Blackburn Literary Festival

In 1959, William Blackburn began a series of student-run literary gatherings named the Archive Festival after Duke's literary magazine--the second-oldest literary magazine in the country. The first year found a Blackburn alumn, William Styron, reading along with other authors like Randall Jerrell. The idea caught on and became an annual event. In 1969 the festival was officially renamed the Blackburn Literary Festival. Today, the Blackburn tradition continues at Duke University, celebrating the ideals of a man who possessed a passion for literature and an ability to share that passion with the myriad students whose lives he touched.