Emerging Writers Series at Barton Scheduled March 10-11

WILSON, N.C. – The Barton College Creative Writing Symposium presents the third annual Emerging Writers Series on Monday, March 10 and Tuesday, March 11 in The Sam and Marjorie Ragan Writing Center on campus. The event is open to the public free of charge, and the community is invited to attend.

Dr. and Mrs. William M. Batchelor of Wilson have provided a four-year sponsorship for the Emerging Writers Series in the Department of English and Modern Languages that began in spring 2006. This annual gift brings new writers to campus to speak to students and members of the community and to encourage aspiring writers.

This year’s featured writers include poet Doug Van Gundy, and novelist John Williams.

“That’s My Story” workshop, scheduled from 3 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. on Monday, will provide an opportunity for the emerging writers to discuss their lives, inspirations, influences and craft. An evening reading, featuring the writers’ work, is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. On Tuesday, from 9:30 a.m. – 11 a.m. is “Nuts and Bolts,” a workshop where the writers will talk about the practical, business, and technical aspects of writing and publishing.

Van Gundy’s first book of poems, “A Life above Water” (Red Hen Press, 2007), is a cycle of poems that examines both the natural and human worlds and explores the boundaries between the two. He also is an award-winning old-time fiddler and banjo player with two recordings currently available, “Born Old” with banjo player Paul Gartner, and “Two Far Gone” with fellow fiddler Jake Krack. Van Gundy received his Master of Fine Arts degree in poetry from Goddard College in Vermont, and his poems have been published in “Negative Capability,” “Lullwater Review,” “Kestrel,” “CrossConnect,” and “Coastal Forest Review” as well as in the anthologies “xconnect: Writers of the Information Age” and “Wild Sweet Notes: Fifty Years of West Virginia Poetry.” He organized and hosted the Augusta Poets Gathering for five years. Van Gundy and his wife, Melissa, make their home in Elkins, W.Va., where he grew up.

Williams’ first novel is “Lake Moon” (Mercer University Press, 2002), for which he won the Georgia Author of the Year Award for First Novel. Set in the 1960s and 1970s in Georgia, the novel tells the story of a band and its young members in their quest for recognition and fulfillment, exploring the relationship between music and musician, between youth and belonging, between commerce and art, and between self-loathing and self awareness. Williams, is also a musician and, with his collaborator Ken Clark, he has written four musical comedies, “Music by Choice,” “Get It Off Me,” “Florida,” and “The Kelly’s Truck Stop Bop,” and released several CDs. His most recent publication is the novella “Passion,” which appears in the anthology, “A Cross of Centuries,,” edited by Michael Bishop. Williams is an associate professor of English at LaGrange College. He lives in LaGrange, Ga., with his wife, Erin, and their son and daughter.

This program has been planned in cooperation with the Department of English and Modern Languages and The Sam and Marjorie Ragan Writing Center. For additional information about this event, please contact Dr. Jim Clark, director of the Emerging Writers Series and the Creative Writing Symposium, at 252-399-6450 or email: jclark@barton.edu.

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Questions? Please contact Kathy Daughety, director of public relations, at 252-399-6529 or email: kdaughety@barton.edu.