{"id":191,"date":"2025-10-02T19:37:51","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T19:37:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/vapoetsdatabase\/?page_id=191"},"modified":"2026-09-07T21:02:47","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T21:02:47","slug":"events","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/vapoetsdatabase\/events\/","title":{"rendered":"Events"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/vapoetsdatabase\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40052\/2026\/09\/litfest-2026-cover-design.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1350\" height=\"2025\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/vapoetsdatabase\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40052\/2026\/09\/litfest-2026-cover-design.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-279\" style=\"width:690px;height:auto\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.odu.edu\/life\/culture\/arts\/litfest\">Make Room for Wonder: The 49th Annual ODU Literary Festival<\/a><br>October 4-8, 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We read because we wonder about ourselves: who would I have been in that body, that country, that century, and what would I have done when the soldiers came, or the diagnosis, or the flood. Wonder is also the astonishment when a book answers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This festival, the longest-running in the United States, has been making room for both since 1978, when it began as an Arts Reunion built on the premise that &#8220;every person is potentially an artist.&#8221; Forty-nine years later the premise holds. Five days of readings and conversation, free and open, everyone welcome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The theme is drawn from a line in &#8220;On Learning to Dissect Fetal Pigs,&#8221; the poem by Ren\u00e9e Good (1988\u20132026) that won the 2020 Academy of American Poets Prize at Old Dominion University. We dedicate this festival to her memory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8211; John McManus and Michael Weber<br>2026 Festival Co-directors<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For more information, please contact the Old Dominion University English Department at (757) 683-3991 or email&nbsp;<a href=\"mailto:mfagpdassistant@odu.edu\">mfagpdassistant@odu.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Follow the Literary Festival on Facebook&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ODULitFest\/\">@ODULitFest<\/a>&nbsp;and on Instagram&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/olddominionmfa\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">@olddominionmfa<\/a>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<a href=\"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/vapoetsdatabase\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40052\/2026\/09\/LitFest2026Brochure-compressed.pdf\" class=\"pdfemb-viewer\" style=\"\" data-width=\"max\" data-height=\"max\"  data-toolbar=\"bottom\" data-toolbar-fixed=\"off\">LitFest2026Brochure-compressed<br\/><\/a>\n<p class=\"wp-block-pdfemb-pdf-embedder-viewer\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Make Room for Wonder: The 49th Annual ODU Literary FestivalOctober 4-8, 2026 We read because we wonder about ourselves: who would I have been in that body, that country, that century, and what would I have done when the soldiers &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/vapoetsdatabase\/events\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31645,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/vapoetsdatabase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/191"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/vapoetsdatabase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/vapoetsdatabase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/vapoetsdatabase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31645"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/vapoetsdatabase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/vapoetsdatabase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/191\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":298,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/vapoetsdatabase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/191\/revisions\/298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/vapoetsdatabase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}