Carolina Mountains Literary Festival

Our Mission: TO FOSTER COMMUNITY BY SUPPORTING AND CELEBRATING LITERACY AND THE LOVE OF LITERATURE IN THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIANS

The Carolina Mountains Literary Festival draws dozens of authors to Burnsville each September. The annual event brings readers, writers, and learners of all ages together to share ideas and make connections around the written word.

The weekend begins Thursday night with a free all-ages community performance usually held at Town Center. All day Friday and Saturday, authors in fiction, poetry, memoir, non-fiction, and young adult literature give free readings and discussions in venues around the Burnsville Town Square. Authors’ books are sold throughout the festival. The festival offers two opportunities each day to have books signed. Three-hour writing workshops are offered for practicing and aspiring writers at a small cost.  The festival closes with a Saturday night Keynote event.

Our aspiration is to bring together, in small, intimate settings, authors, readers of all ages, novice writers, listeners, and learners. We are a festival of readers who appreciate discussing the ideas in literature. create a little literary community which is in dialog with readers, aspiring writers, and established authors about craft and ideas of sustaining merit. We hope to raise awareness of works of literary significance from smaller presses.  We do focus on regional writers, though not exclusively. 

We hope the Carolina Mountains Literary Festival inspires people to read more, write more, and contribute positively to society through the literary arts.