Greensboro Bound Literary Festival

Greensboro Bound Literary Festival is in its seventh year, and the Greensboro History Museum is hosting a range of authors and discussions in Mary Norris Preyer Hall, Saturday from 12:30-5 pm. Events are free. For a full schedule of events happening at the museum and around Greensboro, visit https://greensborobound.com

12:30 PM Guilford County High School Poet Laureate Reading

Now in its 21st year, the Poet Laureate Program brings together Guilford county’s best and brightest budding student poets with an established, published poet who gives them mentorship and feedback on their poetry. This year’s poet advisor has been Greensboro’s own inaugural Poet Laureate, Josephus Thompson, III. Students from Guilford county high schools competed to bear the title of Poet Laureate for their respective school. This culminating event features winning laureates and finalists. Students from the following schools will be participating:

• Dudley High School
• Early College at Guilford
• Early Middle College at GTCC
• Greensboro Day School
• Grimsley High School
• Middle College at UNCG
• New Garden Friends School
• Northern Guilford High School
• Page High School
• Ragsdale High School
• Smith High School
• Southern Guilford High School
• Southwest Guilford High School
• STEM College at A&T
• Western High Guilford School

1:00 PM Calling on Ancestors: Writing the Past into the Present

TYREE DAYE was raised in Youngsville, North Carolina. He is the author of the poetry collections a little bump in the earth, Cardinal , and River Hymns—winner of the APR/Honickman First Book Prize. He currently an Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. LEARN MORE

DAVID NICHOLSON s a former editor and book reviewer for the Washington Post Book World and author of Flying Home: Seven Stories of the Secret City. He attended Haverford College before graduating from the University of the District of Columbia. Nicholson has worked as a reporter in San Francisco; Milwaukee; and Dayton, Ohio. He lives in Vienna, Virginia, with his wife and son. LEARN MORE

DR. ZELDA LOCKHART is Director at Her Story Garden Studios: Inspiring Black Women & Girls to Self-Define, Heal, and Liberate Through Our Stories & Nature. Lockhart holds a PhD in Expressive Art Therapies. She is the author of two memoirs and four novels. Her latest books include Trinity (a novel) by Zelda Lockhart, HarperCollins 2023 and The Soul of the Full-Length Manuscript: Turning Life’s Wounds into the Gift of Literary Fiction, Memoir, or Poetry. She facilitates workshops and offers lectures on the power of our stories and the power of nature to connect and heal humanity.

2:00 PM Landscapes of Our Hearts: How Culture Informs Personal Experience

JANUARY GILL O’NEIL was born in Norfolk, Virginia, and earned her BA from Old Dominion University and an MFA from New York University. She is the author of Glitter Road, Rewilding, recognized by Mass Center for the Book as a notable poetry collection for 2018; Misery Islands, winner of a 2015 Paterson Award for Literary Excellence; and Underlife. The recipient of fellowships from Cave Canem and the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, O’Neil was awarded a Massachusetts Cultural Council grant and was named the John and Renée Grisham Writer in Residence for 2019-2020 at the University of Mississippi, Oxford. She is an associate professor of English at Salem State University and is board chair of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (2022-2024). She lives in Beverly, Massachusetts.

JOSÉ OLIVAREZ is the son of Mexican immigrants. His debut book of poems, Citizen Illegal, was a finalist for the PEN/Jean Stein Award and a winner of the 2018 Chicago Review of Books Poetry Prize. It was named a top book of 2018 by the Adroit Journal, NPR, and the New York Public Library. Along with Felicia Chavez and Willie Perdomo, he coedited the poetry anthology The BreakBeat Poets Vol. 4: LatiNext. He cohosts the poetry podcast The Poetry Gods.

KATE PARTRIDGE is the author of two poetry collections: THINE and Ends of the Earth. Her poems have appeared in Copper Nickel, Field, Michigan Quarterly Review, Yale Review, and other journals. She is an assistant professor at Regis University in Denver, Colorado.

4:00 PM Mixtape Musings: How the Pop Culture of the 80s and Music Scene of 90s Shaped Our Lives

TOM MAXWELL is a writer and musician. A product of the fertile Chapel Hill music scene, he was a member of the Squirrel Nut Zippers from 1994-1999. Tom’s song “Hell” peaked at Number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100, propelling the band to multi-platinum status. His songs have appeared in dozens of movies and television shows, a Super Bowl commercial, an Academy Award-nominated documentary, and the Tony Award-winning Broadway soundtrack. As a writer, Tom has contributed to Al Jazeera America, The Oxford American, The Bitter Southerner, and the Library of Congress, among others. He is a member of the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame.

PAUL CRENSHAW is the author of three essay collections: This One Will Hurt You, This We’ll Defend, and Melt With Me, on the Cold War culture of the 1980s. Other work has appeared in Best American Essays, Best American Nonrequired Reading, The Pushcart Prize, and Oxford American. He is a graduate of the UNCG Master’s in Creative Writing program.