Chattanooga State Community College will welcome award-winning author Jill McCorkle as its guest speaker during the annual Writers@Work conference, scheduled for April 14-18. McCorkle is a noted and acclaimed southern writer. With numerous books to her credit, she has the distinction of having published her first two novels on the same day in 1984 at the age of 26. A North Carolina native and resident, McCorkle is a member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers.
The Chattanooga State Foundation and community partners sponsor the weeklong program. Writers@Work is an award-winning initiative conceived by the Chattanooga State Humanities Department. The program invites to campus an author with significant ties to the American South to engage with students and the public on matters of authorship, the power of academic voice, Southern identity, and sense of place. Its purpose is to advance the practices of teaching English at the college and to invite the public in for a closer look at the writing process through readings and discussion with the visiting writer.
McCorkle will visit with writing classes, the library staff, and students in addition to providing book-signing opportunities and presenting a workshop for students enrolled in creative writing classes. While examining McCorkle’s book, “Creatures of Habit,” nearly 3,000 students enrolled in composition courses at Chattanooga State will engage in discussions, literary analyses, and critical thinking focused on various aspects of the writer’s experiences and body of work.
McCorkle is the author of nine previous books (four story collections and five novels) five of which have been selected as New York Times Notable Books. The recipient of the New England Book Award, the John Dos Passos Prize for Excellence in Literature, and the North Carolina Prize for Literature, she teaches writing at North Carolina State University.
The public is invited to three free evening events to engage with the writer. A reading followed by a question and answer period and book signing at the Chattanooga Public Library is scheduled for 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. on Monday, April 14. On Wednesday, April 16, Writers@Work will present “Behind the Writer,” an interview with McCorkle and Jamie Quatro, from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. in the Humanities Theatre at Chattanooga State that also includes a dessert reception and book signing. Her final public appearance event at the Tennessee Aquarium will be held the evening of Thursday, April 17 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. in the River Journey Auditorium.
For more information about Writers@Work, contact Erica Lux at erica.lux@chattanoogastate.edu, or visit www.chattanoogastate.edu.
Source: Chattanooga State Community College