Meet Our Writers

Join our visiting authors for an inviting two-day event
with readings and master classes!

June Gervais

June Gervais’s debut novel Jobs for Girls with Artistic Flair (Viking/Penguin) is the coming-of-age story of a young queer woman chasing her dream of becoming a tattoo artist in the of the 1980s, when the industry was a gritty, predominantly male subculture. Called “original, immersive, and wholly alive” (Kirkus Reviews), it has been praised in The New York Times, NewsdayPloughshares, Booklist, Washington Independent Review of Books, Shondaland’s Pride Month Reading List, Lambda Literary’s “Most Anticipated LGBTQIA+ Literature,” and more. 

June’s essays, poems, and stories have appeared in Lit Hub, Writer’s Digest, The North American Review, The Missouri Review, Gulf Coast, Big Fiction, Cream City Review, Them, The Pinch, RHINO, The Common, Past Ten, Cordella, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars and teaches creative writing at Hofstra University, as well as conferences and community bookstores. Find her at junegervais.com and on Instagram (@june.gervais.writer).

Chelsea Whitton

Chelsea Whitton is the author of Bear Trap (Dancing Girl Press, 2018) and Wonder Wheel, published by LSU Press in 2026. She holds a PhD from the University of Cincinnati and an MFA in Poetry from The New School. Her poetry and prose have appeared in many of print and online publications, including Beloit Poetry Journal, Copper Nickel, Cream City Review, Poetry Ireland, The Atlanta Review, and Forklift-Ohio. Her work has been a finalist for the Gearhart Prize, and the Frost Place and Adrienne Richard awards for poetry. She is the recipient of the 2018 Sandy Crimmins National Poetry Prize. Raised in the Carolinas, she spent her twenties in New York and now lives in Southwestern Ohio, where she teaches at the Art Academy of Cincinnati. 

Past Festival Writers

March 30
Sub Label
1991

Mark Strand
Judith Hemschmeyer

March 30
Sub Label
1992

Billy Collins
W.P. Kinsella

March 30
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1993

Robin Hemley
Henry Taylor

March 30
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1994

Lucien Stryk
Sapphire

March 30
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1995

William Hathaway
Michael Martone

March 30
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1996

William Heyen
Jonis Agee

March 30
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2004

Tom Montag
Paul Zimmer

March 30
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2005

Beth Ann Fennelly
Larry Watson

March 30
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2006

Marilyn Taylor
Sebastian Matthews

March 30
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2007

Philip Dacey
Margaret Dawe

March 30
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2008

Tom Franklin
Linda Aschbrenner

March 30
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2009

David Lehman
Stacey Harwood

March 30
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2010

Michael Kriesel
Shannon Kring Buset

March 30
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2011

Joyce Dyer
Hailey Leithauser

March 30
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2012

Matthew Henriksen
Dawn Hogue
Jean Kuehnel
Jodie Liedke

March 30
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2013

Nick Lantz
Allyson Goldin Loomis

March 30
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2014

David Jauss
Karla Huston

March 30
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2015

A.E. Stallings
Nickolas Butler

March 30
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2016

Joe Wilkins
David Steingass

March 30
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2017

Kevin McFadden
Emily Ruskovich

March 30
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2018

Barton Sutter
Christian Wiman

March 30
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2019

Kathleen Heideman
Paul Hostovsky

March 30
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2021

Ryan Ireland
Cathryn Cofell

March 30
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2022

Anna Harris-Parker
Tony Woodlief

March 30
Sub Label
2023

Marianne Chan
Clancy McGilligan

Great Lakes Writers Festival

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