Short Story Fest (May 21-22, 2022) announced the festival schedule for its second year of programming. Short Story Fest is an annual literary festival celebrating all things short story, from children’s books to comic books, from zines to graphic novels and novellas to short books. Hosted by Short Story Book Club, the festival takes on a hybrid format this year, featuring multiple live, online sessions and one in-person event.
Short Story Fest 2022 has four programming tracks addressing attendee interests in the following areas: literary culture, writing, reading, and entertainment. The tracks can help attendees choose among concurrent sessions, helping them make the most of their time. Sessions include book talks, performances, presentations, panel discussions, author chats, and workshops.
“This year’s festival is our largest and most diverse yet,” said Donna Ledbetter, founder and CEO of Short Story Book Club. “Our authors represent multiple cultures, lived experiences, and geographies. Their greatest stories aren’t only the ones on the page, but the ones they live. I hope everyone can take advantage of meeting and learning from these dynamic artists at the festival.”
Zoom will be used to stream festival activities. In the event that a session is full, attendees will be able to view it by logging on to YouTube. Recordings will be available only for a limited time after the festival.
Short Story Fest 2022 Program
Short Story Fest Opening Session
Kick off the festival festivities with remarks from the festival keynote speaker. Then hear from the Short Story Book Club scholarship winner. Immediately after, Short Story Book Club will chat with Kate Folk, author of Out There. A panel will join us to close the session with a discussion about diversity in science fiction.
Saturday Children’s Book Talk
The Saturday Short Story Fest Children’s Book Talk features experts and authors with reading suggestions for children and teens. The session begins with Jessica Woods, librarian for the Baltimore County Public Library in Baltimore County, Maryland. Then continues with book talks from Suzanne Bowman Williams, author of It All Started in Africa, and Sabrina Henry, author of My Afro! My Hair!. The session concludes with a presentation from Dr. Rachel Slaughter on multicultural literature and a panel discussion about the reading needs of young children of color.
How to Make Your Family Proud (or Hate You)
We are all born into a Grand New World. It’s called our family. But then, over time, we must leave, and find our own new world. This presentation will investigate the journey from old world to new world, and how, and why, we as writers forge ahead. Q&A to follow.
Writing Old
With prompts and discussion, participants will write character sketches, brainstorm topics, and break stereotypes in writing speculative fiction about the elderly.
Mind, Body, Soul: The Answers to Questions that You Needed to Know – The Reading
Poet Precious Carson will recite poems from her latest collection.
Jesse Powers
Jesse Powers is a self-proclaimed “conscious indie-pop” musician based in Columbus, Ohio. Her debut full-length album “Begin.” was released in November 2017. Her second full-length album “To Remember” was released in summer 2021. Join her at Short Story Fest for music and a rare look into her songwriting process.
A Cathartic Journey Writing Fiction
In his collection of eight stories exploring identity, the loss of a father, finding one’s voice, and feeling and processing emotions, especially around grief, author Mark Craemer discusses his journey as a writer that materialized only after several other careers.
Chat with Morgan Talty, Author of Night of the Living Rez
Morgan Talty, author of Night of the Living Rez, will join author Joseph Holt for an engaging author chat.
THIS TIME – An Audience’s Historical, Poetic Short Story
Explore historical events, situated poetically with insightfulness and genuine honesty. Daily polemics in the Nation’s headlines can be exhausting. However, in this hour, audiences are invited to join the conversation. Explore past occurrences and the journey to this most hopeful realization: Life’s future pursuits are worth it, regardless!
How to Develop a Reading Habit
How to go from “I like to read but don’t seem to do it that often” to crushing your to-be-read pile.
Write THAT Book!
There are endless benefits to becoming a published author. Join international bestselling author Kimberly Lawson as she explains how publishing a book can transform your life.
Sunday Children’s Book Talk
The Sunday Short Story Fest Book Talk features R. L. Clark, author of Anthony: A Day of Toys, and writing duo Steve and Dawn Woodburn, co-authors of Marvelous Moosey Adventures. For the kids and the young at heart, look forward to a special appearance from Marvelous Moosey and a friend.
Influence and Evolution: Understanding Your Own First Collection
Writing can be an instinctual act. We don’t always understand the influences that create our own words. Often it’s not until after stories are published that the writers themselves understand them. Here, writers reflect on the revelations in their own stories after publication and what this means for their work.
Laughter Yoga
Following a chat with Short Story Book Club, author and certified laughter yoga instructor Gerri Bohanan will give the audience an invigorating session of guided, stress relieving laughter yoga.
Write Like the News
“Lead with the future — not background” is the most important of 8 journalism skills that will transform how you write and place your short stories. The others: write your readers’ language, be positive (clear and upbeat), lay out logically, be consistent, be precise, be concise and choose strong verbs.
Author Chat with Kerry Dolan
Join us for a reading from Safe Places: Stories, winner of the Juniper Prize for Fiction, with author Kerry Dolan.
Literary Game Room: Alice in Wonderland
Short Story Book Club founder Donna Ledbetter hosts a round of bookish games testing your knowledge of the popular children’s book Alice in Wonderland.
For more information, visit https://shortstoryfest.com/
About Short Story Fest
Now in its second year, Short Story Fest is the bookish event where people of all ages come together to get excited about all things related to literature and short stories, from reading and writing to everything in between. The festival hosts storytellers from all genres and media. Short Story Fest takes place this year online May 21-22, 2022 with an in-person event on May 22, 2022. For more information, please visit shortstoryfest.com. Register at shortstoryfest.com/schedule.
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Contact:
Donna Ledbetter
contact@shortstorybookclub.com
