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YOUNGSTOWN -- This year's Youngstown State University English Festival will celebrate its 45th anniversary April 19-21.
The national award-winning event originated in the fall of 1978 as a memorial for YSU English professors Thomas and Carol Gay, a year after their daughter passed away of cancer at age 13.
Since then, the festival, which is the oldest literary festival for teen readers nationwide, has drawn more than 120,000 high school seniors and juniors from the Mahoning Valley and western Pennsylvania area.
To celebrate the milestone, the festival will play host to three nationally known, award-winning authors -- Chris Crutcher, making his seventh appearance; Rita Williams will make her first in-person campus appearance after COVID caused her first appearance in 2020 to be held online; and Eliot Schrefer, also making his first appearance at YSU.
A banquet celebrating the anniversary will be Thursday night co-hosted by the Western Reserve of Ohio Teachers of English and attended by teachers, festival committee and advisory board members and community volunteers.
This year, festival organizers expect upwards of 2,500 students and teachers from 200 schools for three days of competitions, collaborative activities, author talks and presentations by YSU faculty and community volunteers.
Throughout the day, students will be in competition, and each of the three days will conclude with an award ceremony.
Throughout the three days, $15,000 in potential prizes will be up for grabs rewarding students for their reading and writing accomplishments.
For students to participate in the day's activities, they must read seven books from the festival reading list.
Students will participate in various activities that will test their knowledge of each book.
Reading list for grades 7-9:
• "King and the Dragonflies" by Kace Callender
• "Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes" by Chris Crutcher
• "The Parker Inheritance" by Varian Johnson
• "Nimona" by N.D. Stevenson
• "Endangered" by Eliot Schrefer
• "Clayton Byrd Goes Underground" by Rita Williams-Garcia
• "One Crazy Summer "by Rita Williams-Garcia
Reading list grades 10-12:
• "White Cat" by Holly Black
• "Deadline" by Chris Crutcher
• "Losers Bracket" by Chris Crutcher
• "Snapdragon" by Kat Leyh
• "Endangered" by Eliot Schrefer
• "Threatened" by Eliot Schrefer
• "Jumped" by Rita Williams-Garcia