Serving Boone, Blowing Rock, Banner Elk, and other towns of the North Carolina High Country
Founded 05-05-05
February 22, 2007 issue
ASU Visiting Writers Series Welcomes Guralnick, O’Callaghan and Groarke
Drama March 1, Poetry March 8
Story by Blair O’Briant
The Visiting Writers Series of ASU continues its spring program with three prominent writers during the first two weeks of March.
Award-winning dramatist June Guralnick will read from various pieces of work and give a craft talk on Thursday, March 1.
Her craft talk, The Space Underneath and Between, will be held from 2:00 to 3:15 p.m. in the Table Rock Room at Plemmons Student Union. Her reading and presentation is also scheduled for the Table Rock Room at 7:30 p.m. that evening
Guralnick has written nine full length plays and various short plays. Many of her plays, including Dreams of Flight, Women of the Light and In Gold We Trust, have been performed by the Southern Appalachian Repertory Theater and at the Vagabond Theater Festival in Carrboro, the Bethany Arts Center in San Francisco and the Gene Frankel Theater in New York City.
Her play Dreams of Flight is about a Native American girl from North Carolina who longs to become an astronaut. Women of the Light, co-written by Cynthia Mitchell, tells the story of six women lighthouse keepers in the 1800s. In Gold We Trust tells the story of fortune seekers who travel West in 1849 in search of gold.
This accomplished playwright is the executive director of the Raleigh Arts Commission and president of the North Carolina Playwrights Alliance.
The Visiting Writers Series welcomes Irish poets Conor O’Callaghan and Vona Groarke on Thursday, March 8. This married couple, both of whom have lived most of their lives in Ireland, brings a fresh body of work to ASU. Their presentation will be held in the Plemmons Student Union Table Rock Room at 7:30 p.m., with their craft talk, White Space: Narrative in Poems scheduled for the same day and same location from 2:00 to 3:15 p.m.
O’Callaghan will read from his award-winning work, including selections from his books of poetry The History of Rain and Seatown, during the presentation. This inventive poet is the recipient of The Patrick Kavanagh Award, The Rooney Prize Special Award and the Times Educational Fellowship. O’Callaghan is currently living in North Carolina and teaching at Wake Forest University.
Vona Groarke, also currently teaching at Wake Forest University, promises to impress listeners with her impressive body of work. Her collections include Shale, Other People’s Houses and Flight. Groarke’s Shale won the Brendan Behan Memorial Award in 1995. Flight was short-listed for the United Kingdom’s premier poetry award, the Forward Prize, and was also awarded the Michael Hartnett Prize in Ireland in 2003.
Although the March 1 and March 8 readings are unusually close together for the series, the subject matter is not related.
Lynn Doyle of the ASU Department of English said the readings often get bunched together during the winter months because of weather issues.
However, all three authors are expected to shed new light on the world of literature with their original writing.
Want To Go?
What: Dramatist June Guralnick
Date: Thursday, March 1
Time: Craft Talk 2:00 to 3:15 p.m./Reading 7:30 p.m.
Location: Table Rock Room, Plemmons Student Union, ASU
Cost: Free
Want To Go?
What: Poets Conor O’Callaghan and Vona Groarke
Date: Thursday, March 8
Time: Craft Talk 2:00 to 3:15 p.m./Reading 7:30 p.m.
Location: Table Rock Room, Plemmons Student Union, ASU
Cost: Free