Mark Your Calendar for the Oneonta Literary Festival, Oct. 17-21
Save the dates for the Oneonta Literary Festival big weekend, which will take place from Thursday, Oct. 17, to Sunday, Oct. 21.
Hosted by Hartwick College and SUNY Oneonta, with events around the Oneonta community, the five-day event promises a vibrant celebration of literature featuring renowned authors, engaging workshops and captivating readings. Festival partners include the Huntington Library, CANO, the Oneonta City School District, the B Side Ballroom and the Green Toad Bookstore.
Festival highlights include:
Opening Night (Thursday, Oct. 17): The festival kicks off at 7 p.m. in the Anderson Theater for the Arts at Hartwick College with the Babcock Lecture, delivered by Anna Kornbluh. A poetry reading by Rachel DuPlessis will follow. The event will also feature a conversation with the authors, a reception and a book signing.
Author reading by Ross Gay (Friday, Oct. 18): Renowned poet and essayist Ross Gay takes the stage at 7 p.m. in the Slade Theater on the Hartwick campus for a captivating reading, followed by a Q&A session and a book signing. Gay’s book, The Book of Delights, has been selected as Hartwick’s Fall 2024 Common Read.
Saturday workshops (Oct. 19): Hone your craft with workshops led by literary talents Willy Palomo (poetry slam) at 11 a.m. and Jennifer Donohue (prose) at 2 p.m., both held at the Huntington Library.
Saturday Readings and Events: Dive deeper into the world of words with diverse offerings on Saturday. Catch Rebecca Weil at the CANO Writers Salon at 4 p.m., Stephen Kuusisto at 7 p.m. in the Hunt Ballroom at SUNY Oneonta, and stop in at the electrifying Poetry Slam at B Side at 9 p.m.
Sunday (Oct. 20). Sayantani DasGupta will be giving a reading (time and location TBD), and at 2 p.m., there will be a local author expo at CANO, featuring authors Libby Cudmore and Alice Lichtenstein and other writers from around the region, as well as a book fair.
Monday (Oct. 21). In addition to other events on SUNY Oneonta’s campus, Cristina Henríquez will deliver the Mills Distinguished Lecture in the Alumni Field House at SUNY Oneonta at 7 p.m. Henríquez’s The Book of Unknown Americans is SUNY Oneonta’s 2024 Common Read.
For a full schedule of the big weekend’s events, visit hartwick.edu/literaryfestival. For a schedule of all the events throughout the year, visit https://suny.oneonta.edu/english/literary-festival.
For more information, contact Tessa Yang, associate professor of English, at [email protected] or Bradley J. Fest, associate professor of English and Babcock Professor of English, [email protected].
