Mountain Heritage Literary Festival

12/15/2025

MHLF 20 is coming May 29 and 30th! We are thrilled to welcome back our founder, Silas House, as this year's keynote speaker.

Save $30 on admission until Feb 1 with promo code: MHLF20EARLYBIRD

More details to come!

The 20th annual Mountain Heritage Literary Festival is Appalachia's best creative writing event, featuring workshops, readings, and more!

05/23/2025

One week left! Tickets are still available! (Link in comments.)

05/16/2025

Two weeks until the 19th annual MHLF! Tickets and a few scholarships still remaining!

Spend a weekend writing poetry, fiction, nonfiction, YA and Romance at the 19th Annual Mountain Heritage Literary Festival!

04/25/2025

Thrilled to announce that the guest judge of this year's writing contests will be Wes Browne!

Wes is the author of the gripping Appalachian Crime noir "They All Fall the Same" and is a former attendee of MHLF.

Get those submissions turned in by May 1! (Link to submission guidelines in the comments.)

04/04/2025

Stop by our booth at the Knoxville Book Festival Saturday and Sunday!

03/28/2025

Friendly reminder that our writing contest submissions are now open! (Link in comments)

03/17/2025

Join memoirist and author of "Holler Rat," Anya Liftig, for her incredible nonfiction workshops.

Life into Memoir: Building Spaces
In this workshop we will focus on how authors take the raw material of life experience and craft it into compelling memoir. What techniques do they use to immerse the reader in scenes? How do they ensconce the reader in time and place? How are larger themes of their stories being expressed? Together, we will look at a variety of authors and analyze their approaches. We will also try some of our own and hopefully, you will leave with some sharp new tools in your belt.

The Narrator's Voice: A No Fear Introduction to Speaking from the Soul
Voice, Voice, Voice. It's the ineffable element that, together with style, gives our favorite authors their je ne sais quoi. And yes, some people are just born with it, but most of us have to work at it. In this workshop, we will explore the elusive world of the voice. We will analyze examples from a wide range of authors (think Gay Talese, to Ottessa Moshfegh, to JD Salinger, to Dr Seuss) and practice exercises to access our own unique voices. Attendants will walk away with a new approach to the concept of voice and a toolbox for their own writing.

03/14/2025

Join Emmy-winning novelist, Ben Tanzer, for his fiction workshops this year!

Becoming Unstuck, Step by Step.

You're on a journey, you're using your brain...a lot. Also, writing is hard. Books are work. And sometimes we get stuck and we wish we weren't. The thing is, wishing isn't a plan and the question is since we know that, how do we become unstuck? First, the question is why do we become stuck? Then how do we become unstuck. This highly interactive presentation explores the why's, where's, and how's, as well as, self-awareness, self-care, hope, structure, and planning...Because it all plays a role when we get stuck, and when we don't. This presentation will look at all of it. There will be tips, mine and yours, sharing, and writing prompts too, because what could be better than that? Nothing. Besides not being stuck of course.

Crafting Place: A Novel Writing Cafe.

This interactive workshop will inspire its participants to embrace a sense of place in their work - including setting, characters, and situations, while generating the ideas and foundation needed to build a novel all their own. Activities will include a series of individual and group exercises that will encourage participants to look within and examine their own experiences, the people and places they know, and where they've lived, both physically and emotionally. We'll also talk and write - a lot!

03/13/2025

Join us for our Romance and YA writing workshops featuring New York Times Bestseller, Gwenda Bond!

Romancing the Page - In this class, we’ll talk about the basics of writing romance and explore technique through exercises. We will survey the array of subgenres and heat levels in romance, talk about developing your all-important central love interests and their central conflict(s), as well as covering the major building blocks of a romance story structure -- and discussing some pitfalls to avoid. Bring your big emotions and ideas to this workshop on writing the love story.

Let's Talk YA - In this class, we'll talk about writing for young adults and do some exercises to help us channel our inner teens. What sets stories for teens apart? Are they different or is this just a marketing category? What are some things to keep in mind while writing YA? What unique challenges and opportunities does it present to the writer? We'll cover the basics of writing for teens.

03/10/2025

Join us for Denton Loving's poetry workshops:

There Is a Road in this Poem: Writing Poems About Place
The poet Maurice Manning tells us that place-poetry is not limited to any certain geography or natural setting. Every place is a place! Using various model poems, we'll dive into three of the most common ways writers capture a sense of place in poetry.

Ekphrastic Poetry
The term ekphrasis comes to us from the Greek where it means "Description." Most commonly, ekphrastic writing expresses a visual medium in verbal form. In this workshop we'll look at examples of poetry and short prose that respond to other pieces of art, and we'll practice using art to tap into our own inner resources.

02/21/2025

Thrilled to finally announce that tickets are on sale (Link below) and our keynote speaker is none other than former Kentucky Poet Laureate Frank X. Walker!

In addition, we are thrilled to have the one-and-only Denton Loving leading poetry workshops this year, celebrated novelist Ben Tanzer will be leading our fiction workshops. In addition, we will have memoir, romance, and YA workshops, with the leaders of those classes to be announced soon!

We can't wait to see you this year!

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/19th-annual-mountain-heritage-literary-festival-tickets-1242467326219?aff=oddtdtcreator

01/08/2025

Huge congratulations to our friend Denton Loving for winning the Tennessee Book Award for poetry!