The Newman University English Department will hold the 13th Annual Literary Festival March 29-31 in the De Mattias Fine Arts Center on the Newman campus. Scholars’ Day activities will be held from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Friday, March 30, in the Dugan Library foyer as part of the festivities.
Scott Cairns, Ph.D will be the keynote speaker for this year’s conference. He is the author of Short Trip to the Edge: Where Earth Meets Heaven, Compass of Affection, The Sacred Place, and many other books. Cairns is currently teaching modern and contemporary American literature and creative writing at the University of Missouri. His poetry has also appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, the Paris Review, the New Republic, Books & Culture, and Image. Cairns was also recently named a Guggenheim Fellow.
Other speakers scheduled to present are:
Clare Vanderpool, a Wichita native who was awarded the 2011 John Newbery Medal for Children’s Literature for her book Moon Over Manifest.
Micheal Austin, Ph.D., Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Newman, and author and editor of many books on a variety of literary and historical topics. His latest work to be published soon is a book on the Founding Fathers.
Bryan D. Dietrich, Ph.D., Professor of English at Newman, is a published author of six books of poetry centering on scientific fiction and fantasy. Dietrich is also a five-time finalist for the Yale Younger Poets Series, and has been nominated for both the Pushcart and the Pulitzer awards multiple times.
The Scholars’ Day event provides a forum for presenting student and faculty research or other scholarly projects in formats and on subjects that are not necessarily related to the Literary Festival. Presentations will run every hour, and poster presentations will be set up for participants to view.
Conference admission for non-presenters, Newman students, or alumni is free. The cost for presenters is $30.
The Student Literary Magazine, “Coelancanth,” will also make its debut at the conference.
Sponsors for the event are Eighth Day Books and Scooter’s Coffeehouse.
For more information about either event go to www.newmanu.edu/LiteratureFestival, or contact Dietrich at 316-942-4291, ext. 2341 or [email protected], or Susan Crane-Laracuente at 316-942-4291, ext. 2226 or [email protected].
