The Thomas More College Creative Writing Vision Program invites people of all ages to the 26th Annual Caden Blincoe Outloud Festival on Sunday, Feb. 25 from 2-4 p.m in the Science Lecture Hall, located on the main Crestview Hills campus.
This event is free and open to the public and features talented regional writers sharing their literature in a festive, interactive setting.
Featured regional authors include Affrilachian poet and novelist Crystal Wilkinson, University of Tennessee poet and playwright Linda Parsons, Weatherford Award winner and TMC writer-in-residence Richard Hague, award- winning novelist, poet and musician Michael Henson, Cincinnati Poet Laureate Pauletta Hansel, and Tellico, a three-generation Appalachian family band.
Attendees may enjoy appetizers and visit the authors at book signing tables during and after the event. A special table will also be designated for any local authors who wish to share their books.
This annual event honors the late Boone County Kentucky Enquirer reporter and literacy advocate Caden Blincoe, who emphasized the importance of sharing great literature among all people, including those who may not read or have access to books.
Blincoe was also a member of the Cincinnati Editor’s Association, the Cincinnati Writers Project and Adult Literacy. The Outloud Festival began in 1991 at Big Bone Lick State Park and shortly after moving to the campus, became one of its most popular public events, featuring regional greats including Frank X Walker, Richard Taylor, Jim Webb, Cathy Smith Bowers, George Ella Lyon and Robert Gipe.
The Outloud Festival also caps off a long list of February programs honoring the birthday month of the College’s patron saint, Thomas More.
Dr. Sherry Cook Stanforth, who is the founder and director of the College’s Creative Writing Vision Program, emphasizes the value of arts events that bring diverse groups of people together to appreciate the region’s heritage. “Our mission is one of cultural continuance and active engagement. Lifelong relationships with literature grow from dynamic personal interchanges—people from all corners experiencing camaraderie and friendship in the interest of the spoken and written word,” said Stanforth.
