Mission Statement
The Roanoke Chowan Literary Festival promotes the literary arts & creative writing in the Roanoke Chowan region by featuring public forums for writers, editors, and illustrators, and offering creative writing opportunities for area high school youth. Learn about the history of the Roanoke Chowan Literary Festival.
The Roanoke Chowan Literary Festival 2025
The public is cordially invited to join in this celebration of the literary arts in the Roanoke Chowan region. The 2025 Roanoke Chowan Literary Festival will be held in Edenton, NC, on Friday, April 4, and Saturday, April 5. The event will be free and open to the public.
Pre-registration to attend is not required but would be appreciated to help organizers plan seating, refreshments, and other event logistics.
What To Expect At RCLF 2025
In light of the initial success of last year’s Festival, the 2025 RC Literary Festival is being expanded into a two-day event– adding student writing workshops, a Friday evening author/speaker presentation, and a panel discussion of several major fiction writers from the region whose books published during the 1940s to early 1970s.
Friday, April 4, 2025
To support the goal of providing the general public opportunities to meet and hear presentations by notable writers resident of or native to or whose works relate to the region, on Friday night, April 4, Jonathan Schroeder, author/editor of The United States Governed by Six Hundred Thousand Despots, will present a keynote address about this memoir of John Swanson Jacobs, brother of Harriet Jacobs, which Schroeder recently edited.
High School Writing Contest: RC area students have been invited to submit original works of poetry and short fiction. A panel of creative writers and teachers will select three poems and three short fiction pieces from those submitted for the authors to read at the Festival. Mentors will help prepare the students to read their writing. Each of the six student writers will receive a $100 award. Three invited authors will conduct interactive student writing workshops. The student readings and workshops will be on Friday, April 4.
Saturday, April 5, 2025
On Saturday, April 5, a panel will discuss the literary contributions of Mebane Holoman Burgwyn, Inglis Fletcher, and Bernice Kelly Harris, authors of numerous award-winning books in the 1940s to early 1970s, several of which have recently been republished. Current writers who will speak and/or read from their works on Saturday are Rich Square native Junius “Jay” Ward, National Slam champion and Charlotte’s inaugural poet laureate, visual artist Julia Townsend, and author Kathryn Wood. There will be various opportunities for the public to meet and talk with the authors, and for the authors to sell and sign their books or other Works.
Preliminary Schedule for RCLF 2025
Friday, April 4, 2025
- 9 AM – 10 AM Coffee service and registration
- 10 AM – 10:30 AM Student Keynote: Jay Ward
- 10:30 AM – 11:00 AM Workshop 1: Jeff Parker
- 11:30 AM – 11:30 AM Workshop 2: Julia Townsend
- 11:30 AM – 12 PM Workshop 3: Kathryn Wood
- 12 PM – 1 PM Lunch Break
- 1 PM – 3 PM Student Presentations
- 6 PM – 7 PM Keynote: Jonathan Schroeder
- 7 PM – 7:30 PM Q&A
- 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM Reception
Saturday, April 5, 2025
- 9 AM – 9:30 AM Coffee service and registration
- 9:30 AM – 10:15 AM Panel on RC Area women writers – Bernice Kelly Harris, Mebane Burgwyn, Inglis Fletcher featuring Bob Anthony, Jim Clark, Caroline Stephenson
- 10:30 AM – 11:00 AM Jay Ward
- 11:00 AM – 11:30 AM Kathryn Wood
- 11:30 AM – 12 PM Julia Townsend
- 12 PM – 1 PM Lunch Break
- 1 PM – 2 PM Final Thoughts and a Look at RCLF 2026
About The Roanoke Chowan Literary Festival
The Roanoke Chowan Literary Festival recognizes the rich history of literature and culture in the Roanoke Chowan region and encourages young people to take part in the creative arts. Organized each year by a small all-volunteer group, the Festival is committed to promoting interest in the literary arts by sponsoring a forum for local creative writing students and established authors connected to the Roanoke Chowan area.
The nine-county Roanoke Chowan region consists of Bertie, Chowan, Gates, Halifax, Hertford, Martin, Northampton, Warren, and Washington counties.
The Literary Festival has been inspired by memories of the significant and much-admired work of the Roanoke Chowan Group of Writers and Allied Artists. That organization, formed in 1948, was an informal gathering of writers, musicians, painters, and patrons of the arts that periodically met in the homes of its members across the region. Although the group ceased to meet in the early 1960s, it was endowed the Roanoke-Chowan Award for Poetry in 1953. In each year since, this award has been presented at the annual meeting of the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association to the author of the book of poetry adjudged the best published by a North Carolinian that year.
The Inaugural RCFL
In April 2024, the first RC Literary Festival was held at Chowan University in Murfreesboro. This inaugural Festival, free and open to the public, featured several authors with connections to the Roanoke Chowan region who read from their books, as well as readings of original short fiction and poetry by selected area high school students. A North Carolina Humanities grant helped make that Festival possible.