October 16, 2014

Literary festival will highlight top authors

by Andrea Hahn

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- The winners of the 2014 Devil’s Kitchen Reading Awards will highlight the annual Devil’s Kitchen Literary Festival at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. 

The literary festival, which runs Oct. 22-24, features readings, writer panels, book signing and reception. The readings and panel discussions will be in Morris Library’s John C. Guyon Auditorium, while the Oct. 23 reception and book signing will be in the library’s first floor rotunda. 

This year’s winners are Victoria Redel, for her 2013 collection of stories, “Make Me Do Things;” and Steven D. Shroeder, for his 2013 collection of poems, “The Royal Nonesuch.” The award goes to the authors of one book of prose and one book of poetry published in the preceding year. Award winners participate in the literary festival and receive $1,000. 

The staff of “Grassroots,” the undergraduate literary and arts journal on campus hosts and organizes the festival. Journal staff, and faculty in the university’s Master of Fine Arts in creative writing program select the reading award winners. 

Here is a look at the schedule of events:

Wednesday, Oct. 22

8 p.m. -- reading by Kathleen Hale (debut novel, “No One Else Can Have You”)

Thursday, Oct. 23

11-11:50 a.m. -- fiction panel

2-3:15 p.m. -- readings by Dan Albergotti (“Millennial Teeth,” part of SIU Press’s Crab Orchard Series in Poetry; “The Boatloads) and T. J. Jarrett (“Ain’t No Grave,” “Zion”)

3:15-4:30 p.m. -- reception and book signing

4:30-6 p.m. – readings by the 2014 Devil’s Kitchen Reading Award Winners Steven D. Schroeder and Victoria Redel.

Friday, Oct. 24

11-11:50 a.m. -- poetry panel

2-2:50 p.m. -- readings by Justin Herrmann (“Highway One, Antarctica”) and Andrew McFadyen-Ketchum (“Ghost Gear.”)