Saturday, August 29, 2026 from 9 AM to 5 PM

Columbus Arts Council

501 Main St, Columbus, MS 39701

Free & Open To The Public!

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Free & Open To The Public! 〰️

Keynote Speakers

Clay McLeod Chapman

Clay McLeod Chapman is a Bram Stoker Award-winning author whose bestselling horror novels include Ghost Eaters, Wake Up and Open Your Eyes, Whisper Down the Lane, and What Kind of Mother. His work has expanded into film, comics, and podcasts, including collaborations with Jordan Peele's Monkeypaw Productions and Marvel Comics. Chapman also teaches writing at Pace University and is widely recognized as one of today's leading voices in contemporary horror fiction.

Adult & YA Horror

Beth Ann Fennelly is an award-winning poet, author, and former Mississippi Poet Laureate whose work has earned grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Academy of American Poets, and a Fulbright Scholarship. She is the author of multiple acclaimed poetry collections, memoirs, and the bestselling novel The Tilted World, co-written with her husband, Tom Franklin. Fennelly teaches in the MFA Program at the University of Mississippi, where she has received four teaching awards and continues to inspire the next generation of writers.

Micro-Memoirs & Poetry

Beth Ann Fennelly

Workshop Sign Up

Aimee Nezhukumatathil

Aimee Nezhukumatathil is a New York Times bestselling author whose celebrated books include World of Wonders, Bite by Bite, and the poetry collection Night Owl. A recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, and numerous other honors, her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, and The Paris Review. A longtime professor of English and Creative Writing, she is renowned for blending poetry, nature, and personal storytelling in ways that captivate readers around the world.

Nature-focused Poetry & Essays

Jen Julian

Jen Julian is the author of the novels Red Rabbit Ghost and The Winter Folk, as well as the award-winning short story collection Earthly Delights and Other Apocalypses. Her fiction has appeared in numerous literary journals and has been recognized with multiple awards, including notable distinction in The Best American Short Stories 2023. Julian teaches creative writing at Young Harris College in Georgia and serves as fiction editor for storySouth, where she continues to write acclaimed works of horror and speculative fiction.

Horror & Speculative Fiction

Author Website:

https://jenjulian.com/

Children’s Storytime

Murry L. Burgess, PhD

Murry Burgess always had an interest in nature, growing up in the suburbs in Minnesota, Florida, Tennessee, and Mississippi. One of her earliest memories is watching the hawks that would fly into her backyard and perch on the garden stakes. Her passion for animals led her to pursue a career in wildlife biology; Murry earned her PhD in Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology at North Carolina State University. As both a naturalist and conservationist, Murry believes that kids, whether living in urban or suburban settings, can connect with nature as there is wildlife all around us.

Science & Nature Exploration for Kids