Stories are designed to transport readers to faraway places, be it Narnia or banks of the Mississippi River. But this weekend, the stories have come to Lipscomb while the university hosts the Southern Literary Festival.
Running through Sunday, the festival includes several workshops and readings by notable authors such as Mark Jarman, Mark Richard and Kathy Rhodes.
While this is the 76th year for the festival, it is the first time that Lipscomb or the city of Nashville is hosting the event.
The festival was started because most smaller schools, colleges and universities of the South did not have the resources to bring in the greatest artists of the region. The festival got its start when those schools and universities began to pool their resources.
English professor and president of the Southern Literary Festival Dr. Dana Carpenter said that the university is “incredibly excited” to be hosting the event for the first time.
“It’s an insane amount of work,” Carpenter said in regards to planning the festival. “I’ve got notes from the last eight years, and for the last two years, I wake up in the middle of the night thinking about what needs to be done.”
And all of Carpenter’s hard work is about to pay off. Representatives from 36 member schools arrived on campus this weekend, the largest number of participants in the festival’s history.
While schools all across the South will attend the festival, Carpenter urges students, as well as the public, to take advantage of the events.
For more information and a full schedule, visit the Southern Literary Festival’s website.