Literary Festival Celebrates Imagination and Innovation

St. Mark’s welcomed five acclaimed writers, artists, and storytellers to campus on Friday, November 14, for its 20th annual Literary Festival. This year’s guests, spanning science fiction, poetry, film, and music, invited Marksmen to explore creativity as both discipline and discovery. 

This year’s festival featured: 

The Festival opened Thursday evening with the Writer’s Forum, featuring Andy Weir in conversation with David Brown, Director of Character and Leadership Education and Director of the Literary Festival. Together, they discussed Weir’s novels, The Martian, Artemis, and Project Hail Mary, and examined themes of space travel, scientific problem-solving, and perseverance.  

On Friday morning, Weir was joined at a Middle School assembly by planetary scientist and Distinguished Alumnus Dr. Alan Stern ’75, who led NASA’s first mission to survey Pluto, which he chronicled in his 2024 book Chasing New Horizons. The two shared their paths into science and storytelling, the interplay between fiction and real exploration, and how humanity’s understanding of the universe continues to evolve. 

“I’ve always been interested in space, but I have no interest in going there in person,” Weir quipped. “I write about brave people–I’m not one of them, but I’ve just always been interested in space, space travel.” 

Four of the visiting writers sat for a special Upper School panel moderated by Literary Festival Student Director Payton Elder ’27 and co-chairs Deven Aurora ’27 and James Dunlap ’27, with support from sophomores Dylan Barnes, Eugene Wang, and Jack Wilson. The visiting writers discussed their early influences, supportive teachers, family backgrounds, and formative school experiences, and addressed how technology and AI are shaping creative work. Speaking on artificial intelligence, Weir remarked, “You still need to be an artist to know how to tell the AI what you want it to do. It’ll shift what people do for a living, but it’s not going to end creativity as we know it.” 

Friday was a homecoming of sorts for Gopal Raman ’17, who helped organize the Festival as a student. In the panel discussion, Gopal recalled some of his St. Mark’s teachers who helped him, including Mr. Bob Rozelle ’66. 

“Poetry was always a solitary pursuit for me, and the teachers I felt closest to were the ones who knew I was writing and encouraged me to go deeper,” said Raman. 

Audience questions invited further reflections on artistic routines, inspiration, and balancing authenticity with the demands of storytelling. 

Now in its 20th year, the St. Mark’s Literary Festival continues to celebrate the written and spoken word as a cornerstone of the School’s mission, cultivating intellect, integrity, and imagination in every Marksman. 

Writer's Forum with Andy Weir

Upper School Panel Discussion

Middle School Assembly