Lit Cleveland Attracting Interest of Local Writers and Readers at Cle Inkubator

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Fri 7/29 @ 6-10PM

Sat 7/30 @ 8:30AM-5PM

Literary Cleveland has enjoyed quite a year.

Formed in 2015, the local organization has served more than 1,000 people in Northeast Ohio’s literary community. Now the nonprofit has scheduled its second annual Cleveland Inkubator to not only celebrate its one-year anniversary but also inspire Northeast Ohio writers.

The free, one-day conference takes place Sat 7/30 @ 8:30am-5pm at the main branch of the Cleveland Public Library downtown. The library is the lead sponsor, while the Ohio Center for the Book is partnering with Literary Cleveland for the Cleveland Inkubator.

The affair features fiction, nonfiction and poetry workshops, as well as craft talks on comics and writing for a living. In addition to a keynote reading with Joanna Connors (I Will Find You), nonprofit Lake Erie Ink hosts an open mic event. There’s also a resource fair for writers with independent booksellers. The festivities kickoff with a Lit Cleveland fundraiser Fri 7/29 @ 6-10pm at the Bop Stop.

CoolCleveland talked to Literary Cleveland cofounder and coordinator Lee Chilcote.

Tell us about the Cleveland Inkubator.

It’s our signature event for Literary Cleveland, which launched out of the conference last year. It’s our biggest event of the year in terms of attendance and programming, where we basically throw a big party for writers. It brings the writing community together. It gives folks from all backgrounds and parts of Northeast Ohio a chance to take workshops for free, and it engages people in writing and reading.

Going into last year’s inaugural event, what were your expectations?

We didn’t really know what to expect because it was a first-time event and no one had done anything like this before. We thought that we might have 100 to 200 people, and we ended up with about 250 people plus presenters. Obviously we had a pretty positive and enthusiastic response to the event, which is one of the reasons we decided to launch Lit Cleveland. We clearly tapped into a community need and demand, and we decided to continue the event this year. This year we have close to 200 people registered.

In terms of the burgeoning literary scene in Northeast Ohio, is this a product of living in the Internet age with blogs and additional publishing outlets or just a growing interest regarding writing in general?

I think there’s always been a community of writers in Cleveland. Also, obviously things work differently in 2016 than they did 10 or 20 years ago. I’d say one of the upsides to social media and the Internet has been that some studies have shown that more people are actually writing now than they have been in the past with more publishing platforms and opportunities available. It might be self-publishing but there are more opportunities available. In that sense, I would say yes, some of the interest is a product of the internet age but there’s always been a writing community in Cleveland.

Looking ahead, how does the Cleveland Inkubator help Lit Cleveland reach its mission?

We’ve been growing and advancing the organization over the past. Our mission is to serve writers and readers and elevate literary arts for the benefit of everyone in the Northeast Ohio region. We have 270 members now. We’ve secured some support from the Gund Foundation and the Cleveland Foundation. There are a lot of things happening with Lit Cleveland. So in the next year, you’ll see us continue to grow and offer new and different programs that serve the community.

Finally, what do you hope people take away from the Cleveland Inkubator?

The Inkubator is a big chance for writers to get together. It’s a platform for us to serve and help grow the community of writers and readers. It happens because people find out about the Inkubator and they end up getting involved in Lit Cleveland. They end up taking a workshop, connecting with other writers and saying, “Writing is something I wanted to do more of for a long time. I get inspired by this event. I’m going to go and write more. I‘m going to go and publish more. I’m going to take a workshop.” It just builds that community and advances those skills.

[Written by John Benson]

Cleveland, OH 44113

Cleveland, OH 44114

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