SEPTEMBER 2, 2010 ISSUE
ASU Visiting Writers Series Kicks Off September 16
Hillary Jordan, novelist, September 16
Chris Green, poet, September 30
Kelly Cherry, fiction writer, poet and memoirist, October 7
Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, literary journalist, October 28
Brenda Flanagan, fiction writer, scholar and poet, November 18This year, the fall 2010 Hughlene Bostian Frank Visiting Writers Series at ASU will feature poets, fiction writers, a novelist and a literary journalist.
All events are free and open to the public.
Hillary Jordan, author of “Mudbound,” will begin the series Thursday, September 16, at 7:30 p.m. in Plemmons Student Union’s Blue Ridge Ballroom with a reading from the novel.
Others participating in the series during the fall semester are poet Chris Green on Thursday, September 30, fiction writer, poet and memoirist Kelly Cherry on Thursday, October 7, literary journalist Adrian Nicole LeBlanc on Thursday, October 28 and fiction writer, scholar and poet Brenda Flanagan on Thursday, November 18.
Book sales and signing will follow each reading.
This year’s Visiting Writers Series is supported by the Appalachian State University Foundation; ASU’s Offices of Academic Affairs, Multicultural Student Development and Cultural Affairs; the College of Arts and Sciences, the Department of English, the Summer Reading Program, the University Bookstore, and Appalachian Journal.
Business sponsors are The Gideon Ridge Inn and The Red Onion Restaurant. Community sponsors include John and Marjorie Idol, Mildred Luckhardt, Paul and Judy Tobin, Alice Naylor, Thomas McLaughlin, and High Country Writers.
The Visiting Writers Series is named in honor of Hughlene Bostian Frank, class of 1968, trustee and generous supporter of ASU.
For more information on the Visiting Writers Series, call 828-262-2871 or click to www.visitingwriters.appstate.edu.
There is free parking available for visitors after 5:00 p.m., and the parking deck on College Street adjacent to Belk Library and Information Commons provides convenient access to the student union. For additional parking information or a map, click to www.parking.appstate.edu or call the university’s Parking and Traffic Office at 828-262-2878.
Hillary Jordan
“Mudbound,” published by Algonquin Books in March 2008, is Jordan’s first novel. It was named one of the Top Ten Debut Novels of the Decade by Paste Magazine. It also won the 2006 Bellwether Prize, founded by Barbara Kingsolver and awarded biennially to an unpublished debut novel that addresses issues of social justice, and a 2009 Alex Award from the American Library Association.
Jordan’s book was selected for the 2010 Summer Reading Program at ASU. In addition to her evening presentation, she will speak at convocation Thursday, September 16, at 10:00 a.m. in the Holmes Convocation Center.
Chris Green
Green is the author of the poetry collection “Rushlight: Poems” published in 2009. He teaches, writes about and crusades for Appalachian literature and social justice at Marshall University.
Green received his M.A. in English from ASU in 1993, during which time he lived on Snake Mountain in Watauga County. “Snaking the Drain,” the second to last poem in “Rushlight,” was published in Appalachian Broadside in 1992.
His presentation begins at 7:30 p.m. in Plemmons Student Union’s Table Rock Room. In addition, he will present the craft talk “Writing in and for the World”from 3:30 to 4:45 p.m. intheTable Rock Room.
Kelly Cherry
Cherry is the Rachel Rivers-Coffey Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing in ASU’s Department of English during the fall semester. She has published six collections of fiction, two memoirs, six collections of poetry, two translations of classical drama and five chapbooks of poetry. In her memoir “Writing the World,” she assures readers that “Words will take you anywhere.”
Cherry is an Eudora Welty Professor of English and Evjue-Bascom Professor in the Humanities at the University of Wisconsin in Madison and has won many awards including the Pushcart Prize.
In addition to her 7:30 p.m. reading on Thursday, October 7 in Plemmons Student Union’s Table Rock Room, she will present the craft talk “The Short-short Story” beginning at 3:30 p.m. also in the Table Rock Room. A pre-reading reception for Cherry will begin at 6:00 p.m. in the student union’s Multicultural Center.
Adrian Nicole LeBlanc
LeBlanc is a prolific author of magazine and newspaper articles, many on the effects of poverty on adolescents. Prior to devoting herself to the project that became her first book “Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx,” she was the fiction editor of Seventeen magazine.
LeBlanc redefined immersion reporting in her book, which is a 10-year odyssey stretching the fabric of long-form nonfiction and demonstrates her mastery as observer of human character. Her current project investigates the world of New York-based Jewish American comedian Rick Shapiro and other stand-up comedians.
She will read from her work Thursday, October 28, at 7:30 p.m. in Plemmons Student Union’s Table Rock Room. At 2:00 p.m., she will present the craft talk “Immersion Journalism” also in the Table Rock Room.
Brenda Flanagan
A native of Trinidad, Flanagan teaches creative writing and Caribbean and African-American literatures as well as literary analysis at Davidson College.
She is the author of the story collection “In Praise of Island Women and Other Crimes,” the prize-winning novel “You Alone are Dancing” and her newest novel “Allah in the Islands.”She is working on a third novel set in America about the relationship between two sisters, one of whom has been diagnosed with breast cancer.
Flanagan frequentlyserves as a cultural ambassador for the U.S. Department of State, with recent visits to Singapore, Kuwait, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Chad, Panama and India.
She will read from her work Thursday, November 18, at 7:30 p.m. in Plemmons Student Union’s Table Rock Room. Flanagan also will present the craft talk “Making the Red Blood Flow: From Real People to Fictional Characters” from 12:30 to 1:45 p.m. in the Table Rock Room.
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