New festival to spotlight region's literary talent
Times-Union
By Carrie Resch
There’s a lot being said and written about Jacksonville’s emerging arts and music scene, but these at times overshadow another booming art form in the River City — Jacksonville’s literary scene.
That may be about to change as a few local writers are poised to showcase Jacksonville’s vibrant literary community with an upcoming festival. Jax by Jax will feature more than a dozen of the area’s prominent poets, playwrights, novelists, historians and other literary talents. The event will be held Saturday from 3 to 6 p.m. at various venues on Park and King streets.
“It’s an event designed to celebrate the city’s writers and the city as a setting, as well,” said Tim Gilmore, a Jax by Jax organizer and an English professor at Florida State College at Jacksonville and author of several historical works about the city’s inhabitants.
Writers will be paired off and stationed at one of nine Riverside businesses: Beer:30, Café Freda, Carmine’s Pie House, Cool Moose Café, Flaire Celebrations, Jacksonville Magazine, Lola’s Burrito & Burger Joint, Paperwhite Salon and Silver Cow. Each will take turns either reading excerpts from one of their works or speaking about topics related to writing in 30 minute intervals. Books by the featured writers, literary magazines and Jax by Jax T-shirts and stickers will be available for purchase in the lobby of the Whiteway building on Park Street.
The event name, Jax by Jax, is a reference to many of the writer’s subject of choice: writers who write about the city in which they live. Not all of the writers write about Jacksonville, but the majority of them do, Gilmore said. Organizers also hope the event will expose residents to an area of the city or businesses they may not be entirely familiar with.
“We wanted to use a lot of the actual businesses there as the venues, so that if you are attending Jax by Jax, you are listening to writers reading about Jacksonville or talking about Jacksonville but you are also experiencing the neighborhood and maybe going into some restaurants, a salon or a bookstore that you haven’t been in before,” he said.
Gilmore’s newest book is about Eartha White, founder of the Clara White Mission. Gilmore read excerpts from that book as well as from a previous book he wrote about Ottis Toole, a supposed serial killer who grew up in Jacksonville. The author will discuss the dichotomy of the two characters in his presentation, “Eartha White and Ottis Toole: Good and Evil in Jacksonville, Florida.”
Another featured Jax by Jax writer, Jennifer Chase, also draws inspiration from Jacksonville history. Her latest play, “La Caroline: A Rock Opera,” delves into the lives of French and Spanish explorers and Timucua Indians at 16th-century Fort Caroline.
For more, visit jaxbyjax.com.