R131. Lit Your City: How To Build Strong Writing Communities & Run Reading Series

D137-138, Oregon Convention Center, Level 1
Thursday, March 28, 2019
9:00 am to 10:15 am

 

Reading series exist to share ideas, build community, and bridge the gap between the writer and non-writer. They enrich the experience of writers in the community, but also expose the larger population to the importance of writing and hearing diverse voices. Panelists are writers who have worked on series or have in some other way ingeniously brought the word to their city. Each participant will discuss the mission and development of their series or project, as well as the pitfalls and successes.


Participants

Moderator:

Tracey Levine

Annie Liontas's novel Let Me Explain You was featured in The New York Times Book Review as Editor's Choice. She is the co-editor of the anthology A Manner of Being: Writers on their Mentors. She co-hosted Philadelphia's TireFire, which featured writers Kelly Link, Colin Barrett, and Roxane Gay.

Penina Roth is the founder of two popular literary events in Brooklyn, New York: the Franklin Park Reading Series and the Manhattanville Reading Series for emerging writers. She is also the editor of the Literary Hub column on the reading series Reading Across America.

Rafael Alvarez began publishing newspaper stories at age nineteen and the following year was hired by The Baltimore Sun. After twenty years on the City Desk, he wrote for the HBO drama "The Wire." Alvarez is the author of eleven books of fiction and nonfiction. All of his work is set in Baltimore, his hometown.

Quincy Scott Jones is a poet with an MA from Temple University and an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College. His work has been published in the Feminist Wire and the African American Review. He is the author of The T-Bone Series.

#AWP24

February 7–10, 2024
Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City Convention Center