Enjoy the KCPL Storywalk® Up, Down, and Around, a rhyming picture book that celebrates gardening and the life cycle of plants, following vegetables as they grow “up, down, and around”.
Location: KCPL Art Walk, adjacent to the Main Library, 123 Capitol St.
Time: 10:00am – 2:00pm
Curated and hosted by WV Poet Laureate Marc Harshman, this year’s panel will feature the works of poets Sara Henning, Ace Boggess, and Kari Gunter-Seymour.
Location: Taylor Books Annex Gallery, 226 Capitol St, Charleston, WV 25301
Time: 3:00pm
About the poets:
Sara Henning
Sara Henning is an award-winning teacher and poet. She is the author of the poetry collections Burn (Southern Illinois University Press, 2024), a Crab Orchard Series in Poetry Editor’s Selection;Terra Incognita (Ohio University Press, 2022), winner of the 2021 Hollis Summers Poetry Prize; and View from True North (Southern Illinois University Press, 2018), winner of the 2017 Crab Orchard Series in Poetry Open Competition Award and the 2019 High Plains Book Award. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in journals such as Kenyon Review, Crab Orchard Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, Southern Humanities Review, Witness, Meridian, and the Cincinnati Review. She is an assistant professor of creative writing at Marshall University, where she coordinates the A.E. Stringer Visiting Writers Series.
Ace Boggess
Ace Boggess is author of eight books of poetry, most recently Tell Us How to Live (Fernwood Press, 2025) and My Pandemic / Gratitude List (Mōtus Audāx Press, 2025). His writing has appeared in Indiana Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Hanging Loose, and other journals. An ex-con, he lives in Charleston, West Virginia, where he writes, watches Criterion films, and tries to stay out of trouble. His first short-story collection, Always One Mistake, is forthcoming from Running Wild Press.
Kari Gunter-Seymour
Kari Gunter-Seymour is the immediate past Poet Laureate of Ohio and author of three award-winning poetry collections, including Dirt Songs (EastOver Press, 2024) winner of the 2025 IPPY Bronze, NY Big Book, and Feathered Quill Awards. She is the executive director of the Women of Appalachia Project and editor of its anthology series, Women Speak. Gunter-Seymour holds writing workshops for all age groups as well as incarcerated adults and women in recovery, is a retired instructor in the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University and the founder, curator, and host of “Spoken & Heard,” a seasonal performance series featuring poets, writers, and musicians from across the country. She is the editor of I Thought I Heard A Cardinal Sing: Ohio’s Appalachian Voices, funded through the Academy of American Poets and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. She was selected to serve as a 2022 Dodge Poetry Festival Poet and is a Pillars of Prosperity Fellow for the Foundation for Appalachian Ohio. Her work has been featured in a variety of journals and publications including World Literature Today, American Book Review, Rattle, Poem-a-Day, and Katie Curic’s Wake Up Call.
West Virginia Poet Laureate Marc Harshman and fellow poet Renée Nicholson will create original, one-of-a-kind poems designed just for you! Visit the poets in the Taylor Books Annex Gallery, select a topic, and they’ll begin writing.
Location: Taylor Books Annex Gallery, 226 Capitol St.
Donations: $5 suggested donation to purchase a poem supporting FestivALL’s programming
West Virginia Poet Laureate Marc Harshman helps writers make use of detail, memory, and senses in this workshop for writers of all experience levels and genres.
The workshop begins with a discussion that addresses the practical need for detail in the creation of convincing writing. In this activity, Harshman uses personal examples, diagrams, and participant responses to illustrate the movement from generality to detail.
The poet will then introduce participants to free-writing, examining its background and history, before beginning a written exploration of scars that will allow participants to both draw on what they’ve learned so far, as well as their own memories and senses in the creation of a short story or reminiscence.
Harshman will then wrap up with a discussion about the most important part of the writing process — revision.
Location: Taylor Books, 226 Capitol St.
