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 Littleton, NC, on Saturday, March 21, 2026 from 9am to 4pm. 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 2026
In light of the initial success of the Festival in 2024, the RC Literary Festival is back for a third year!
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.
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.