teaching.

Pat Carr has won numerous prizes for her more than 12 books of fiction, which include “The Women in the Mirror,” winner of the Iowa Short Fiction Award. She has published more than 100 short stories in such places as The Southern Review, Yale Review and Best American Short Stories. Her novel “If We Must Die” was a finalist in the PEN book awards. She just completed a novel, “The Dark Side of the Sun,” and another novel, “Border Ransom,” will be published in fall 2006.