Kestrel Celebration of Issue 36 to Feature Visiting Writers

Kestrel: A Journal of Literature and Art and the Fairmont State University Department of Language and Literature will host a two-day Celebration of Issue 36 featuring nine Kestrel writers on March 31 and April 1.

Events will be located in Jaynes Hall and the Frank and Jane Gabor West Virginia Folklife Center on the FSU campus and at the community coffeehouse, Joe ‘n Throw, 323 ½ Adams St., Fairmont.

On Friday, March 31, three day-time events are free and open to the public:

• From 11 a.m. to 11:50 p.m. in Jaynes Hall Room 303, visiting poet Randi Ward will discuss her new collection, “Whipstitch,” with Dr. Elizabeth Savage’s Contemporary Poetry class;
• From 11 a.m. to 11:50 p.m. in Jaynes Hall Room 304, “Compelling Structure: How to Organize the Essay” will feature visiting writers Audra Coleman and Rick Campbell in Dr. Donna J. Long’s Written English I class; and
• From noon to 12:50 p.m. in Jaynes Hall Room 304, Dr. Suzanne Heagy will moderate a panel discussion on the topic, “The Poetic Path,” featuring Ace Boggess, Mark DeFoe, Ellen McGrath Smith, Jeff Tigchelaar, Sarah Ann Winn and Alicia Wright.

On Friday evening, March 31, Kestrel will host a reception and readings at the Frank and Jane Gabor West Virginia Folklife Center from 5:30 to 8 p.m. Featured writers include Audra Coleman, Mark DeFoe, Jeff Tigchelaar, Randi Ward and Sarah Ann Winn. Admission to this event is free and open to the public.

On Saturday, April 1, from 2 to 4 p.m., readings and book signings will take place at the Joe n Throw, 323 ½ Adams St., downtown Fairmont. Featured writers will be Ace Boggess, Rick Campbell, Ellen McGrath Smith and Alicia Wright. Light fare will be served; beverages will be available for sale. Admission to this event is free and open to the public.

For more information about events, contact Dr. Donna Long at donna.long@fairmontstate.edu.

Visiting writers for the Kestrel 36 Celebration include the following:

Ace Boggess is a freelance writer and editor living in Charleston, W.Va. His new novel is “A Song Without a Melody” (Hyperborea Publishing 2017), and he has published the poetry collections, “The Prisoners” (Brick Road Poetry Press, 2014) and “The Beautiful Girl Whose Wish Was Not Fulfilled” (Highwire Press, 2003). His writing has appeared in Harvard Review, Notre Dame Review, Lumina, Mid-American Review, River Styx, Rattle, North Dakota Quarterly and hundreds of other journals.

Rick Campbell’s most recent book is “The History of Steel: A Selected Works” (All Nations Press 2014). His other books include “Dixmont” (Autumn House 2008); “The Traveler’s Companion” (Black Bay Books 2004); “Setting the World in Order” (Texas Tech 2001); and “A Day’s Work” (State Street Press 2000). His poems and essays have appeared in The Georgia Review, The Florida Review, Prairie Schooner, Fourth River, Puerto Del Sol, New Madrid and other journals. Campbell is Director of the Florida Literary Arts Coalition and its Other Words Conference. He teaches in the Sierra Nevada College Low Residency MFA Program and also teaches English at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, Fla. 

Audra Coleman currently lives in the mountains of Asheville, N.C., and is working toward her MLAS at UNCA.

Mark DeFoe teaches in West Virginia Wesleyan’s MFA in Writing program. He has recent work in Santa Fe Review, Atlanta Review, Front Range, Steam Ticket, College English and Anthology of Appalachian Writers—Vol. 8.

Ellen McGrath Smith teaches at the University of Pittsburgh and in the Carlow University Madwomen in the Attic program. Her writing has appeared in The American Poetry Review, Los Angeles Review, Quiddity, Cimarron and other journals, and in several anthologies, including “Beauty Is a Verb: The New Poetry of Disability.” Smith has been the recipient of an Orlando Prize, an Academy of American Poets award, a Rainmaker Award from Zone 3 magazine and a 2007 Individual Artist grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. Her second chapbook, “Scatter, Feed,” was published by Seven Kitchens Press in the fall of 2014, and her book, “Nobody's Jackknife,” was published in 2015 by the West End Press.

Jeff Tigchelaar’s poems have appeared in Court Green, Pleiades, Phoebe, Fugue, LIT, CutBank, The Laurel Review and The Wallace Stevens Journal, as well as in anthologies including Verse Daily and Best New Poets. His first book, “Certain Streets at an Uncertain Hour,” was published in 2015 by Woodley Press. For more information, visit www.jefftigchelaar.weebly.com. 

Randi Ward is a writer, translator, lyricist and photographer from West Virginia. She earned her MA in Cultural Studies from the University of the Faroe Islands and is a recipient of the American-Scandinavian Foundation's Nadia Christensen Prize. Ward is a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee whose work has appeared in the Anthology of Appalachian Writers, Asymptote, Beloit Poetry Journal, Thrush Poetry Journal, Vencil: Anthology of Contemporary Faroese Literature, World Literature Today and other publications. For more information, visit www.randiward.com/about. 

Sarah Ann Winn’s poems, flash fiction and hybrid works have appeared or will appear soon in Calyx, Five Points, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Massachusetts Review and Passages North among others. Her chapbooks include “Field Guide to Alma Avenue and Frew Drive” (forthcoming Essay Press, 2016), “Haunting the Last House on Holland Island” (forthcoming Porkbelly Press, 2016) and “Portage” (Sundress Publications, 2015). Visit her at http://bluebirdwords.com or follow her @blueaisling.

Alicia Wright was raised in West Virginia and holds an MFA in poetry from BGSU. In addition to appearing in Kestrel’s Spring 2013 issue, her work has been published in Bitterzoet, Kenning, Sugared Water, Rufous City Review and is forthcoming in Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel’s Appalachia Under 30 issue.

KestrelCollege of Liberal ArtsDepartment of Language and LiteratureFrank and Jane Gabor West Virginia Folklife Center