FMU ready to host 2022 Pee Dee Fiction and Poetry Festival

Francis Marion University will host the 15th Annual Pee Dee Fiction and Poetry Festival on November 3-4.

This year’s guests include poet laureate of the United States Ada Limón, New York Times bestselling author Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Marvel Comics’ Benjamin Percy, and South Carolina writer Laura Leigh Morris.

The two-day festival dedicated to the promotion of literature and reading will feature panel discussions, lectures, book signings and more from four renowned authors. Events will be held in Lowrimore Auditorium on FMU’s main campus and will be free to attend and open to the public.

Ada Limón is the current poet laureate of the United States, a position appointed to one person annually by the Librarian of Congress. During the course of her career, Limón has authored six books of poetry, including “The Carrying,” which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry. Her book “Bright Dead Things” was nominated for the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award following the book’s release in 2015. Limón hosts a critically-acclaimed poetry podcast called “The Slowdown,” and her new book of poetry, “The Hurting Kind,” was published earlier this year.

Benjamin Percy has garnered acclaim for his work with Marvel Comics, in addition to authoring six novels and winning numerous awards. Percy has written for Wolverine, X-Force, and Ghost Rider. His two most recent novels, “The Ninth Metal” and “The Unfamiliar Garden,” were released in 2021 and 2022 respectively. Percy also co-wrote the film “Summering,” which premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, and is currently writing a TV adaptation of Urban Cowboy for Paramount Plus. He is a contributing editor at Esquire and has been published in Time, GQ, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Men’s Journal, and the Paris Review.

Aimee Nezhukumatathil is an award-winning author and poet whose writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, ESPN, and Best American Poetry. Her most recent book, “World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, & Other Astonishments,” was named a finalist for the Kirkus Prize in non-fiction, as well as four award-winning poetry collections. Nezhukumatathil is professor of English and Creative Writing in the University of Mississippi’s MFA program.

Laura Leigh Morris is a former FMU instructor who currently lives in Greenville, SC, where she teaches at Furman University. The author of “Jaws of Life: Stories,” which was published in 2018, Morris’ short fiction work has appeared in Appalachian Heritage, Louisville Review, Notre Dame Review, and other journals. Morris spent three years as the National Endowment for the Arts/Bureau of Prisons Artist-in-Residence at Bryan Federal Prison Camp in Bryan, Texas. 

The Pee Dee Fiction and Poetry Festival began in 2006 and has become an annual autumn event coordinated by FMU’s English faculty. 

For a full schedule and additional information of the Nov. 3-4 event, visit peedeefiction.org.