Hard Times in America

This year's Literary Festival ponders the issue of how poverty affects the lives of many in our land. For us, this theme implies more than economics. Hard Times are inevitably entwined with racism, crime, despair, an inequitable legal system, inadequate medical care, and inequalities in education, but they sometimes provide examples of heroism, innovation and achievement. The writers and performers at this year's festival are not here to solve the problem of poverty in America but rather to offer stories that will ask us to think honestly about our own experiences, to reach beyond self in order to enter another person's conflicts, to see with another person's eyes the problems that confront us all.

~ Michael Pearson and Janet Peery, Festival Directors