Tickets for the inaugural Missouri Literary Festival go on sale today, Tuesday, Sept. 8, at Hammons Field, The Creamery Arts Center, The Library Center, The Library Station and Borders Books.

Tickets are $5 for ages 11 and up, and children 10 and under get in free. A single ticket is good for the duration of the festival, which is held Oct. 2, 3 and 4, and the ticket must be presented at the gate each day.

The festival features 44 guest writers in a host of programs, readings, workshops and panel discussions. Children’s activities are scheduled throughout the festival.

Three special ticketed events will be held during the festival: the Business by the Book luncheon, featuring renowned business writers Norm Brodsky, Bo Burlingham and Jack Stack; Brunch with Laura Shapiro, food writer and author of a new biography of Julia Child; and the Meet the Authors Gala, where attendees will mix and mingle with the festival authors in a convivial cocktail atmosphere.

Tickets for special events are $35 for Business by the Book, $25 for Brunch with Laura Shapiro and $75 for the Meet the Authors Gala. Special event tickets also serve as general admission tickets for the festival, and these tickets may be purchased on the Events page of this Web site.

The Missouri Literary Festival, a Celebration of Arts, Literature and Literacy, is a nonprofit event focused on raising funds to benefit arts programming and literacy organizations.

Festival fund-raising beneficiaries are Springfield Regional Arts Council, Ozarks Literacy Council, Family Literacy Centers of Springfield, the R-12 Title I Schools and the Writers Hall of Fame scholarship program.

The Missouri Literary Festival is proud to announce its program schedule for Friday, Oct. 2.

10 a.m. The festival kicks off with the official Opening Ceremony, featuring state and local dignitaries, music and more. After the Opening Ceremony, enjoy live performances at the gate, visit the booths on the Grand Concourse and purchase books by our festival authors and poets.

11 a.m.-1 p.m. renowned business writers Norm Brodsky, Bo Burlingham and Jack Stack present Business by the Book, a luncheon program in which our business gurus discuss strategies to save your business, your family and your financial future in these trying economic times. Tickets for this program are $35 and may be purchased at www.missouriliteraryfestival.org.. Tickets to Business by the Book will also get ticketholders into the festival throughout the weekend.

1:30-3 p.m. The Art of Green, a panel discussion moderated by Melissa Cox and sponsored by the U.S. Green Building Council, delves into sustainable design and construction. Panelists are Rick Harrison, author of Prefurbia – Reinventing the Suburbs: From Disdainable to Sustainable, Bruce Adibyazdi, Robert B. Murray III, Tom Taylor and George Van Hoesen.

2-4 p.m. Get Your Read On kicks off festival events for kids, tweens and teens with authors Louise Jackson and J.B. Cheaney. Get ready to read, write and be creative. Enjoy word activities, create a bookmark, hear a story and enjoy refreshments provided by Sportsservice.

3-4 p.m. Writing Like You Mean Business, sponsored by the Association of Women in Communication

4-5 p.m. Award-winning spoken work poet Joaquin Zihuatanejo conducts a Slam Poetry Workshop at the Drury Diversity Center

6-9 p.m. The public opening of The Poetics of Construction, a sustainable-design charette conceived by architect Jeff Barber in conjunction with The Art of Green, takes place during First Friday Art Walk at The Creamery

6-10 p.m. Enjoy Missouri Literary Festival on the Square during First Friday Art Walk. Hear finalists in the Missouri Literary Festival Award for Short Fiction Contest reading their works, Poetry Out Loud performers and local slam poetry.

10 p.m.-Midnight An Evening of Slam Poetry at the Drury Diversity Center, featuring champion slam poet Joaquin Zihuatanejo and a Slam Invitational competition.

Friday’s events will whet your appetite; prepare to feast on literature, entertainment and hands-on activities for kids Saturday and Sunday! A detailed schedule of the weekend’s programs and events will be released Sept. 8.

The Missouri Literary Festival, a Celebration of Arts, Literature and Literacy, is a nonprofit event focused on raising funds to benefit arts programming and literacy organizations. General admission is $5 for ages 11 and up; children 10 and under get in free. Each ticket is good for the duration of the festival.

Festival fund-raising beneficiaries are Springfield Regional Arts Council, Ozarks Literacy Council, Family Literacy Centers of Springfield, the R-12 Title I Schools and the Writers Hall of Fame scholarship program.

