MOUNT VERNON — The Public Library of Mount Vernon and Knox County will kick off National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) on Thursday, Oct. 31, at the Main Branch from 1-9 p.m.
The kickoff launches a month long series of events at the Public Library to support local writers participating in NaNoWriMo this November. Mount Vernon Mayor Richard Mavis will present an official proclamation in honor of local writers at 1 p.m. Participants who stop by the library on Oct. 31 to register will receive a NaNoWriMo starter kit from the Friends of the Library that includes snacks, earplugs, complimentary copies of The Kenyon Review, and a detailed schedule of Knox NaNoWriMo Hub events.
NaNoWriMo is in its 20th year of offering nonprofit support and online community resources for emerging writers. NaNoWriMo challenges participants to complete a 50,000-word novel-length book project in the month of November. To date, NaNoWriMo has attracted over 500,000 writers from around the world. In Mount Vernon, a community of more than a dozen published authors called the “Knox County Writers Group” meets each month at the Public Library. This group formed after completing NaNoWriMo; they decided to turn their online forum into an in-person, community-led workshop that has been thriving at the Main Branch in Mount Vernon for the past three years.
The Knox NaNoWriMo Hub offers registered participants access to the “Write Spot” — a dedicated, quiet workspace during the month of November. Branch Libraries will join in the NaNoWriMo festivities, with each branch hosting a Weekly Meetup on Nov. 9 (Gambier), Nov. 16 (Fredericktown) and Nov. 23 (Danville) during NaNoWriMo.
The Knox NaNoWriMo Hub program culminates in “Pages on Stages,” a Dec. 1 reading and reception celebrating local writers’ accomplishments during NaNoWriMo. “Pages on Stages” will feature The Choraliers, as well as a “Best of NaNoWriMo” competition in which writers read the first 500 words of their novels before a panel of celebrity judges. The judges will award one writer the grand prize.
The Knox NaNoWriMo Hub is part of the Literary and Writing Program at The Public Library of Mount Vernon and Knox County. The Public Library offers a Teen Writing Program, two KnoxWrites fiction workshops for adults, and a Walk-In Writing Clinic that assists patrons with a variety of writing needs, from manuscript editing and development to selecting graduate and professional writing programs, to publishing opportunities. “Our community is home to mystery writers, romance novelists, poets, comic essayists, theological philosophers, science fiction writers — the list goes on and on. Many of the patrons involved in our writing groups write about Mount Vernon,” states Literary & Writing Program Manager Jamie Lyn Smith-Fletcher. “Seeing firsthand the way local writers bring our community to life on the page is inspiring.”
The Knox NaNoWriMo Hub kickoff begins at 1 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 31, in the Solarium at the Public Library of Mount Vernon and Knox County, 201 N. Main Street, Mount Vernon. Activities continue throughout the month of November. Participation in the Knox NaNoWriMo Hub is free and open to the public.
Please visit the library website at www.knox.net, call (740) 392-BOOK ext 224, or contact Literary and Writing Program Manager Jamie Lyn Smith-Fletcher at jfletcher@knox.net for more information.
