KEYNOTE ADDRESS 2020
BRENT LEWIS Lunchtime Speaker Brent Lewis is a native Eastern Shoreman with local roots that go back for generations. He has written for magazines, newspapers, and newsletters, and for 10 years oversaw the Kent Island Heritage Society’s Oral History Program, where he recorded dozens of interviews with elderly members of his community, including many who have since passed away. He’s published two nonfiction books, Remembering Kent Island: Stories from the Chesapeake and A History of the Kent Island Volunteer Fire Department, and one indie novel, Bloody Point 1976, which takes place over America’s Bicentennial weekend, and is about a young Eastern Shore waterman hired to retrieve a local big wheel’s daughter from The Block, Baltimore’s notorious red-light district. Brent participated in the Chesapeake Storytelling Festival and has hosted several Watermen’s Story Swaps, public events featuring up to a dozen career watermen entertaining and informing audiences by sharing their tales of working on the water. He produced a series of shows featuring writers and musicians for QACTV, the Queen Anne’s County public access television channel. He is a documentarian and a playwright member of the Dramatists Guild of America. Most recently his 10-minute plays, All Over but the Shouting and The Superhero, have been part of the annual Short Attention Span Theatre produced by The Garfield Center for the Arts at the Prince Theatre in Chestertown. His blog, easternshorebrent.com, is a popular destination for readers interested in Chesapeake storytelling, history, and memoir. SESSION SUMMARIES by TRACK Craft & Nonfiction -- Beginning Fiction |
BRENT LEWIS |
