Keep St. Pete Lit April Festivities

KEEP ST. PETE LIT?celebrates and promotes greater St. Petersburg’s literary community?– past, present and future – through arts, education and events with a literary twist. Based in The Factory St. Pete, founder Maureen McDole was born in St. Petersburg, a direct descendant of carnies, carpenters and fishermen who always loved to write.

Her first book of poems,?Exploring My Options?came out in 2006.?Her second poetry book,?Longing for the Deep End?was released in December 2011. Maureen’s third collection of poems entitled?Feast?will come out in early 2021 from St. Petersburg Press. She has a BA in English Literature from?USF-St. Petersburg and a certificate in Arts & Culture Strategy from University of Pennsylvania.?Her poetry has been set in a variety of different ways including: film, dance, spoken word, art installations, Sprechstimme, and traditional vocal works.

?McDole is the recipient of St. Petersburg Art Alliance’s 2016 MUSE Award for Literary Arts. She is also the President of Friends of the Mirror Lake Library. Maureen has been leading workshops and speaking about creativity for over 15 years. She founded Keep St. Pete Lit because she believes wholeheartedly in the power of literature to change the world.

Keep St. Pete Lit features poetry open mics, book club reading and talks, children’s classes, non-fiction and fiction writing classes, and new this spring, a memoir writing workshop with Kerry Kriseman. There are poetry classes and editorial/publishing assists from Maureen and her literary posse of gifted artists and writers. You can become a supporting member for as little as $5 a month. [email protected] for more information on how you can support this important non-profit organization.

The Writers’ Gym is conducted by Kate Postle to workout those writing muscles by sharing first-drafts with Keep St. Pete Lit’s passionate community of supportive and friendly writers. You’ll share tips, tricks and gentle pushes which build strong writing muscles. Writers of all genres from poetry to fiction to non-fiction are welcome. There’s also a Poet’s Gym taught by Cole Bellamy, an instructor of English and Creative Writing at Saint Leo University. He is the author of three collections of poetry- Lancelot’s Blues (Green Rabbit Press), The Mermaid Postcard (Yellow Jacket Press) and American Museum (Beauty Press), his work has appeared in Moonshot, Penumbra, The Louisville Review, The Sandhill Review, and several others.?

?Paradise News is a proud sponsor of the 6th Annual SunLit Literary Festival April 1-3 around St. Petersburg collaborating with literary and cultural organizations to promote the enjoyment of books, reading, writing, and the classic art of letterpress printing. Call if intoxicating Litertainment for the masses, and just plain fun. Donations to various groups devoted to reading will be made from some of the ticket sales.

4/1 - 6th Annual SunLit Festival Kick-off Party “Where the Wild Things Are”?@ The Fairgrounds St. Pete – Bands, a Sendak theme park, food and drink.?St. Petersburg Press will be hosting “Meet the Authors” – an evening with locally renowned St. Petersburg Press Authors. St. Petersburg Press Founder, Joe Hamilton will open with a tribute to the St. Pete Literary Community, followed by the presentation of the 2022 Roy Peter Clark Award to a Local Literary Hero who has made an outstanding contribution to the St. Petersburg Story.

4/1-4/3 -39th Annual Florida Antiquarian Book Fair @ St. Pete’s Historic Coliseum, better knowns ?“Palace of Pleasure” in the Roaring Twenties where famed artists performed including Louie Armstrong, Buddy Rich, Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, and Harry James. ?https://www.FloridaAntiquarianBookFair.com

4/2 Poetry in the Park BLC?@ Thomas “Jet” Jackson Recreation Center, Shelter #2 for Breakfast, Poetry + Community! Cultured Books Literacy Foundation is hosting Poetry in the Park BLC !

4/2 Mirror Lake Walking Tour With A Literary Twist with Preserve the ‘Burg

?4/2 Gulfport Historical Society Book Swap?

4/2 Nature Journaling with St. Pete Audubon @ Sawgrass Lake Park

4/2 Poetry Exploring Wildness : A SunLit Poetry Event @ Tombolo Books with Helen Wallace and Gloria Mu?oz plus Kate Postle, Curtis Davis and ZenChristian Davis.

4/2 Children’s Poetry Night Hike @ Boyd Hill Nature Preserve

4/3 Tour de Kerouac with The Friends of Jack Kerouac, for a guided bike tour featuring historical landmarks that Kerouac interacted with during his time living in St. Petersburg, FL such as The Flamingo Bar, St. Anthony’s Hospital, Al Lang Field, Haslam’s Books, The Manhattan Casino and Mirror Lake Community Library.? Some stops will have live poetry readings.

4/3 Wordier’s 1K Walk and Write (or Read) (and pub crawl) starting from The Hangar Restaurant and Flight Lounge.

4/3 Lucha Libro: Eight of Tampa Bay’s most daring writers face off in live literary combat!?Each pair of authors are given a random prompt and then they have five minutes to create an original piece of written brilliance, right before your eyes!

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