A Southern Homecoming: Readings, Lectures, and Workshops

November 2–6

 

Distinguished members of the Fellowship of Southern Writers, including poet James Applewhite, fiction writer Allan Gurganus and fiction writer Elizabeth Spencer, will be the keynote speakers. Gurganus, described by the American Scholar as "the rightful heir to Faulkner and Welty," will read from his work at 7 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 3 in Kenan Auditorium. Elizabeth Spencer, author of The Light in the Piazza, will read from her work at 2:30 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 3 in Kenan Hall, Room 1111 and James Applewhite, professor emeritus at Duke University and author of A Diary of Altered Light, will read at 7 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 5 in Dobo 103.

 

Each year, Writers Week brings together visiting writers of local and national interest, UNCW students and members of the general public with an interest in literature and writing. Activities throughout the week include workshops, panels, and readings.

 

The week will feature a live performance of The Bible Salesman by Clyde Edgerton and songwriting partner Mike Craver at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, November 4 in Kenan Auditorium. The reading of Edgerton’s latest novel will feature songs and will take the form of a theatre presentation.

 

New events added!

detailed schedule

 

 

	Visiting Writers, Editors, and Agents
	James Applewhite has written numerous books of poetry, including the award-winning Daytime and Starlight and A Diary of Altered Light. He is the recipient of the Ragan-Rubin Award from the North Carolina English Teachers Association, the 1998 Brockman-Campbell Award from the North Carolina Poetry Society and the North Carolina Award in Literature. He is a Guggenheim Fellow and received the American Academy of Arts and Letters Jean Stein Award in Poetry. Applewhite was inducted into the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame in 2008. He is professor emeritus at Duke University.   7 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 5 Dobo 103
	Allan Gurganus, a native of Rocky Mount, N.C., is the author of novels, essays and short stories. His novels include Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All and Plays Well with Others. His short fiction includes White People and The Practical Heart: Four Novellas. Gurganus’s stories have been honored with the O. Henry Prize and included in Best American Stories and The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction. He also served as first writer-editor of Best New Stories of the South. He was awarded the Sue Kaufman Award from the American Academy for Best First Work of American Fiction, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction for White People, the Lambda Literary Award and the National Magazine Prize for The Practical Heart. His books have been translated into 16 languages.   7 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 3 Kenan Auditorium
	Elizabeth Spencer, acclaimed author of numerous books of fiction and a memoir, is a five-time recipient of the O. Henry Award for short fiction. Her books include The Night Travellers, The Light in the Piazza, Jack of Diamonds and The Southern Woman: New and Selected Fiction. Her novella, The Light in the Piazza, was adapted for Broadway in 2005 and has garnered six Tony Awards. Spencer is a founding member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.   2:30 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 3 Kenan Hall, Room 1111
	Todd Berliner is Associate Professor of Film Studies at UNCW. He is the author of Hollywood Incoherent: Narration in Seventies Cinema (forthcoming 2010). His articles have appeared in Film Quarterly, Cinema Journal, Journal of Film and Video, Style, Quarterly Review of Film and Video, Film International and Martin Scorsese’s “Raging Bull”: A Cambridge Film Handbook. He was a Fulbright Senior Scholar and founding chair of the Film Studies Department at UNCW.   1:00 p.m., Wednesday, November 4 Kenan Hall 1111
	A North Carolina native, Mike Craver graduated from the University of North Carolina and was a member of the Red Clay Ramblers for 12 years, appearing in Diamond Studs and Sam Shepard's A Lie of the Mind, recording nine albums, and touring the US, Canada, Europe, Scandinavia, Africa and the Middle East. After leaving the Ramblers, Mike got involved in more theatre, both as a writer and performer. Off-Broadway credits also include The Oil City Symphony (co-author and original cast member, Drama Desk award), Smoke on the Mountain, Radio Gals (co-author and original cast member, LA Ovation award), Wilder (co-author and original cast), Lunch at the Piccadilly (co-writer and original cast), Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming (arranger and additional music and lyrics). He has worked in theatres across the country, including the Pasadena Playhouse, Actors Theatre of Louisville and the Cape Playhouse in Dennis, Mass.   7 p.m., Wednesday, November 4 Kenan Auditorium
	Clyde Edgerton is the author nine novels, a memoir, short stories, and essays. He has been a Guggenheim Fellow and five of his novels have been New York Times Notable Books. He is a member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers and teaches creative writing at UNC Wilmington. He lives in Wilmington, NC, with his wife, Kristina, and their children.   7 p.m., Wednesday, November 4 Kenan Auditorium
	Brad Land studied creative writing at the University of North Carolina Wilmington and at Western Michigan University. He has twice been a fellow at the MacDowell Colony. A memoir, Goat, and a novel, Pilgrims Upon the Earth, were published by Random House. Killer Films is producing a screen adaptation of Goat, written by David Gordon Green and to be directed by Jeff Nichols. His work has appeared in the anthology When I Was a Loser: True Stories of (Barely) Surviving High School, edited by John McNally and published by Free Press, in Gentleman’s Quarterly, the Oxford American, the Southeast Review, Third Coast and Ecotone.   7 p.m., Monday, November 2 Dobo 103
	Sarah Messer is an associate professor of poetry and creative nonfiction at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. She has published a book of poetry, Bandit Letters (New Issues, 2001), and a hybrid history/memoir, Red House: Being a Mostly Accurate Account of New England’s Oldest Continuously Lived-in House (Viking, 2004), which was a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers pick for fall 2004. She was a 2008–09 Radcliffe Institute Fellow.   3:00 p.m., Thursday, November 5 Kenan Hall 1111
	Jason Mott is a graduate of both the BFA (fiction) and MFA (poetry) programs at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. His debut poetry collection, We Call This Thing Between Us Love, will be published by Main Street Rag in December 2009. His fiction and poetry have appeared in journals such as Prick of the Spindle, Kakalak Anthology of Carolina Poets, Measure, and Chautauqua.   7 p.m., Monday, November 2 Dobo 103
	John Jeremiah Sullivan is a writer-at-large for GQ and a contributing editor at Harper's Magazine. He is the author of the book Blood Horses. He is a PEN Literary Award finalist.
	Peter Trachtenberg is a writer based in upstate New York and the author of the memoir 7 Tattoos and The Book of Calamities: Five Questions About Suffering and Its Meaning, a book that combines reportage, memoir, and moral philosophy to explore suffering and its narratives. His essays, journalism, and short fiction have been published in The New Yorker, Harper's, BOMB, TriQuarterly, O, The New York Times Travel Magazine, and A Public Space. His commentaries have been broadcast on NPR'S All Things Considered. He was a visiting writer at UNCW in 2008-09.   10 a.m., Tuesday, November 2 Warwick Ballroom
	Lisa Bertini directed and produced the documentary short film The Lost Colony (2007, 11:06) for her capstone project of the Masters in Liberal Studies program at UNC-Wilmington. Documentary-short reveals the life of a family in Crusoe Island, a secluded community in the Green Swamp of North Carolina once known for its suspicion of outsiders and subsistence living along the Waccamaw River. Because of the centuries-old isolation of this community, the residents developed their own unique lifestyle and (nearly intelligible) dialect -- quite a similar situation as one would find in the 'hollers' of mountainous regions of the eastern part of the United States. *This film screened at the Cucalorus Film Festival in Wilmington, NC in Nov 2007, and at the Trade & Row Film Festival in Los Angeles, CA in Oct 2008. It was nominated for Best Documentary Short at The Great Lakes Film Festival in Erie, PA in Sep 2009.   10 a.m., Thursday, November 5 Warwick Ballroom

 

Read the press release.