Join us at Grace Aberdean / This Ol' Thing, Sunday March 11, at 6:30pm, as we celebrate 3 published writers! Shanti Weiland Laura Hendrix Ezell and Jessica Kidd will all read from their selected works!

Shanti Weiland
Shanti Weiland’s book Sister Nun is the 2015 winner of the Negative Capability Press Book Competition. Weiland received her BA in English from the University of California, Davis and later moved to the desert, pursuing a Creative Writing MA at Northern Arizona University. She then traveled to the humid and friendly south, where she earned a PhD in Poetry from the University of Southern Mississippi. She currently teaches writing and literature at The University of Alabama and lives in Birmingham with her wife and pets. 

Laura Hendrix Ezell
Laura Hendrix Ezell's story collection, A Record of Our Debts, was winner of the 2015 Moon City Short Fiction Award. Her work has appeared in McSweeney's, Kenyon Review, Mid-American Review, and other journals. She received an MFA in Fiction from The University of Alabama, and currently works as a school librarian in Birmingham.

Jessica Kidd
Jessica Fordham Kidd is a lifelong Alabamian. She is the associate director of first-year writing at the University of Alabama, and her poems have appeared in Drunken Boat, Storyscape, Tinderbox, and The Paris Review among

Listen to the music picked by the author's that inspired their works and characters:

https://open.spotify.com/user/graceaberdean/playlist/3fom3ntocSZj9ZOBwA46Ok

Good & Refreshments will be provided!

We’re looking to reel in some authors! 
 The 3rd Annual Catfish Literary Festival will be held on Saturday, May 27th, 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at Athens-Limestone Public Library. This one-day literary festival will feature panel discussions and book readings. Each author and vendor who signs up will have their own tables-space to display books and meet their audience.

How you can get involved:
For $5.00, authors and other vendors share a seven-foot table with one other vendor. They can reserve an entire seven-foot table for themselves for $10.00. The Library provides table-space, seating, and light refreshments. In addition, we will promote the event through social and traditional media. We also have free wi-fi available throughout the library. Authors and vendors are responsible for bringing books, point-of-sale devices, money to make change, and any other items. Displays are encouraged, provided they don’t cause unnecessary distraction or impede on another vendor’s space.

Registration and Payment:
Space is limited, and authors must register in advance through the following web-form: https://goo.gl/je8CBx. Paper copies of the form are available at the library if needed.
Payment must be made by 4:00 p.m., May 20th. Payment can be made with cash, check, or credit card in person at the library, by mail, or over the phone.

Make checks out to Athens-Limestone Public Library. Payments can be mailed to Athens-Limestone Public Library, 603 South Jefferson St., Athens, AL 35611. (Please mark “Attn: Catfish Festival Committee.”)

If you have any questions, please email Kristopher Reisz at KREISZ@ALCPL.ORG or call (256) 232-1233.

We hope you can join us for Limestone County’s only literary festival.

Kristopher Reisz
Head of Reference
Athens-Limestone Public Library
(256) 232-1233