Perkins-Valdez is a Harvard graduate and author of the New York Times best-selling
novel,
Wench.
Franklin is also a New York Times best-selling author for his most recent
work,
Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter.
Joseph serves as poetry editor of the Crab Orchard
Review, and has several award winning publications. Shockley’s latest publication,
The
New Black
won the 2012 Hurston/Wright Legacy award in poetry. Jane Yolen has over
300 published works, many of which are award winning young adult novels.
The list of accolades for each author is lengthy, which speaks volumes about the
effort behind securing them as speakers for the event.
Flannagan said the festival was originally formed by FMU president Dr. Fred Carter
to be a celebration of creativity, intellect and creative writing, where students can connect
with accomplished authors, as well as the their professors
“The festival is for students and we try, every year, to ensure that the students are
engaged and enjoying their time,” Flannagan said. “From what I could gather this year,
the students were invested in it and some even asked if we could do something like this
every week!”
Flannagan explained the English department begins the process of choosing authors
almost a year in advance and strives to ensure the selections are beneficial to everyone
involved. They choose various “common texts” that can be taught throughout the
department, as well as other pieces of literature that are applicable to certain courses, and
then reach out to the authors.
The authors view these events as opportunities to not only promote their personal
works but to raise interest in the field of creative writing.