CNN has produced a feature on Brad Gooch, author of  “Flannery, A Life of Flannery O’Connor.” Gooch will appear at the Missouri Literary Festival in October.

“Flannery” is the most recent work by Gooch, who is also the author of “City Poet,” the acclaimed biography of Frank O’Hara.

Mary Flannery O’Connor wrote only two novels – “Wise Blood” and “The Violent Bear It Away” – and two short story collections – “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and “Everything That Rises Must Converge” – yet her influence on American literature and pop culture continues to resonate more than 4 decades after her death in 1964 from complications of lupus.

Gooch is the recipient of National Endowment for the Humanities and Guggenheim fellowships; he earned his PhD at Columbia University and is a professor of English at William Paterson University in New Jersey.

Gooch joins a selection of renowned novelists, poets, business writers, children’s writers and other authors in the Missouri Literary Festival, Oct. 2-4 at The Creamery Arts Center and Hammons Field in downtown Springfield, MO. The festival will feature public readings, book signings, live music, live arts performances, film, food and more.

Admission is $5 for adults and free to children 10 and under. Proceeds of the festival will go to support arts programming through Springfield Regional Arts Council, as well as local literacy efforts and scholarships for young writers.

The Missouri Literary Festival is seeking singers, dancers and musicians to perform at the front gates of Hammons Field during the festival, slated for Oct. 2, 3 and 4. This event offers unparalleled public exposure for individuals, choirs, music combos, dance troupes and theater groups. The only requirements are that the performances be family-friendly and of the highest artistic quality.

Performances will be scheduled in half-hour increments with 15-minute breaks in between. Performances will run 1-5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 2; 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 3; and noon-4 p.m. Sunday. Youth performances will be heavily targeted on Saturday. For the Sunday program, festival organizers are particularly interested in booking church choirs, bell choirs and inspirational music in keeping with the Festival’s faith-based programs that day, including an appearance by renowned author, composer and speaker Jennifer Rothschild.

The festival invites all performers interested in volunteering their time and talent at this first-time event to contact Festival Chairman William Brandon Bowman at (417) 865-0450.

The Missouri Literary Festival, a Celebration of Arts, Literature and Literacy, is a nonprofit event focused on raising funds to benefit arts programming and literacy organizations. General admission will be $5 for ages 11 and up; children 10 and under get in free. Festival beneficiaries are Springfield Regional Arts Council, Ozarks Literacy Council, Family Literacy Centers of Springfield, the R-12 Title I Schools and the Writers Hall of Fame scholarship program.

What does the Missouri Literary Festival have in common with Oscar-winning director Ang Lee?

Great taste in authors, for one.

The Missouri Literary Festival, slated for Oct. 2, 3 and 4 in Springfield, MO, is proud to announce award-winning novelist Daniel Woodrell as part of the festival lineup. Woodrell, author of Winter’s Bone and Tomato Red, also wrote Woe to Live On, which Ang Lee made into the film Ride With the Devil in 1999.

Woodrell’s five most recent novels were selected as New York Times Notable Books of the Year, and Tomato Red won the PEN West Award for the Novel in 1999. Winter’s Bone, his latest novel, won the Prix de la Mystere Critique in France and was one of five finalists for the 2007 Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Fiction.

Woodrell’s short stories have been widely published in various anthologies, and his work has appeared in Esquire, Gentleman’s Quarterly, Missouri Review, New Letters, Granta online, The Washington Post and The New York Times.

While Woe to Live On was the first of Woodrell’s novels to be adapted for the screen, it was not the last. Winter’s Bone was filmed in Forsyth, MO, by director Debra Granik in winter 2009. Ride With the Devil also was shot in Missouri.

The Missouri Literary Festival, a Celebration of Arts, Literature and Literacy, is a nonprofit event focused on raising funds to benefit arts programming and literacy organizations. General admission will be $5 for ages 11 and up; children 10 and under get in free. Festival beneficiaries are Springfield Regional Arts Council, Ozarks Literacy Council, Family Literacy Centers of Springfield, the R-12 Title I Schools and the Writers Hall of Fame scholarship program.

