Appalachian Literary Arts Festival
Morehead 2026
Live Music & Outdoor Bookshop
August 29, 2026
6:00 PM - 10:00 PM
Battson-Oates Entertainment District (Sawstone Brewing Co.)
Matthew S. Parsons
6:00 PM
Doug Van Gundy
7:00 PM
Roberta Schultz & Raison D'Etre
8:00 PM
Will Oldham
9:00 PM
Author Fair
August 30, 2026
10:00 AM - 5:30 PM
CoffeeTree Books
George Ella Lyon
Don't You Remember?
Opening Keynote, 10:30 AM
Crystal Wilkinson
Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts
Closing Keynote, 4:30 PM
Laura Treacy Bentley
Glass Mountain
Willie Carver
Tore All to Pieces
Michael Amos Cody
Avalon Moon
Christina Dotson (Author Panelist)
Love You to Death
Carla Gover
Me and the Red Bird River
Beth Howard (Author Panelist)
Songs for a Hard Hit People
Joshua Moore
Morphenomenal
Linda Pack & Pat Banks
Appalachian Plants
Erin Miller Reid
But for Fortune
Megan Smedley
Worth Fighting For
Jacinda Townsend
Trigger Warning
T.J. West
Country Road Romance
Marianne Worthington
Water. Witness. Word.
Wes Blake (Author Panelist)
Pineville Trace
Bernard Clay
English Lit: Poems
Rayelle Davis
Money in the Mountains
Ann H. Gabhart
A Chance for Kallie Mae
A.p. Harbor
The Hum of a Dreaming Moon
Karen Salyer McElmurray
I Could Name God in Twelve Ways
Laura Leigh Morris
The Stone Catchers
John Palisano
Requiem
Amy Le Ann Richardson
Out of Places
Logan Spurgeon
Sourwood
Doug Van Gundy
A Life Above Water
Jessica Whitehead
Driftwood
Justin Wymer
Let the Forest Go
Gwenda Bond
The Frame-Up
Ann Colbert
The Mantra of Lucy Watts
Willie Davis (Author Panelist)
Honeysuckle Season
Robert Gipe (Author Panelist)
Pop: An Illustrated Novel
Julie Hensley
Five Oaks
Mindy Merrell & R.B. Quinn
Self-Rising
Mike Norris
Mommy Goose's Appalachian Melodies
Matthew S. Parsons
Mountain Roosters
Mandi Fugate Sheffel
The Nature of Pain
Natalie Sypolt
If Only the Rain Would Come
Clinton W. Waters
(Un)Bury Your Gays
Annie Woodford
Peasant
Robin Yocum
The Last Hitman
Outdoor Stage Performances
August 30, 2026
11:30 AM - 4:00 PM
Battson-Oates Entertainment District (Sawstone Brewing Co.)
Amy Le Ann Richardson
& A.p. Harbor
11:30 AM
Jacinda Townsend
3:15 PM
The Women of Appalachia Project
12:30 PM
Justin Wymer
3:30 PM
Marianne Worthington
2:45 PM
Mike Norris
3:45 PM
Carla Gover
3:00 PM
Gwen Akers
Bloodroot Writers Collective Keynote
August 28, 5:30 PM
Rowan County Arts Center
Ann Colbert
Walk with an Author
August 29, 5:00 PM
Rodburn Hollow Park
Clinton W. Waters
Live Takeover Host
August 30, all day