The third annual Voices of the Middle West festival will take place on Saturday, March 12, 2016, at the University of Michigan Residential College, with acclaimed Midwestern poet Ross Gay as the keynote speaker.

The free festival begins at 10 AM and features several panel discussions by authors and publishers, an open mic event, and an all-day bookfair. The event showcases writers, poets, literary journals and independent presses from all over the Midwest, with issues and books for sale.

Ross Gay, author of Against Which, Bringing the Shovel Down, and Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude, a finalist for the 2015 National Book Award in Poetry, will give a keynote address at 5 PM. A public reception and book signing will follow.

Panel discussions on Midwestern character types in fiction, the intersection of memoir and fiction, publishing historically dispossessed voices, and other literary discussions will feature outstanding regional authors Angela Flournoy (a 2015 National Book Award Finalist), Peter Geye, Fred Arroyo, Matthew Gavin Frank, Emily Schultz, Ben Tanzer, Amber Sparks, and more.