The Missouri Literary Festival Award for Short Fiction, featuring $600 in cash prizes, will accept its last entries at 9 p.m. Friday, July 31.

Open to writers of all ages from anywhere in the United States, this short fiction contest will award prizes of $300, $200, and $100 for first, second and third place, respectively.

Stories should be no more than 3,000 words in length and each entry must be submitted according to the contest rules below. Outstanding entries will be featured in a public reading at Park Central Branch Library during the Literary Festival, which will be held Oct. 2, 3 and 4 in downtown Springfield, MO.

Guidelines
1. Each story must be no longer than 3,000 words.

2. Each story must be the unpublished (and not under consideration of being published), original work of the entrant.

3. All entries must be accompanied by an official entry form, which contains the name, address, e-mail address, and phone number of the author, as well as the title of the story. Click here for a copy of the entry form. Each entry must be typed, double-spaced on one side of 8+1/2 x 11 paper and no longer than 3,000 words. Please submit the story using Microsoft Word or as an RTF Text file.

4. Names and copyright markings must be omitted from the manuscript, which will go to judges anonymously. Include the title and page number at the head or foot of each page.

5. Only one entry per person. A $15 fee is required when the story is submitted. Personal checks or postal money orders preferred.

6. Do not send originals – no entries will be returned.

7. Entries must be received no later than 9 p.m., Friday, July 31. Mail a print copy of your story, with your entry fee, Attn. William Brandon Bowman, Missouri Literary Festival, 411 North Sherman Parkway, Springfield, MO 65802. You should also email a copy of your manuscript to FictionPrize@gmail.com.

8. Copyrights of winning manuscripts remain in the name of the authors, but the Missouri Literary Festival reserves the right to publish the winning entries and any honorable mentions and to reproduce them electronically on our website.

9. Prizes – Winner $300, Second Place $200, Third Place $100

University Plaza Hotel is partnering with the Missouri Literary Festival as its official festival hotel, offering a special, discounted rate to festival attendees. The festival, slated for Oct. 2, 3 and 4, features nationally renowned writers in poetry, biography, business, faith, food, fiction and children’s literature, plus live music, arts performances, workshops, readings and film.

Located just one block south of the festival grounds at Hammons Field and The Creamery Arts Center, University Plaza Hotel offers first-class accommodations and amenities including  a fitness center, whirlpool, sundeck, indoor and outdoor pools, and high-speed Internet access throughout the hotel.

Click here to learn more about University Plaza Hotel and its amenities. Click here to book your room at the special Missouri Literary Festival rate.

The Missouri Literary Festival is pleased to announce the creation of the Missouri Literary Festival Award for Short Fiction. This short story award contest is open to all writers who would like to share their creative work. Each author will have a chance to win one of three cash prize awards plus receive special recognition during Missouri’s premier literary festival.

Prizes will be awarded as follows: Winner, $300; Second place, $200;  Third place, $100. Outstanding works will be presented in a public reading at the Park Central Square Branch Library during the Literary Festival, which will be held Oct. 2, 3 and 4.

Guidelines
1. Each story must be no longer than 3,000 words.

2. Each story must be the unpublished (and not under consideration of being published), original work of the entrant.

3. All entries must be accompanied by an official entry form, which contains the name, address, e-mail address, and phone number of the author, as well as the title of the story. Click here for a copy of the entry form. Each entry must be typed, double-spaced on one side of 8+1/2 x 11 paper and no longer than 3,000 words. Please submit the story using Microsoft Word or as an RTF Text file.

4. Names and copyright markings must be omitted from the manuscript, which will go to judges anonymously. Include the title and page number at the head or foot of each page.

5. Only one entry per person. A $15 fee is required when the story is submitted. Personal checks or postal money orders preferred.

6. Do not send originals – no entries will be returned.

7. Entries must be received no later than 9:00 PM, Friday, July 31. Mail a print copy of your story to Attn. William Brandon Bowman, Missouri Literary Festival, 411 North Sherman Parkway, Springfield, MO 65802. You should also email a copy of your manuscript to FictionPrize@gmail.com.

8. Copyrights of winning manuscripts remain in the name of the authors, but the Missouri Literary Festival reserves the right to publish the winning entries and any honorable mentions and to reproduce them electronically on our website.

9. Prizes – Winner $300, Second Place $200, Third Place $100