FLINT, Mich. – It has a new name, a new date, a new location, new talent and a fresh line-up of programs.
The Flint Festival of Writers – formerly the Flint Literary Festival – will be held Sept. 13-14 in the Ferris Wheel, 615 Saginaw St. in downtown Flint.
As a part of the festival’s ongoing mission to create accessible, engaging opportunities for writers of all ages, abilities and levels of experience, this year’s event will feature many of the same events attendees have come to love as well as a few new surprises.
Co-sponsored by the University of Michigan-Flint English Department, Gothic Funk Press and East Village Magazine, the free event will be headlined by LaTashia M. Perry, the Flint-born author of successful children’s books including Hair Like Mine, Skin Like Mine and, most recently, Dreams Like Mine. Perry will read from her work at 5 p.m. Sept. 14. A time to meet the author and purchase books will follow.
The event will begin on Friday, Sept. 13, with a kick-off party during the Flint Art Walk at the Ferris Wheel.
On Saturday, the festival will continue with a full slate of workshops and panels, including opportunities to learn from notable Flint authors Kelsey Ronan, whose essay on the Flint Water Crisis, “Blood and Water,” was honored as a notable essay in Best American Essays 2017, and Jonah Mixon-Webster, author of the poetry collection Stereo(TYPE), which won Ahsahta Press’s Sawtooth Prize. Mixon-Webster was also recently awarded the 2019 PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award for Poetry.
A book fair on the first floor of the Ferris Wheel will also take place from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday, and a write-in space will provide a place for visitors to get their creative juices flowing in the company of other creatives. A plan for an after-party following the festivities on Saturday is also in the works.
The festival’s mission, according to Flint writer and festival co-founder Connor Coyne, is to “support the literary tradition and writing done in and about Flint and cultivate dynamic resources and experiences for Flint writers and readers.”
Others on the organizing committee are local writers Bob Campbell and Katie Curnow; UM-Flint English Department Chair James Schirmer; Buick City poet Sarah Carson; and East Village Magazine editor Jan Worth-Nelson.
To learn more about this year’s event, visit www.flintwriters.org.
