The James Wright Poetry Festival is held annually in early spring. Major poets meet poetry enthusiasts in Martins Ferry, Ohio, Wright's home town, to read, hear and talk about poetry and the work of James Wright.

The James Wright Poetry Festival is the most important literary event in the Ohio Valley. To celebrate the achievement of this writer, who has placed the Ohio Valley in the same category as Hawthorne's Salem and Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha County, each year the festival invites well known and promising poets to take part in readings and workshops.

The list of past participants includes numerous and diverse Pulitzer Prize winning authors such as Stanley Kunitz, Galway Kinnell, Carolyn Kizer, Mary Oliver, and Yusef Komunyakaa. The audience plays an important part in the festival, suggesting readers, collaborating in workshops, and presenting their poems.

Information about James Wright and the Festival includes the following:

• The LAST Annual James Wright Poetry Festival, April 20 & 21, 2007
  
• James Wright Biography
  
• A Concordance of "Above the River"--The Complete Poems of James Wright
  
• Poets at Past Festivals (chronologically) (alphabetically)
  
• Printable Registration Form
  
• Links
  
• Lodging Information

Send us e-mail at: JWright_Fest@skynet.eastern.ohiou.edu

Sponsors: Ohio Arts Council, Eastern Ohio Arts Council, Martins Ferry Public Library, Belmont County Tourism Council, Ohio University

This file was last revised on March 5, 2007.

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Copyright © 1999, Eastern Ohio Arts Council