Home : Events : Literary Festival

Jeff Hodges
Director of Public Relations
Hollins University
P.O. Box 9657
Roanoke, VA 24020-1657
(540) 362-6503
Fax: (540) 362-6500
jhodges@hollins.edu

Office location:
Cocke Memorial Building, Third Floor


Dotty Weaver
Campus Events Coordinator
(540) 362-6021
dweaver@hollins.edu

Office location:
Bradley Hall

Nothing Can Make Me Do This Our Lady of the Artichokes Beyond Katrina
David Huddle,
poet and writer
Katherine Vaz,
fiction writer
Natasha Trethewey,
poet/memoirist

 

Lex Allen Literary Festival

March 10, 2012

Hollins hosted its first Literary Festival when the creative writing program began in 1960. It's now an annual spring event known as the Lex Allen Literary Festival, named in honor of the former Hollins English professor. Writers-in-residence take part, along with other guests, who over the years have included Elizabeth Janeway, William Styron, John Barth, James Dickey, Richard Wilbur, Maxine Kumin, Lisel Mueller, Doris Betts, Diane Wakoski, Elizabeth Spencer, and many others.

The daylong festival begins at 9:30 a.m. with check-in and refreshments. Participants may purchase lunch in the Moody Center dining room. The Literary Festival is free and open to the public. All readings and the panel discussion will be held in the Richard Wetherill Visual Arts Center Auditorium (Room 200).

Support for the Literary Festival is provided by the John Alexander and Mary Josephine Haynes Allen Literary Endowment, the Dee Hull Everist Visiting Speaker Series, and the Louis D. Rubin, Jr. Writer-in-Residence Fund. The Lex Allen Literary Festival celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2010. Learn more...

Literary prizes

Undergraduate college students are invited to submit up to three poems and/or up to two short stories for:

  • Literary Festival Poetry Prize ($100)
  • Literary Festival Fiction Prize ($100)

All entries must include the author's name and contact information (e-mail or phone number) and the name, city, and state of the author's college or university. All fiction must be double-spaced.

Submission deadline: Monday, February 6, 2012

Mail entries to:
Literary Festival Contest
Hollins University
P.O. Box 9677
Roanoke, VA 24020-1677

E-mail entries (in MS Word format) to:
creative.writing@hollins.edu

For more information:

Call (540) 362-6317 or e-mail creative.writing@hollins.edu.

Schedule

 

9:30 a.m. Check-in and refreshments, second floor lobby, Wetherill Visual Arts Center
10:30 a.m. Reading by David Huddle
11:30 a.m. Poetry panel discussing student-submitted work
12:45 p.m. Luncheon, Moody Dining Hall (pay at the door)
2:00 p.m. Reading by Katherine Vaz
3:15 p.m. Reading by Natasha Trethewey, Hollins' 2012 Louis D. Rubin, Jr., Writer-in-Residence
4:15 p.m. Reception, second floor lobby, Wetherill Visual Arts Center