Is Literary Louisville a poetry reading, a master class, a writing group, a book party, critical acclaim for a Louisville publisher? Or is it a festival, program school, a single writer, a single reader? It*s all of these things and more.

This year*s Festival of the Written Word invites all members of Louisville's literary community to join us for a conversation about shaping Literary Louisville and giving it a national profile. Come, share your ideas.

A panel of local writers, publishers and literary community members will get the conversation going. The panel members are Makalani Bandele, a Louisville native and member of the Affrilachian poets, Carol Butler, president and CEO of Butler Books of Louisville; Kathleen Driskell, Associate Program Director of Spalding University*s brief-residency MFA in Writing Program: Lynnell Edwards, President of InKY Reading Series in Louisville; and Kiki Petrosino, who teaches creative writing at the University of Louisville and has helped organize more than 300 literary events. Mary Lou Northern, fiction writer and Senior Advisor to Mayor Abramson, will moderate the panel.

The conversation: *What is Literary Louisville?* is presented in partnership with the IdeaFestival. The session is free and open to the public, but tickets must be reserved.