It’s always thrilling to welcome new voices to the JaxbyJax Literary Arts Festival!

Lex Hamilton is a poet and essayist born and raised in Jacksonville. As a Douglas Anderson School of the Arts alumni, Lex has been growing her passion for writing for many years. More recently, her work explores the intersectionality of her life as a woman, a person of color, and an artist. Currently, Lex is a student at the University of North Florida, studying the ways in which writing can help others to heal from trauma. She dreams of creating programs, utilized in the public school system, that promote writing as a means of expression and healing for all children. 

JaxbyJax Literary Arts Festival VII is a celebration of Jacksonville Writers Writing Jacksonville. Generous sponsors include Baptist Health, Chamblins Uptown & Bookmine, Delegal & Poindexter, PA; Scribbles, and Brad Kuhn & Associates, LLC.

The 2020 festival will take the form of a documentary video, with watch parties at noon on Saturday, October 17th and 7 p.m. on Sunday, October 18th. For details, see jaxbyjax.com.

Writer, editor, and poet Lynn Skapyak Harlin has led Writers Workshops for 30 years, most notably on her legendary Shantyboat, which was tragically lost to the winds and waves of Hurricane Irma in 2017. Her writing and poetry has appeared in textbooks, trade magazines, literary magazines, newspaper articles and features. Her first published poem, “War Waste,” appeared in Time Magazine in1970.

Her latest collection of poems, Twists and Turns, was published by Hidden Owl Books in 2019.

This indomitable woman we like to call “Jacksonville’s Sweetest Meanie” will lead a Writing Workshop and read her original poetry at JaxbyJax VII.

JaxbyJax Literary Arts Festival VII is a celebration of Jacksonville Writers Writing Jacksonville. Generous sponsors include Baptist Health, Chamblins Uptown & Bookmine, Delegal & Poindexter, PA; Scribbles, and Brad Kuhn & Associates, LLC.

The 2020 festival will take the form of a documentary video, with watch parties at noon on Saturday, October 17th and 7 p.m. on Sunday, October 18th. For details, see jaxbyjax.com.

Sarah Crooks is a multidisciplinary eco feminist artist/educator. Home is Here Along Red Pearl River is her first published book, funded in part by a grant from the FL Division of Cultural Affairs and an Art Ventures Grant from The Community Foundation of NE Florida. The work takes a deep look at the culture of colonization that arrived on our shores of North Florida and creates a new narrative of belonging based on partnership with, rather than dominance over, the living world.

JaxbyJax Literary Arts Festival VII is a celebration of Jacksonville Writers Writing Jacksonville. Generous sponsors include Baptist Health, Chamblins Uptown & Bookmine, Delegal & Poindexter, PA; Scribbles, and Brad Kuhn & Associates, LLC.

The 2020 festival will take the form of a documentary video, with watch parties at noon on Saturday, October 17th and 7 p.m. on Sunday, October 18th. For details, see jaxbyjax.com.