Wayne State College and Northeast Community College are collaborating to host the Nebraska Fiction Festival April 17 and 18. 

“The premise is to really highlight awesome fiction writers, or any writers, within the regional area,” English professor Chad Christensen said. “That was the idea, to really just make it a super big event.”  

The festival will be held at Northeast on Wednesday, April 17 and at WSC on Thursday, April 18.  

“We wanted to give the public as much of a chance to meet or talk with these people and hear them read as possible,” Christensen said. “We want to highlight the colleges, highlight the writers, and again, offer a bigger opportunity for the public to celebrate these awesome Nebraska writers with us.”  

The first day will consist of five readers and an open forum, while the second day will have six readers. 

“I think having a forum this year is going to be nice,” Angela Sievers, a grad assistant with the WSC Press, said. “Mostly people get up and read, but having a Q&A time is going to be awesome.”  

“The idea was if people couldn’t make it to one, they could possibly see readers at the other one,” Christensen said. “Half of them are reading at Northeast, half of them are reading here.”  

“I’m just excited about having all these amazing authors on campus and the opportunity to be a part of that community as a writer,” Sievers said. 

Christensen said the authors will have individual book tables where people can buy their books or talk to the fiction writers. 

“It’s an opportunity for them to come and meet all these people in a large gathering of writers,” Christensen said. “I would be excited if I enjoyed reading, a writer, or again, a student at Wayne State interested in writing. I think this is a huge opportunity. It doesn’t happen every year, so you don’t want to miss it.”  

“We’re just really excited and we hope that people in the surrounding areas can make it to this fabulous event,” Christensen said. “They should skip work, they should skip school and they should come here.” 

For more information, see wscpress.com.