Ages: 16+
Fee: $10
Registration and tickets coming soon
The FestivALL Workshop series is presented by Ramsey EyeCare.
The West Virginia Book Festival is an annual event for book lovers of all ages and! Featuring programs by local and international bestselling authors, a Used Book Sale, and a Festival Marketplace, it takes place at the Charleston Coliseum & Convention Center in downtown Charleston, West Virginia.
West Virginia Book Festival Attendance is (and always will be) free of cost.
Visit http://www.wvbookfestival.org/ for more details!
The whole family will enjoy our StoryWalk®, “Mrs. Honey’s Hat”, in the Library Walkway (entrances on Capitol and Summers Streets). Every day a different creature removes an item from Mrs. Honey’s large and outlandish hat, leaving behind something new in its place. StoryWalks® promote early literacy, physical activity, and family time together in nature.
Location: Kanawha County Public Library, 123 Capitol Street
Join the Kanawha County Public Library outside on the Plaza for a Summer Library Club pre-registration celebration!
Register to read in their annual Summer Library Club Challenge, play lawn games, make rainbow sand art, and enjoy the Capitol Street Art Fair! The theme of our reading challenge this year is Color Our World.
Earn colorful prizes as you read, no matter your age! Ask a staff member to register online or pick up a paper reading log inside. In case of inclement weather, we will be indoors on the Children’s Floor in the Main Library.
Location: Kanawha County Public Library Plaza, 123 Capitol Street
Curated and hosted by West Virginia Poet Laureate Marc Harshman, this year’s panel on written fiction will feature the works of Marie Manilla, Natalie Sypolt (change from print schedule), and Glenn Taylor.
Location: Taylor Books Annex Gallery, 226 Capitol St.
*FREE Event*
Glenn Taylor’s fourth novel, The Songs of Betty Baach won the 2023 Juniper Prize in Fiction. His first novel, The Ballad of Trenchmouth Taggart was a finalist for the 2008 National Book Critics Circle Award. Glenn’s work has appeared in such venues as the Oxford American, The Guardian, Gulf Coast, and Huizache. Born and raised in Huntington, West Virginia, he now resides with his family in Morgantown, where he is at work on a new novel.
Natalie Sypolt lives and writes in West Virginia. She is the author of The Sound of Holding Your Breath (2018, West Virginia University Press) and second book, tentatively titled If Only the Rain Would Come, is set to be published by University Press of Kentucky in 2026. Her work has appeared in Glimmer Train, Appalachian Review, Still: The Journal, r.kv.r.y., Superstition Review, Paste, Willow Springs Review, and The Kenyon Review Online, among other fine journals. Natalie is the former President of the Appalachian Studies Association, has taught in the low-residency MFA Program at West Virginia Wesleyan College, and works as an Associate Professor of English at Pierpont Community & Technical College.
West Virginia native Marie Manilla is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Her novel, The Patron Saint of Ugly, received The Weatherford Award. Shrapnel won The Fred Bonnie Award for Best First Novel. Stories in her collection, Still Life with Plums, first appeared in the Chicago Tribune, Prairie Schooner, Mississippi Review, and other journals. Her essays have appeared in Word Riot, Cossack Review, Gargoyle, and elsewhere. Marie lives in her hometown of Huntington with her husband, Don Primerano.
Learn more about Marie here.
This year’s Annual Kanawha County Public Library Used Book Sale, in conjunction with the Capitol Street Art Fair and Children’s Art Fair, will be held at the Main Library in Room 311.
All proceeds help fund library programs and services.
Curated and hosted by WV Poet Laureate, Marc Harshman, this year’s panel will feature award-winning journalists Eric Eyre, Erin Beck, and Amelia Ferrell Knisely.
Each will read selections from their works, share insights regarding the field of journalism and reflect upon the current state of the literary world. The authors will also be open to audience Q&A.
This project is being presented with financial assistance from the West Virginia Humanities Council, a state affiliate for the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations do not necessarily represent those of the West Virginia Humanities Council or the National Endowment for the Humanities
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