EUREKA – Eureka College will host its second annual Literary Festival March 1 and 2 on the campus. Writers John McNally, Jesse Graves and Olivia Chadha will hold readings, book-signings, workshops and a panel discussion.  

Readings and book-signings by McNally and Graves will be at 7:30 PM, March 1, readings and book-signings by Chadha and Graves will be at 7 PM March 2, and a panel discussion and workshops will be held throughout the day March 2. All events are free and open to the public and will be held in the Cerf Center. 

For a schedule of events or to register, contact assistant professor of creative writing Zeke Jarvis at (309) 467-6332 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or go to the Eureka College Humanities Division Facebook page. 

McNally has written three novels, two story collections and two nonfiction books. His novels are “After the Workshop,” “The Book of Ralph” and “America’s Report Card.” His story collections are “Troublemakers” and “Ghosts of Chicago.” His nonfiction books are “The Creative Writer’s Survival Guide: Advice from an Unrepentant Novelist” and “Vivid and Continuous: Essays and Exercises for Writing Fiction.”  His fiction, essays and book reviews have appeared in more than 100 magazines, textbooks, newspapers and anthologies. He has held fellowships from Paramount Pictures, the University of Iowa, George Washington University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. A native of Chicago’s southwest side, McNally is a professor at Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, N.C., and teaches in the master of fine arts program at Pacific University.

Graves’ first book of poems, “Tennessee Landscape with Blighted Pine,” received the Weatherford Award in Poetry and the Appalachian Writers Association Book of the Year Award in Poetry for 2011. His poems and essays have appeared in “Prairie Schooner,” “Southern Quarterly,” “Connecticut Review” and other journals, anthologies and collections. Graves was born and raised in Sharps Chapel, Tenn., where his ancestors settled in the 1780s.  He is an assistant professor in the Department of Literature and Language at East Tennessee State University, Johnson City. 

Chadha’s first novel is titled “Balance of Fragile Things.” Her others works have appeared in “Pinyon,” “Damselfly Press” and “Every Day Fiction.” She began her career writing comic book scripts in Los Angeles. She grew up in New Jersey and southern California. Her family is of mixed Latvian, German and Indian descent. She has taught writing at Binghamton University, Vestal, N.Y., and the University of Colorado-Boulder.