Ithaca College

Among those featured at the Seventh Annual Spring Writes Literary Festival this
Thursday, April 28 through Sunday, May 1 at downtown venues are many Ithaca College community members.

There are 30 events - workshops, panels, multiple readings, play readings, entertainment, and fun stuff, all held in 10 different locations over the 4 days. All are free except for one event.

Below are some of the highlights that feature Ithaca College contributors.

The weekend begins with a "pre-event" on Thursday, April 28 when Lot 10 Lounge hosts "Trampoline: A Night of Competitive Storytelling" with the theme "Pride" ($5 cover; all are welcome to participate).

On Friday, IC writing professor (and Tompkins County's first poet laureate) Katharyn Howd Machan will offer a reading and workshop from 4:00 to 5:30 p.m. at CAP Artspace in Center Ithaca. The workshop will focus on writing science fiction and fantasy inspired by prompts, and in the spirit of Rod Serling's legacy.

At the same time, at the CAP office in Center Ithaca, a panel of students and alumni will discuss the MFA writing programs they attend(ed). Prospective MFA students will find this valuable.

Also from 4:00 to 5:30 p.m. there will be a Poetry Open Mic at the Tompkins County Public Library Ezra Cornell Reading Room. Registration is required (starts at 3:30 just outside the room).

Friday's evening event (6:00-8:00 p.m.) is "Literary Jeopardy," at Lot 10. Host Bob Proehl will welcome four teams of contestants that include Buffalo Street Books staff, IC creative writing professors, and two teams of authors about town.

On Saturday, IC associate professor of writing Anthony Di Renzo, an Italian American essayist, will engage in a dialogue with NYU writing professor Andrei Guruianu, using poetry and lyrical essays, about the past, present, and future of Western culture. 11:00 a.m.-noon, Buffalo Street Books.

From 1:30 to 3:00 p.m. at Community School of Music and Arts Studio 10, five Wolf's Mouth Theatre Company playwrights' short works will be read by area actors including several Ithaca College staff and students.

On Sunday, 1:00-2:00 p.m., Tompkins County Poet Laureate John Hopper and retired IC writing professor Fred Wilcox, who have been friends for half a century, will read from their new poetry and fiction, respectively. At the History Center.

IC assistant professor of writing and short story writer Jacob White joins other fiction writers (Jen Bokai, Brian Hall, Ellen Hartman, and Sarah Jefferis) on a panel discussing character development in fiction, 1:00-2:30 at CSMA.

IC assistant professor of writing and novelist Christine Kitano is among the writers reading from their works in progress, 1:30-3:30 at CSMA.

From 3:00 to 4:00 at Buffalo Street Books, IC Honors Program scholar in residence and Ithaca City of Asylum's featured writer Raza Ahmad Rumi will read from his memoir in progress and from some of his other writings on Pakistan and South Asia, followed by a Q&A.

"Play" is the theme for readings of prose and poetry by several writers including IC assistant professor of writing and short story writer Jacob White, 3:30-5:00 p.m. at the History Center.

Among the readers of works featured in the most recent editions of StoneCanoe and IthacaLit are IC assistant professor of theatre arts Saviana Stanescu and professor of writing Katharyn Howd Machan. 3:30-5:15 p.m., CSMA.

Wrapping things up at the Story Hour for Grown-ups with selections from various Ithaca writers works are IC associate professor of writing Jack Wang with Leslie Daniels, 5:30-6:30 p.m. at Bar Argus.

There will be other workshops and panels on great subjects like Writing Stand-Up Comedy, Exploring Graphic Novels, Intro to Bookbinding, Writing Speculative Fiction, The Many Paths to Publishing, Developing Characters in Fiction, and Publishing Genre Fiction.

Sixteen readings will feature over 60 local writers and includes a Latin@ Poetry Event, and subjects like gender, sexuality, and race.

Other events include a film screening, a discussion of women in film, and the Senior Theatre Troupe of Lifelong.

Learn more and see the whole schedule here.