Sign up to win prizes and for exclusive updates about this year’s festival
April 23-25, 2027
Melissa Scholes Young is the author of the novels The Hive and Flood and editor of Grace in Darkness and Furious Gravity, two anthologies by women writers. Her work has appeared in the Atlantic, Ms., Washington Post, Poets & Writers, Ploughshares, Literary Hub, and Believer Magazine. She has been the recipient of fellowships from the […]
Maurice Carlos Ruffin’s most recent book is the story collection, The Ones Who Don’t Say They Love You (One World, 2021), a New York Times Editor’s Choice, a finalist for the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence, and longlisted for the Story Prize. His first book, We Cast a Shadow (One World, 2019) was […]
Lisa Nikolidakis’s memoir, No One Crosses the Wolf, about the traumas of a perilous childhood, a shattering murder-suicide, and a healing journey debuted in September 2022. It was selected by Amazon for its “First Reads” program; Vanity Fair named it one of “14 New Books to Read in September”; Buzzfeed picked it as the #1 of “15 Incredible Memoirs to Look […]
Grammy award winning baritone saxophonist Lauren Sevian is one of the most in demand musicians on the scene today. Ms. Sevian came to NYC in 1997 to attend the Manhattan School of Music, and soon thereafter began touring with groups such as Diva and the Artie Shaw Orchestra. She can be seen performing as a […]
Larry Mitchell exemplifies the success that can be achieved when one chooses to follow his passion. The gifted Grammy Award winning performer, producer, and engineer continues to amaze. Larry’s guitar textures demonstrate his abilities as a solo artist and as an ensemble player. Larry has had the opportunity to tour with Tracy Chapman, Billy Squier, […]
Ladee Hubbard is the author of two novels: The Talented Ribkins– which received both the Ernest J. Gaines Award and the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award for Debut Fiction—and The Rib King. Her collection of short stories, The Last Suspicious Holdout, was published in March 2022. She is a recipient of a 2022 Guggenheim fellowship and has […]
Upright and electric bassist specialized in sultry, Venezuelan infused, jazz music, Jose Serrano currently teaches at FSU as graduate assistant, pursuing his Master’s in Jazz Performance. Raised in Venezuela, he was brought up in the classical scene, playing in orchestras since age 10. By age 16, he was able to move to the U.S., and […]
Presidential historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jon Meacham is one of America’s most prominent public intellectuals. With a depth of knowledge about politics, history, religion, and current affairs, Meacham has the unique ability to bring historical context to the issues and events impacting our daily lives. The author of several #1 New York Times bestsellers, […]
Born in 1946 in eastern North Carolina as one of seven children, Johnny Ray Daniels sang with his brothers and learned to play guitar from watching his dad. The region was known to have the highest concentration of KKK anywhere in the South. He and some friends started a rock & roll band at the […]
Helen Sung is an acclaimed jazz pianist and composer and a 2021 Guggenheim Fellow. A native of Houston, Texas, and alumna of its High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (where she studied classical piano and violin), she eschewed her classical upbringing after a jazz epiphany during undergraduate studies at the University of Texas at […]