How to get involved in the annual Lit Youngstown’s Fall Literary Fest at Youngstown State
This October, 145 presenters from across the U.S. are participating in the eighth annual Fall Literary Festival at Youngstown State University.
The festival is organized by Lit Youngstown, whose team brings authors, artists and poets from across the country to YSU for creative writing workshops, meet-and-greets and live readings.
Registration closes Sept. 15 for the festival happening Oct. 17 - 19 at YSU.
Registration is free for undergraduate and high school students, requesting a hardship sponsorship and members of this year’s planning committee.
Part-time faculty and graduate students can register for $20; general admission is $60.
In addition to presentations, participants can peruse book fair tables, learn about publishing companies and join group discussions about different topics such as coming to writing late in life.
Featured presenters at Fall Literary Fest
Author Rachel Swearingen received the New American Press Fiction Prize for her collection called How to Walk on Water and Other Stories.
The collection was also chosen as the 2021 Chicago Writers Association Book of the Year, as well as a New York Times Book Review “New & Noteworthy Selection.”
Swearingen is originally from rural Wisconsin, but now she lives in Chicago.
Ama Codjoe is the award-winning author of two books: Blood of the Air and Bluest Nude.
Codjoe won the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize for Bluest Nude, which was published in 2022, and was a finalist for the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Poetry, the Kate Tufts Discovery Award and the Paterson Poetry Prize.
Last year, Codjoe was appointed as the second poet-in-residence at the Guggenheim Museum and won the 2023 Whiting Award.
Hanif Abdurraqib was born in Columbus and writes poetry and essays about music. In 2019, he wrote Go Ahead In The Rain: Notes To A Tribe Called Quest, a New York Times Bestseller.
In 2017, his collection of essays was chosen as book of the year by several publications including Oprah Magazine, Esquire and NPR.
He’s been published in Muzzle, Vinyl, Pitchfork, The New Yorker and The New York Times.