Longest-running literary tradition returns to Decatur

What has been called “one of Georgia’s longest-running literary traditions” returns April 9 and 10 as Agnes Scott College in Decatur presents its 55th Writers’ Festival.  

“We call it a ‘festival’ because we have designed it to be festive. This is not a dry academic conference,” said Alan Grostephan, Agnes Scott College faculty member and organizer of this year’s event. “We want the readers in the community to come and have fun meeting authors and perhaps learning about books they weren’t previously familiar with.” 

He noted that all festival events are free and open to the public. 

Grostephan, who also is a distinguished author and a festival participant, is the current Georgia Author of the Year in Fiction, winning for The Banana Wars, in which he draws on his years living in Colombia. His novel Bogotá was chosen by the Wall Street Journal as one of the best 10 books of fiction in 2013 and longlisted for the Pen/Robert W. Bingham Prize.  

“I believe Atlanta is hungry for this sort of festival,” Grostephan said. “Most large metropolitan areas have many of them.” 

Founded in 1972, the festival brings together writers, students, and readers to explore storytelling and the craft of writing, according to an announcement from Agnes Scott College. 

It includes a statewide student writing contest in which college and university students from across Georgia are invited to submit poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and playwriting. Finalists are published in the festival magazine, and winners are selected by the visiting authors. 

While an effort is made each year to include prominent writers, Grostephan said, featured authors are not invited just because they are famous. “We want writers whose work is provocative. We try especially to include representatives of communities that don’t always have a large platform. Of course, Agnes Scott is traditionally a women’s college, and we want to be sure that women’s voices are heard as well as voices of people of color.”  

A pre-festival event on April 7 at 5 p.m. in the Alston Campus Center will include student finalists reading from their work, and the launch of this year’s magazine.  

The festival will be capped by a reading and discussion by keynote speaker John Keene, the author, co-author, and translator of numerous books, including Punks: New & Selected Poems, which received the 2022 National Book Award for Poetry, a 2022 Thom Gunn Award, and a 2022 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry. His other works include Counternarratives, which received a Lannan Literary Award for Fiction, the inaugural Republic of Consciousness Prize in the United Kingdom, and a Windam-Campbell Prize for Fiction. 

According to an online biography, Keene “is recognized for his experimental and intricate writing, blending fiction, poetry, and visual art. His work often explores themes of identity, history, and the African diaspora, and he is noted for defying conventional literary forms while engaging deeply with cultural and historical narratives.” 

Visiting writers also include Aisha Sabatini Sloan, whose “writing about race and current events is often coupled with analysis of art, film, and pop culture,” according to an online biography.  

Sloan’s essay collections include The Fluency of Light: Coming of Age in a Theater of Black and White and Dreaming of Ramadi in Detroit. Her 2021 essay, Borealis, received the 2022 Lambda Literary Award for Bisexual Nonfiction. She won the 1913 Open Prose Contest in 2016 for her most recent book, Dreaming of Ramadi in Detroit (2017).  

Also featured at the festival will be Agnes Scott alumna Charleen McClure, a poet, writer, and actor. A Fullbright scholar and Rona Jafee award recipient, her work appeared in Poem–a–Day, Prairie Schooner, The Offing, and other publications. “Her debut poetry collection, ‘d-sorientation,’ was praised as a ‘work of staggering beauty, intellect, and grace…’ by Aracelis Girmay,” according to an announcement from Agnes Scott College. 

For a complete schedule of festival events and other information, visit www.agnesscott.edu/writersfestival.