Nylah Watkins is an award-winning writer and senior attending Douglas Anderson School of the Arts for Creative Writing. She has been recognized by Élan Literary Magazine and Scholastic Art & Writing for her fiction. She engages in community service advocating for safe spaces in classrooms, literary arts, and preserving history.

Nylah will read her work at the Student Showcase in the Main Auditorium F-128 on Saturday, December 3rd at 3 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. JaxbyJax is grateful to our generous sponsors: FSCJ, Alternate Roots, Mellon Foundation, Ford Foundation, 904WARD, Chamblin’s Bookmine and Uptown Café, Jacksonville Literary Arts Alliance, Bab’s Lab, JaxPsychoGeo, San Marco Books and More, Scribbles, and Brad Kuhn & Associates, LLC.

Romaine Bennett is a first year student at UNF majoring in Psychology and English with a concentration in creative writing. She has been writing poetry since freshman year of high school. She was born and raised in Miami, Florida and her family hails from Jamaica. She has previously had one of her poems published in Poetry Out Loud Gets Original: 2023. She would like to become a published poetry and fiction author along with being a Forensic Psychologist.

Bennett will read at the Student Showcase in the Main Auditorium on Saturday, December 2nd at 3 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.

JaxbyJax is grateful to our generous sponsors: FSCJ, Alternate Roots, Mellon Foundation, Ford Foundation, 904WARD, Chamblin’s Bookmine and Uptown Café, Jacksonville Literary Arts Alliance, Bab’s Lab, JaxPsychoGeo, San Marco Books and More, Scribbles, and Brad Kuhn & Associates, LLC.

Michael G. O’Connell has always been a storyteller. While he is a native of the Sunshine State, much of his prose often takes a darker turn. He earned his first writing credit by participating in a Twitter experiment where he collaborated with Neil Gaiman and hundreds of others to write a novella. His short fiction and poetry has appeared in numerous publications including the Bacopa Literary Review, The Raven Review, Moss Gossamer, Kaidankai: Ghost and Supernatural Stories, As It Ought To Be, Dracula Beyond Stoker, and Words & Sports. He is currently writing and illustrating on a middle-grade horror.

O’Connell will read on Saturday, December 2nd at 1:45 PM in Art Auditorium E-112-F.

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 grateful to our generous sponsors: FSCJ, Alternate Roots, Mellon Foundation, Ford Foundation, 904WARD, Chamblin’s Bookmine and Uptown Café, Jacksonville Literary Arts Alliance, Bab’s Lab, JaxPsychoGeo, San Marco Books and More, Scribbles, and Brad Kuhn & Associates, LLC.