Lit Youngstown announces online benefit with Mahoning natives – Youngstown Vindicator
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Lit Youngstown will host an online benefit reading with two nationally recognized poets with Mahoning Valley ties.
Ross Gay, who was born in Youngstown, is the author of four books of poetry and winner of the PEN American Literary Jean Stein Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award.
He will read from his new collection of essays, “Inciting Joy.” Gay will be the featured poet at the 2023 Fall Literary Festival in Youngstown in October.
Rochelle Hurt, who grew up in Youngstown, is the author of three poetry collections and winner of the Blue Light Books Prize, the Barrow Street Poetry Prize and the White Pine Press Marie Alexander Series Prize.
She will read from “The J Girls: A Reality Show.” Hurt has been a Lit Youngstown featured reader and Fall Literary Festival presenter.
According to Lit Youngstown director Karen Schubert, “This place made a deep impression on these poets. Youngstown is in the blood and words of quite a few accomplished contemporary writers, and we are proud of our literary legacy.”
After the reading, a discussion will be moderated by poet Philip Memmer, author of six poetry collections and director of the Downtown Syracuse Writers Center. Memmer was Lit Youngstown’s 2019 Fall Literary Festival featured poet and is currently on the Advisory Council.
Youngstown Live/d is scheduled at 8 p.m. Jan. 30. Advance registration is available at www.lityoungstown.org/youngstownlive-d
The cost is $25 to attend. For $75 participants also will receive signed books by Gay and Hurt, and for $100 they will receive signed books by Gay, Hurt and Memmer. Proceeds will benefit Lit Youngstown.