CHAPEL HILL - UNC-CH will host the next North Carolina literary festival after all, rescuing the popular but difficult-to-organize event from a decision to abandon it.

After The News & Observer wrote about the festival's demise last month, Chancellor James Moeser found $200,000 to cover the bulk of the event in 2009. He also called on the leaders of Duke University, N.C. State University and N.C. Central University to help find a way to keep the festival going in future years.

"We are very happy," said Sarah Michalak, UNC-CH librarian and vice provost. "This gives us a foundation of resources so we don't have to start with the first dollar and raise 200,000 of them. Having the chancellor's support is great moral support, too." Reports of the festival's fate also generated an "outpouring of support from faculty and other people," she added.

It was UNC's turn to stage the biennial festival next year, but Michalak said the libraries department couldn't take on the task this time around. She and the librarians at Duke, NCSU and NCCU -- who have organized the events in the past -- decided to replace the festival with a smattering of smaller library programs held during the year.

Since the festival began in 1998, each host school has had to start from scratch raising money and lining up authors. Organizing it was difficult without dedicated staff or an institutional home.

Moeser, in a letter to the other universities, encouraged them to look for a more sustainable model for the festival to ensure it will continue.

Michalak said UNC will have to raise additional money. Last year Duke spent $280,000 on what was widely considered to be the most successful of all the festivals, with famous writers paired in conversation. Half of the amount came from the university.

UNC will use some of the money to hire a festival director and will begin recruiting candidates. A preliminary timeline will be drawn up, though it hasn't been decided whether to hold the festival in the spring or the fall of 2009.