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February 20, 2026

MRL's 6th Annual Rocktown Author Festival Features Award-Winning Author Beth Macy

Massanutten Regional Library is pleased to announce the return of Rocktown Author Festival, an event which highlights local authors and offers support to attendees who wish to become published authors. Rocktown Author Festival will be held on Saturday, April 25 from 10am – 3pm at the Central Library in downtown Harrisonburg.  

Rocktown Author Festival is an annual event that celebrates local authors and offers support to attendees who wish to become published authors. This year’s festival features 33 local authors the public has the opportunity to meet and greet throughout the day, a special Story Time for kids hosted by local author Gayle C. Krause, an author-led panel, “What I Wish I’d Known: Authors Talk Marketing,” and a keynote featuring award-winning, New York Times bestselling author Beth Macy. The festival is free and open to the public but advanced registration is required for the panel and keynote.

The schedule for the 2026 Rocktown Author Festival is as follows:  

10:00am – 3:00pm - Meet & Greet Local Authors (drop-in; no advanced registration required) held in Central Library 1st floor meeting rooms. Authors exhibiting this year represent a variety of genres and areas of specialty: Kirsten Eve Beachy, Linda Berry, ACF Bookens, Zac Cannon, Rel Carroll, Heather S. Cole, Abigail Dane, Linda Ankrah-Dove, Judith Dreyer, P.A. Duncan, David Evans, Travis Hellstrom, Jeff W. Ishee, Kurt Johnson, Molly Law, Elizabeth Massie, Jessica Mitchell, R.A. Moritz, John Norment, Janis Norton, Nellyber Perez, Ramón Pérez, Dave Pruett, N.J. Prynne, Chris Register, Don Rich, Shanna Swendson, Jessica Kay Taylor, Mary Anne Weir, Keshia C. Willi, Lois Williams, David Wood, and Nicole Yurcaba. 

10:30 – 11:15am - Twisted Tales with Local Author Gayle C. Krause (drop-in; no advanced registration required) held in the Youth Programs Room on the 2nd floor. Kids ages 5-11 can listen to poems from Gayle’s book Once Upon a Twisted Tale, have fun with a “twisted” art project, and learn all about becoming a published author. 

12:30 – 1:15pm - Panel: What I Wish I’d Known: Authors Talk Marketing (pre-registration required) held in the Youth Programs Room on the 2nd floor. Authors with a range of publishing experience reflect on the marketing lessons they learned the hard way. This conversation will focus on practical insights, common pitfalls, and sustainable approaches to reach readers. 

1:30 – 2:15pm – Keynote Featuring Beth Macy (pre-registration required) held in the Youth Programs Room on the 2nd floor. Beth Macy has won more than two dozen national journalism awards, including a Nieman Fellowship for Journalism at Harvard University, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Dopesick, which was made into a Peabody Award-winning series for Hulu. Three of her books have been New York Times bestsellers. She lives in Roanoke, Virginia. 

MRL’s Head of Youth Services, Denise Munro said “Having been a part of the planning committee for the Rocktown Author Festival since its beginnings in 2019, it has been a pleasure to watch it evolve over the years based on feedback from the authors and the community. This year is no exception as we add a keynote speaker, Beth Macy, and a program specifically for youth, Twisted Tales with Local Author Gayle C. Krause, to our line up.”  

“The Celebrated Rocktown Author Festival is a unique opportunity for local book-lovers to gather in community as readers and writers,” local poet and featured Rocktown Author participant Linda Ankrah-Dove said. “As a poet, I look forward to being informed and inspired by writers of all the genres. We will discover new books and hear authors read from their work. If you aspire to writing your own first book, you will learn from the authors as they discuss their writing and publishing experience.”

© 2026 Massanutten Regional Library
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