… to apply to be a featured reader at the JaxbyJax Literary Arts Festival VI. Just click here to get started! Now that you’re back from that long holiday weekend, there’s no better time than now to get’er done!
P.S. If the $25 application is a hardship for anyone, just contact Darlyn Finch Kuhn at scribbler.finch@gmail.com. A limited number of scholarships are available, thanks to a generous anonymous sponsor.
Writer applications open July 1, 2020 for JaxbyJax Literary Arts Festival VII. Writers who either live in Jacksonville, were born in Jacksonville, or write about Jacksonville can apply at https://www.jaxbyjax.com/application, through July 31. Writer selections will be announced by August 31, 2020.
Event organizers, Darlyn Finch Kuhn and Brad Kuhn also announced that, due to COVID-19 and the likelihood of continuing social distancing requirements, this year’s event will be held virtually in the form of a two-hour documentary, with an online debut/watch party scheduled for noon, Oct. 17, and again at 7 p.m. Oct. 18. A Student Showcase sponsored by FSCJ, UNF, and Douglas Anderson School of the Arts, will once again be a featured part of the festival, and included in the documentary.
This year’s event will focus on the issues of the day: pandemic, social justice, isolation, poverty, climate change, political corruption, and the hope for a better, brighter tomorrow.
This year’s event almost didn’t happen. As weeks went by with continuing public health concerns and restrictions on large public gatherings it became increasingly clear that getting together in-person would be out of the question. This adversity has been met, however, with technological advancements, including the ability to produce and stream high-quality digital video at an affordable price.
“We are thrilled to have found this exciting way forward, thanks to the continuing support of Ron Chamblin and additional resources provided by our newest sponsor, Baptist Health,” said Darlyn. “This documentary gives us an excellent opportunity to capture the truth of this moment in history, and preserve it in the words of some of Jacksonville’s greatest creative souls.”
The documentary will be produced by Scribbles and Brad Kuhn & Associates, LLC. Signed copies of work by festival authors will be available in a special collection near the checkout counters at Chamblin’s Uptown and Chamblin Bookmine.
“It has been my pleasure to serve the readers, and writers, of Northeast Florida since 1976,” said Chamblin, owner of Chamblin Bookmine and Chamblin’s Uptown. “Jacksonville has an incredible writing community, and Jax by Jax is a big part of that.”
The Community Liaison for JaxbyJax is Darlyn Finch Kuhn, a Jacksonville native who returned to the city in 2017 along with her husband, Brad, founder and CEO of Brad Kuhn & Associates, LLC, a sponsor of the literary event. Darlyn is the author of Sewing Holes, a novel set in Jacksonville during the Vietnam War, and writes the Scribbles literary e-newsletter, which also sponsors JaxbyJax. Brad Kuhn’s latest book is Dirty Work, a true adventure story of the pilot who stole back TWA flight 847 from Hezbollah.
First things first: Change that date you saved! The JaxbyJax Literary Arts Festival has been moved to Saturday, October 17th (to avoid a conflict with the incredible Porch Fest!)
Second: We are thrilled to announce an exciting new sponsor: Baptist Health! We’ll let you know all the ways we’ll be working together in the near future, but for now we’ll just say a gigantic THANKS!
We’re equally tickled that, due to the continued generosity of Ron Chamblin, owner of Chamblin’s Uptown & Bookmine, we’ll once again provide a cash award to the selected writers. Thank you, Ron!
Third, Brad of Brad Kuhn & Associates has this to say:
“Official history may be written after the fact by the winners of wars. Real history, however, is chronicled, in real time, in the slivers and shards of soul songs scribbled by poets and writers. It is these upwellings that social scientists mine to find the unalloyed truth of a moment.
Writers of Jacksonville, this is our moment, and we are writing its history.
There is a lot to unpack in 2020: plague, isolation, fear, poverty, climate change, social injustice, and political corruption. There is also the hope for a better, brighter tomorrow, that can be found in the work of a new generation of activists who are inspiring us all with their courage and willingness to take a brutal beating and stand up, again, for a righteous cause.
This is the story of our times, but it is playing out right here in this beautiful, ugly; broken, healing; hide-bound, evolving; inspiring, infuriating Southern Gothic mess of a city we call home.
The Jax by Jax Literary Arts Festival was created for this moment. And even though it has been decided that we will not be able to get together in person this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the show must go on. Our voices must be heard—especially now.
With that in mind, the festival organizers are proud to announce that Jax by Jax VII will be a virtual event, with writer performances and commentary captured on video, and presented in a two-hour documentary.
Although it is disappointing that we will not all be able to get together in person this year, this adversity has created an incredible opportunity for us to use the technology of our time to capture our moment in the amber of digital video and create something unique and timeless.”
Applications will be open July 1st – 31st at :
https://www.jaxbyjax.com/
SAVE THE DATE! November 7, 2020
As with every other cultural event scheduled for 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has injected uncertainty into our planning for JaxbyJax 2020.
Will we be able to meet face-to-face (with appropriate PPE and social distancing measures) at the Jacksonville Public Library and the Museum of Contemporary Art, as we did in 2019?
Or will we hold a virtual event online, that can be recorded and played again and again, at the viewer’s convenience? Who knows?
We will keep you updated as events unfold, with safety as our first priority.
What we do know is that Jacksonville’s talented professional and student writers are still scribbling away, and deserve their day of celebration.
So celebrate we will.
Applications will be open July 1-31. Get to scribbling!
SAVE THE DATE! November 7, 2020
