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 42. 

Seven contributors to Kestrel will be on campus to participate in class visits, panel discussions, readings from their own work, and book signings. Visiting poets and writers include Rick Campbell, Celine Izsak, Jim Long, Steve Oberlechner, Ellen McGrath-Smith, Stanley Patrick Stocker, and David Rock.

On Friday, April 3 from 1-1:50 p.m. in Jaynes Hall 310, Steve Oberlechner, David Rock, and Stanley Patrick Stocker will discuss writing tips and techniques with students in Writing Poetry. The discussion will cover prose and poetry, and this event is open to interested students, staff, and faculty.

On Friday, April 3 from 2-2:50 p.m. in Jaynes Hall 304, a panel discussion featuring editors of our student journal Whetstone and visiting student editors from Muskingum University. Whetstone faculty advisor Dr. Nathan Myers and Dr. Jane Varley of Muskingum will moderate. This event is open to any interested students, staff, and faculty.

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 Stanley Patrick Stocker, a writer and lawyer from D.C.; Steve Oberlechner, whose creative nonfiction has appeared in The Gettysburg Review, Prairie Schooner, and Cimarron Review; Celine Izsak, a poet from the Sonoran Desert who holds an MFA from Iowa, and Jim Long, a native of Buckhannon whose work has appeared in Appalachian Heritage and Roanoke Review. Admission to this event is free and open to the public.

On Saturday, April 4, readings and book-signings will take place at the Joe N’ Throw in downtown Fairmont from 2 to 4 p.m. Featured writers include Rick Campbell, a poet and essayist whose most recent book is Gunshot, Peacock, Dog; Ellen McGrath-Smith, a poet whose collections include The Dog Makes His Rounds, and David Rock, whose poetry has appeared in The Carolina Quarterly, The Bitter Oleander, The Chattahoochee Review, The Laurel Review, and other journals. Light fare will be served. Admission to this event is free and open to the public.

For more information about events or visiting writers, contact Dr. Donna Long at donna.long@fairmontstate.edu