The Festival
Friday, May 16 - Sunday, May 18
(Full Day and Evening Events)
The Trace to Trail Writers Festival at The Sanctuary is an inclusive event for writers of all backgrounds and experience levels—whether you're published or unpublished, well-connected or isolated, from a rural or urban area.
This weekend festival offers seven meals and three creative writing workshops on poetry, fiction, and non-fiction. These sessions will be led by experienced instructors Shawna Rodenberg, Michael Patrick Flanagan Smith, and Robert Gipe, who will also share readings of their own work after the evening meals.
There will be plenty of time throughout the weekend for writing, reflection, and enjoying the peaceful surroundings of The Sanctuary, which include a gazebo, decks with views of the pond, a yoga studio, and walking trails.
Festival Schedule
Friday, May 16
5:00 PM Social gathering followed by chef-prepared dinner
7:00 PM Reading by Shawna Kay Rodenberg. Coffee and dessert to be served after reading
Saturday, May 17
9:00 AM Continental breakfast followed by generative craft lecture
Midday Lunch followed by second generative craft lecture
5:00 PM Social gathering followed by chef-prepared dinner
7:00 PM Reading by Michael Patrick F. Smith. Coffee and dessert to be served after reading
Sunday, May 18
9:00 AM Continental breakfast followed by generative craft lecture
Midday Lunch followed by second generative craft lecture
5:00 PM Social gathering followed by chef-prepared dinner
7:00 PM Reading by Robert Gipe. Coffee and dessert to be served after reading
Festival Application
To apply to the festival, send us a letter telling us who you are and why you want to come.
Application must be received by May 1. The $300 cost for the festival is due by May 9.
Festival Artist Readings
7:00 PM readings by featured festival artists are open to the public, by registration only. A suggested $20 donation may be given at the door.
Festival Artists
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Shawna Kay Rodenberg
Friday evening featured writer
Shawna Kay Rodenberg is the author of the memoir Kin. She has been the recipient of a Jean Ritchie Fellowship and a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award, and her essays have appeared in Salon, The Village Voice, and Elle. She teaches nonfiction at the Bennington Writing Seminars and lives on a hobby goat farm in southern Indiana.
Image credit: Joshua Lucca
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Michael Patrick F. Smith
Saturday evening featured writer
Michael Patrick F. Smith is the author of The Good Hand (A Memoir of Work, Brotherhood, and Transformation in an American Boomtown). His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post Magazine, and The Guardian. Currently, he also works as a gardener in Brooklyn, New York.
Image credit: Zach Pontz -
Robert Gipe
Sunday evening featured writer
Robert Gipe won the 2015 Weatherford Award for outstanding Appalachian novel for his first novel Trampoline. His second novel, Weedeater, was published in 2018. His third novel, Pop, was published in 2021. All three novels are published by Ohio University Press. In 2021, the trilogy won the Judy Gaines Young Book Award. From 1997 to 2018, Gipe directed the Southeast Kentucky Community & Technical College Appalachian Program in Harlan. Gipe is founding producer of the Higher Ground community performance series, and has served as a script consultant for the Hulu series Dopesick and a producer on the feature film The Evening Hour. Gipe resides in Harlan County, Kentucky. He grew up in Kingsport, Tennessee.
Image credit: Meaghan Evans