Damon Thomas is a sixth-generation Floridian that grew up in Dixie County on the banks of the Suwannee River. Here he experienced a Southernness that included sea monsters, swamp cabbage, and makeshift graves. Damon has released 18 Spoken Word albums & 5 books on how the bookish might pass time in a Southern Gothic setting.
Thomas will read on Saturday, December 2nd at 11:45 AM in the Main Auditorium F-128.
JaxbyJax Literary Arts Festival X, a celebration of Jacksonville Writers Writing Jacksonville, will be held on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, December 1, 2, and 3, 2023 at FSCJ’s Kent Campus, 3939 Roosevelt Blvd, Jacksonville, FL, 32205.
JaxbyJax is proud to host a dynamic set of workshop leaders, Melissa Gopp-Warner and Tricia Booker, on Sunday, December 3rd at noon in FSCJ’s Kent Campus, Building B Room 200.
Through a co-hosted workshop, these two talented writers will bring focus to the literary art of memoir writing. We look forward to learning from their shared knowledge and applying that learning to craft authentic, memorable, personal narratives!
Melissa Gopp-Warner is a creative nonfiction reader and writer. Her articles, stories, and personal essays have appeared in Publishers Weekly, The Banyan Review, The Writer, Yoga Journal, and elsewhere. She has an insatiable appetite for memoir and promotes the genre through bimonthly book reviews of diverse authors and life experiences at Memoirs with Melissa on Substack. Excerpts of her own memoir have been featured in the JaxbyJax Literary Arts Festival and the JaxNext100 writing contest.
Tricia Booker is an award-winning journalist and neurotic writer of creative nonfiction who is unexpectedly very good at boxing. She lives in Ponte Vedra, Florida with two teenagers, three dogs, and a miraculous fish. She has written for many publications including Notre Dame Magazine, Folio Weekly, Minnesota’s Law & Politics and the Vero Beach Press-Journal. She has taught creative writing to middle schoolers and inmates and journalism to college students. She currently teaches writing at the University of North Florida and tries not to hurt herself doing CrossFit.
JaxbyJax Literary Arts Festival X, a celebration of Jacksonville Writers Writing Jacksonville, will be held on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, December 1, 2, and 3, 2023 at FSCJ’s Kent Campus, 3939 Roosevelt Blvd, Jacksonville, FL, 32205.
Angelina Davis is a senior Creative Writer at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts. Her preferred genre of choice is fiction and greatly enjoys creating stories with an element of mystery and families of choice. She imbues her characters with relatable flaws so their narrative foils can create satisfying turn-arounds and often finds herself drawing inspiration from people around her. In the future she hopes to either finish and publish a detective novel or begin the process of scriptwriting for animated television, each with a large cast of characters with great potential for major personal developments.
Davis will read a story at the Student Showcase at 3 pm on Saturday, December 2nd in the Main Auditorium F-128.
JaxbyJax Literary Arts Festival X, a celebration of Jacksonville Writers Writing Jacksonville, will be held on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, December 1, 2, and 3, 2023 at FSCJ’s Kent Campus, 3939 Roosevelt Blvd, Jacksonville, FL, 32205.
Johnny Masiulewicz is author of the poetry collections Keywords and Professional Cemetery, andfounder of the artisan publishing house Happy Tapir Press. As proprietor of the press, he has created the award-winning Happy Tapir zine series, and has published the work of such Jacksonville literary luminaries as Lynn Skapyak, Tim Gilmore, G.M Palmer, and Keri Foster. His own work has appeared in a variety of literary journals and sites including Curbside Review, The Main Street Rag, Third Wednesday and The Alembic. A Native Chicagoan, Johnny now lives and works in the Murray Hill neighborhood.
Masiulewicz will host two reading sessions in the Art Auditorium E-112-F on Saturday, December 2nd. The first is from 1:00 – 2:30 PM, and the second is from 3-4 PM. He’ll read from his work from 3:45 PM – 4:00 PM.
JaxbyJax Literary Arts Festival X, a celebration of Jacksonville Writers Writing Jacksonville, will be held on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, December 1, 2, and 3, 2023 at FSCJ’s Kent Campus, 3939 Roosevelt Blvd, Jacksonville, FL, 32205.
