Bestselling Author Garth Stein of ‘The Art of Racing in the Rain’ to headline Lewisburg Literary Festival
The Lewisburg Literary Festival is pleased to invite you to join author Garth Stein, author of the New York Times best selling novel, The Art of Racing in the Rain (Harper, 2008), at Carnegie Hall in Lewisburg on Aug. 2 at 2 p.m for a free, but ticketed presentation.
A heart-wrenching but deeply funny and ultimately uplifting story of family, love, loyalty, and hope, The Art of Racing in the Rain is a beautifully crafted and captivating look at the wonders and absurdities of human life – as only a dog could tell it.
Stein’s previous novel, How Evan Broke His Head and Other Secrets (Soho Press, 2005) won a Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award, and was a BookSense Pick in both hardcover and paperback. Raven Stole the Moon (Harper, 2010) was Stein’s first novel. He has also written a full-length play, “BrotherJones,” and produced a number of award-winning documentaries.
Poet Laureate of WV Marc Harshman joins Lewisburg Literary Festival
The Lewisburg Literary Festival is a vibrant two-day event, featuring authors, workshops, outdoor art installations, musical entertainment and performance art, all inspired by literature. The festival takes place annually on the first Friday and Saturday in August. This year, the event will be held Aug. 1 and 2.
This year, Lewisburg Literary Festival welcomes WV Poet Laureate Marc Harshman to Carnegie Hall on Saturday, Aug. 2 at 11 a.m. in downtown Lewisburg. His talk, entitled The Story Table: A Life with Words is a free, but ticketed event. Tickets will be available starting Monday, July 7 at 10 a.m. through the Greenbrier Valley Convention & Visitors Bureau. To get your tickets, call 888-716-5082 or visit the CVB at 200 West Washington Street.
Harshman is the poet laureate of West Virginia appointed by Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin in 2012. His full-length collection, Green – Silver and Silent, was recently published and his fourth chapbook, All That Feeds Us: the West Virginia Poems came out from Quarrier Press just last year. Periodical publications include Shenandoah, The Georgia Review, The Progressive, Appalachian Heritage, and the Roanoke Review. Poems have been anthologized by Kent State University, the University of Iowa, University of Georgia, and the University of Arizona. His 11 children’s books include The Storm, a Smithsonian Notable Book. His children’s titles have also been published in Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Danish, and Swedish. Marc has three new children’s books forthcoming. A new edition of A Song For West Virginia, his poem celebrating West Virginia’s sesquicentennial, has just been published.
Literary Festival welcomes farmer and author Forrest Pritchard
Forrest Pritchard is a professional farmer and author, holding degrees in English and Geology from the College of William and Mary. His farm Smith Meadow was one of the first “grass finished” farms in the country, and has sold in leading farmers markets in Washington, DC, for more than 15 years. His book Gaining Ground, a story of Farmer’s Markets, Local Food and Saving the Family Farm was named a Top Read by Publishers Weekly, The Washington Post and NPR’s The Splendid Table. Forrest will speak at The Spring on Saturday, Aug. 2 at 3:30 p.m.
Preceding Forrest, at 3 p.m., Carter Taylor Seaton will appear at The Spring. She will be speaking about her latest book, Hippie Homesteaders, Arts, Crafts, Music, and Living on the Land in West Virginia. Carter Taylor Seaton is the author of two novels, Father’s Troubles and amo, amas, amat – an unconventional love story, numerous magazine articles and several essays and short stories. In her earlier life she directed a rural craft cooperative, was nominated for the Ladies Home Journal “Woman of the Year 1975” award and ran three marathons – Atlanta, New York City and Marine Corps – after she was 50.
Farmer, guitar player, silversmith, tutor, greenskeeper and journalist Max Watman joins Lewisburg Literary Festival
The Lewisburg Literary Festival welcomes Max Watman to The Lewis Theatre on Saturday, Aug. 2 at 5 p.m. Max has worked as a farmer, guitar player, silversmith, a tutor, a greenskeeper, a warehouseman and a journalist. He learned to cook in the kitchen of the French Ambassador’s residence in Washington, DC, and spent a decade cooking in kitchens of all sorts. He worked alone on the line at the Village Cafe in Richmond, VA, turning hundreds upon hundreds of meals a night while the jukebox blared.
Max’s most recent book is Harvest: Field Notes From a Far Flung Pursuit of Real Food (W.W. Norton & Co., 2014). He is the author of Chasing the White Dog: An Amateur Outlaw’s Adventures in Moonshine (Simon and Schuster, 2010) and of Race Day: A Spot on the Rail with Max Watman (Ivan R. Dee, 2005).
He was the horse-racing correspondent for the New York Sun for six years, and regularly wrote for that paper on food, drink, movies, and music. He has been a frequent contributor to the Huffington Post’s food and drink section, and liquor.com. He has written for the New York Times, the New York Times Book Review, Forbes FYI, The Wall Street Journal, Fortune Small Business, Gourmet, and Parnassus.
For updates on the festival, log onto the Festival website at www.lewisburgliteraryfestival.com. Information is also available at 888-716-5082 or follow us on Facebook as a friend of the Lewisburg Literary Festival.