Kestrel Issue 35 Celebration Set for Sept. 23-24

Kestrel: A Journal of Literature and Art, the Fairmont State University Department of Language and Literature and the Frank and Jane Gabor West Virginia Folklife Center will host a two-day Celebration of Issue 35.

Ten Kestrel contributors will be on campus to participate in a panel discussion, as well as give readings from their own work.

On Friday, Sept. 23, from 1 to 1:50 p.m. in Jaynes Hall 304, Dr. Elizabeth Savage will moderate a panel discussion on the topic, “Accessibility,” featuring visiting writers. Admission to the event is free and open to the public.

On Friday evening, 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 Cathy Barber, Rick Campbell, Jørn Earl Otte, Jane Varley and Lesley Wheeler. Admission to this event is free and open to the public.

On Saturday, Sept. 24, from 2 to 4 p.m., readings and book signings will take place at the Joe N’ Throw Co-Op, located at 323 ½ Adams St. in downtown Fairmont. Featured writers will be William Brown, Bob Kunzinger, Ethel Rackin, David Salner and Matt Zambito. Light fare will be served; beverages will be available for sale. Admission to this event is free and open to the public.

A limited number of individual manuscript (10 pages or 10 poems) consultations with a visiting writer are available on Friday afternoon and Saturday. Consultations are $25 and include detailed feedback during a 30-minute meeting. Student scholarships are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Manuscripts must be provided at least 48 hours in advance of the consultation.

For more information about events or to register for a consultation, contact Dr. Donna Long at donna.long@fairmontstate.edu.

Visiting writers for the Kestrel 35 Celebration include the following:

 William Brown lives and attends graduate university in Murfreesboro, Tenn. He enjoys English football and music, sometimes simultaneously. His aging mutts, Hillman and Patsy, help maintain sanity in an otherwise frenetic existence. Recent publications include JAB, Agave and One Throne.

Cathy Barber’s poetry has been published in Pinyon, Tule Review, SLAB and in Kestrel. Her work has been anthologized many times, including in The Cancer Poetry Project 2, which won Midwest Book Awards’ Best Poetry Book of 2013, and Changing Harm to Harmony, an anthology about bullying. Her poem “Three Short Love Poems” was nominated for a Best of the Net award in 2015. She is a graduate of the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA in Writing Program.

Rick Campbell’s most recent book is The History of Steel: A Selected Works (2014), from All Nations Press. 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). He’s won a Pushcart Prize, an NEA Fellowship in Poetry, and two poetry fellowships from the Florida Arts Council. Poems and essays have appeared in The Georgia Review, The Florida Review, Prairie Schooner, Fourth River, Kestrel, Puerto Del Sol, New Madrid and other journals. Campbell was the director of Anhinga Press for 20 years and is a founder and the 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.

Bob Kunzinger is a professor of humanities and writing in Virginia. His work has appeared in many regional and national publications, including Southern Humanities Review, Chronicle of Higher Education and Best American Essays. Kunzinger is the author of five volumes of essays, and the forthcoming collection of flash non-fiction, “Fragments,” from Bang Press in Wisconsin.

Jørn Earl Otte is a Scandinavian-Appalachian author. His father was from Denmark and his mother from West Virginia, and these two unique, distinctly different cultures have informed his world view as well as his writing. Otte studied creative writing with Kentucky Poet Laureate James Baker Hall at the University of Kentucky in the 1990s. He has a BFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College in Plainfield, Vt., and is currently studying for his MFA in Creative Writing from Lesley University in Cambridge, Mass. Otte is the former managing editor of the literary journal Duende, and his work has been published or is forthcoming in Shake the Tree, Brightly Press, What Muse?, Small Braveries and other journals. He is married with two children and lives in West Virginia.

Ethel Rackin is the author of the poetry collections Go On (forthcoming, 2016) and The Forever Notes (2013), both from Parlor Press. Her poems, book reviews, and collaborations have appeared in journals such as Colorado Review, Hotel Amerika, Jacket2, Kenyon Review, Verse Daily and Volt. She has taught at Penn State Brandywine, Haverford College and Bucks County Community College in Pennsylvania, where she is currently an associate professor.

David Salner’s writing has appeared in Kestrel, Threepenny Review, Iowa Review, Prairie Schooner, Salmagundi, River Styx and many other magazines. His third book, Blue Morning Light, was published in January 2016 by Pond Road Press and features poems on the paintings of American artist George Bellows. Salner worked for 25 years at manual trades, as an iron ore miner, steelworker and laborer.

Jane Varley is the author of a book of creative nonfiction and a chapbook of poetry. She is an associate professor, coordinator of creative writing and chair of the English Department at Muskingum University in Ohio.

Lesley Wheeler is the author of four poetry collections, most recently Radioland from Barrow Street Press. Her poetry and essays appear in Ecotone, Crazyhorse, Poet Lore and other journals. She teaches at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va., and blogs about poetry at lesleywheeler.org.

Matt Zambito is the author of The Fantastic Congress of Oddities (Cherry Grove Collections), and two chapbooks, Guy Talk and Checks & Balances. His poems appear in North American Review, West Branch, Arts & Letters, Little Star and elsewhere. He writes from Spokane, Wash.

KestrelDepartment of Language and LiteratureFrank and Jane Gabor West Virginia Folklife Center