# Event Details

- **Event Name**: An Evening with Appalachian Authors
- **Event Start and End Date**: Fri, 28 Aug, 2026 at 05:30 pm (-04:00)
- **Event Description**: Join us for an evening with Appalachian authors, featuring Ann Pancake, Natalie Sypolt, and Aurora Bonner–Arthurdale Heritage’s August 2026 Writer-In-Residence!

Where: Arthurdale Heritage, 18 Q Rd. Arthurdale, WV 26520
When: 5:30pm (for workshop), or 7:00pm (for public reading)
Price: Free! (All donations go towards Arthurdale Heritage’s residency program)

5:30pm – More Than a Backdrop: Writing Place as a Lived Experience | Creative Writing Workshop taught by Aurora Bonner
Where we live and grow shapes our voice, our characters, and our stories. In this craft-centered session, place becomes more than setting — it becomes a source of narrative tension, emotional texture, and character development. Drawing on examples from contemporary Appalachian writing and her own work rooted in rural Appalachia, Aurora Bonner guides participants through practical techniques for making place dynamic on the page. Writers will explore how to use sensory detail and embodiment to anchor their work in a vivid sense of place. Through discussion and brief generative exercises, participants will examine how place interacts with identity and memory to reveal deeper meaning. This workshop is accessible to all levels!

7:00pm – The Travis Stimeling “Know Your Neighbors” Memorial Reading

This reading is free and open to the public! Enjoy meeting Ann Pancake, Natalie Sypolt, and Aurora Bonner and listening to them read a snippet of their work. 

This reading will be held in memory of Travis D. Stimeling (1980-2023).

About Ann Pancake
Ann Pancake is a native of West Virginia. She has published two short story collections, Given Ground (2001) and Me and My Daddy Listen to Bob Marley (2015), and a novel, Strange As This Weather Has Been (2007), which was one of Kirkus Review’s Top Ten Fiction Books of the year, won the best Appalachian Book of the Year, and was a finalist for the Orion Book Award and the Washington State Book Award. She has also received a Whiting Award, an NEA grant, a Pushcart Prize, and the Bakeless Prize. Her stories, essays, scholarly articles, and journalism have appeared in venues like Orion, The Georgia Review, Manoa, Poets and Writers, The Journal of Appalachian Studies, and New Stories from the South, the Year’s Best. She lives in Arthurdale, West Virginia.

About Natalie Sypolt
A native of Preston County, Natalie Sypolt lives and writes in West Virginia. She is the author of The Sound of Holding Your Breath (2018, West Virginia University Press) and her work has appeared in Glimmer Train, Appalachian Review (formerly Appalachian Heritage), Still: The Journal, r.kv.r.y., Superstition Review, Paste, Willow Springs Review, and The Kenyon Review Online, among other fine journals.  Natalie is the winner of the Glimmer Train New Writers Contest, the Betty Gabehart Prize, the West Virginia Fiction Award, and the Still fiction contest. She was the first runner-up for the Poets Writers Maureen Egen Writers Exchange Award.  Additionally, Natalie is co-owner and editor of Change Seven Magazine and is the immediate past President of the Appalachian Studies Association.

About Aurora Bonner
Aurora Bonner is a writer and teacher of fiction and nonfiction whose work explores place, memory, and how they shape storytelling. Her work has appeared in Cleaver Magazine, HerStry, Impost, and Hippocampus Magazine, as well as the anthologies Rivers, Ridges, and Valleys: Essays on Rural Pennsylvania (finalist for Book of the Year by The Writers Conference of Northern Appalachia) and DINE: An Anthology. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Wilkes University and teaches writing at the college level. Through her writing and teaching, she encourages writers to deepen their attention to place, memory, and the stories they carry.
- **Event URL**: https://allevents.in/arthurdale/an-evening-with-appalachian-authors/200030339690718
- **Event Categories**: art, literary-art, workshops, meetups, fine-arts, contests, business, nonprofit, conferences, storytelling
- **Interested Audience**: 
  - total_interested_count: 46

## Ticket Details


## Event venue details

- **city**: Arthurdale
- **state**: WV
- **country**: United States
- **location**: 18 Q Rd, Rte. 92, Arthurdale, WV, United States, West Virginia 26520
- **lat**: 39.49506
- **long**: -79.8157
- **full address**: 18 Q Rd, Rte. 92, Arthurdale, WV, United States, West Virginia 26520

## Event gallery

- **Alt text**: An Evening with Appalachian Authors
  - **Image URL**: https://cdn-az.allevents.in/events8/banners/470ad293ce6ab6f96a971904121948a0e7cf6eaa20c5c506d69c96aa6331e6eb-rimg-w1200-h675-dca81838-gmir?v=1787329296

## FAQs

- **Q**: When and where is An Evening with Appalachian Authors being held?
  - **A:** An Evening with Appalachian Authors takes place on Fri, 28 Aug, 2026 at 05:30 pm to Fri, 28 Aug, 2026 at 05:30 pm at 18 Q Rd, Rte. 92, Arthurdale, WV, United States, West Virginia 26520.
- **Q**: Who is organizing An Evening with Appalachian Authors?
  - **A:** An Evening with Appalachian Authors is organized by Arthurdale Heritage, Inc..
- **Q**: Who is this event for? Is it right for me?
  - **A:** An Evening with Appalachian Authors is ideal for curious learners, students, and skill-builders looking to gain hands-on knowledge and practical expertise in a focused, interactive setting. Whether you're a first-time attendee or a longtime enthusiast in Arthurdale, this event is thoughtfully curated to deliver a standout experience worth every moment. If An Evening with Appalachian Authors sounds like your kind of event, don't wait - spots fill up fast.

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