The 12th Annual Scissortail Creative Writing Festival will draw many creative writers and fans alike to East Central University in Ada, April 6-8, 2017.
Authors Patricia Hampl and Leif Enger will be featured in addition to more than 60 author presentations from Oklahoma and beyond. All sessions are free and open to the public.
Hampl’s most recent books, The Florist’s Daughter and Blue Arabesque, were both among the New York Times “100 Notable Books of the Year.” She is the author of four other prose works and two collections of poetry. Her essays, poems, short fiction, travel pieces and reviews have appeared in The New Yorker, Paris Review, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Best American Short Stories, Best American Essays and others. Her new book, The Art of the Wasted Day, will be published by Viking Penguin in 2017.
Hampl is a recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts (in poetry and in prose). She is a MacArthur Fellow, and is Regents Professor at the University of Minnesota, and a member of the permanent faculty of the Prague Summer Writing Program. Hampl is also a visiting professor at Kingston University-London where she works on writing related to human rights.
Enger has written two prizewinning novels, Peace Like a River and So Brave, Young and Handsome. He graduated from Moorhead State University and spent 16 years reporting and producing for Minnesota Public Radio. In the 1990s, he co-authored a series of Pocket Books mysteries – the Gun Pedersen novels – with his brother Lin Enger. He reads widely, plays electric bass on Sunday mornings, flies kites and sails on Lake Superior. He and his wife Robin live on a small farm in northern Minnesota.
The Scissortail Creative Writing Festival runs from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Thursday and Friday, and from 8 a.m. to 2 pm. on Saturday. Each day is broken into several sessions. For a complete schedule of readers, visit www.ecuscissortail.blogspot.com
In addition to the program of authors, two creative writing contests are also recognized during the festival. Prize recipients for the 13th consecutive year of the Darryl Fisher High School Creative Writing Contest and the second annual contest for undergraduate creative writers will also be awarded during the festival. The Scissortail Creative Writing Festival is sponsored in part by the Oklahoma Arts Council. For more information, contact Dr. Ken Hada at 580-559-5557 or visit www.ecuscissortail.blogspot.com.
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