20th Annual Mountain Heritage Literary Festival

Welcome to the 20th annual Mountain Heritage Literary Festival! (May 29 and 30th.) We are thrilled to welcome back our founder, Silas House, as this year's keyonte speaker. We will have more exciting announcements soon about our lineup of instructors, events, and more!

Workshops:

MHLF 20 Course Descriptions

Meg Wade

Rewilding: Field Notes in Nature Poetry Use the natural world as inspiration for generating new poems.

Exploring the Elegy, which centers on not only practicing the poetic form of the elegy, but also honoring the long Appalachian tradition of writing toward ancestors.

Mandi Fugate Sheffel

Nonfiction Writing Through Appalachian Foodways: Exploring nonfiction through Appalachian foodways, cooking, foraging, gathering, and the memories tied to them. Food isn't just something we eat, it's an archive.

The Writer's Toolkit: Attention, Rhythm, and Transformation - A three part session where we'll focus on the writer's greatest superpower, the ability to notice deeply and differently. How writing moves, its rhythm, pacing, and energy. Revision as an act of re-seeing not the correction of mistakes.

Charles Dodd White

Talk to Me: Intensifying Voice in Fiction

One of the things that gets a reader to pick up a book is the voice of the narrator,

whether it be first or third person. We’ll discuss different approaches and techniques

that will make your fiction stand out on the bookshelf. Participants will have a chance to

practice different ways of reader engagement through generative exercises. No

previous work is necessary to bring to the class.

Learning Fiction Writing by Listening to the Radio

A wise person understands that the best way to learn the art of fiction, one must read and read A LOT. But there are other ways to amplify our experience of fiction. In this workshop, we will explore the practice of listening to narrative songs for what they can teach us about storytelling. By opening ourselves to this new avenue of inspiration, we will have a chance to make reading as a writer part of an implicit daily practice. Plus, we’ll even work with a generative exercise to put this new part of our writing lives into practice.

Wes BLAKE

Flash Fiction: This generative writing class will give you a chance to write your own flash fiction stories, and discover how the constraints of flash can help develop your writing craft. We will briefly discuss some model flash texts and subgenres of flash like micro-fiction, drabbles, six-sentence stories, etc, and how flash offers opportunities to be playful, inventive, and to take risks. Whether you're brand new to flash, or an old pro, you will come away with new work and hopefully a heightened clarity of how constraints—like those in flash fiction—can deepen your writing skills.

Paths to Publication: This straightforward class will give a practical road map for how to find the best path to publication for your book. We'll discuss how to determine which traditional publishing path may be the best fit for your work, and will share helpful resources. This class includes guidance on how to research agents, small presses, book prizes (that include publication), and will share instructive stories about how other modern Appalachian authors' books found their way to publication.

Schedule:

Friday, May 29, 2026

1-3pm

Sign in (Abraham Lincoln Museum)

3pm

Welcome Message and Orientation (Abraham Lincoln Museum Auditorium)

3:30-5pm Session 1 (Avery Hall)

· Poetry Workshop “Rewilding: Field Notes in Nature Poetry” with Meg Wade

· Fiction Workshop “Talk to Me: Intensifying Voice in Fiction” with Charles Dodd White

5:00-6:15pm Dinner (Alumni Lounge in Library)

6:30-8pm Session 2 (Avery Hall)

· Nonfiction workshop “The Writer's Toolkit: Attention, Rhythm, and Transformation” With Mandi Fugate Sheffel

· Publishing Workshop “Paths to Publication” with Wes Blake

8-9:30 PM Open mic and faculty readings (LMU Chapel)

Saturday, May 30

9-10:30 AM Session 1(Avery Hall)*

· Fiction Workshop “Learning Fiction Writing by Listening to the Radio” with Charles Dodd White

· Nonfiction Workshop “Nonfiction Writing Through Appalachian Foodways” With Mandi Fugate Sheffel

*Light breakfast provided

10:30-12pm Session 2 (Avery Hall)

· Poetry Workshop “Exploring the Elegy” With Meg Wade

· Fiction Workshop “Writing Flash Fiction” with Wes Blake

12-1:30pm LUNCH (On your own) & Book Fair

1:30-3:00 PM Session 3 (Avery Hall)

· Nonfiction workshop “The Writer's Toolkit: Attention, Rhythm, and Transformation” with Mandi Fugate Sheffel

· Poetry Workshop “Rewilding: Field Notes in Nature Poetry” with Meg Wade

3:00-4:30 Session 4 (Avery Hall)

· Fiction Workshop “Talk to Me: Intensifying Voice in Fiction” with Charles Dodd White

· Publishing Workshop “Paths to Publication” with Wes Blake

4:30-5-pm Panel discussion on publishing (Avery Hall)

5-6pm Dinner (Alumni Lounge in Library)

6:00-7:00pm

Keynote Speech: Silas House (Chapel)