24th Annual Literary Festival at ODU: October 1-5, 2001

Magic Vision & Transformation

The word is full of magic. The word is the wand. The word is a crystal ball. Look into the word and see your grandmother changed into a wolf. Look again, and you're floating down the Mississippi on a raft. Look a third time, and you're a cockroach or a queen. Abracadabra. What could be more powerful than the word?

The 24th Annual Literary Festival celebrates "Magic, Vision, and Transformation." Each writer participating in the week's events is a kind of magician, using words to expose the undersides of all that seems ordinary in life. Their words teach us to see beyond the obvious, and their words change us by helping us imagine new ways of seeing. Like pulling a rabbit from the top-hat, each writer creates meaning out of what seems like air. Through words, we see beyond the illusions of our lives. And for a moment, we can become and experience more than what we are.

~ Sheri Reynolds, Festival Director