Dalton State College will recognize National Library Week with its first local authors forum, Home Grown: A Literary Celebration of Northwest Georgia.
National Library Week is April 11-17 this year. Monday through Thursday, the college’s library staff will play host to authors who write in or write about Northwest Georgia with several events on campus.
“We see this as a kind of literary festival to be held annually,” said library Director Lydia Knight. “Because we have so many faculty authors and the region has so many local authors, we thought it would be a good idea to invite them to share their work with our students and the community.”
Two events will be held in the daytime and two at night. All will take place in Goodroe Auditorium of Memorial Hall on campus. All are free.
For more information, call 706-272-4469.
Dalton state college local authors forum SCHEDULE
* Monday at noon Rome resident Raymond Atkins will talk about “The Front Porch Prophet,” which received the 2009 Independent Book Publishers Gold Medal for Southeast Regional Fiction. Atkins was named 2009 Georgia Author of the Year by the Georgia Writers Association. His novel deals with best friends from childhood who part ways but who are reunited when a tragic life event draws them back together.
* Tuesday at noon Deborah G. King will discuss “Somewhere in Germany.” The Rocky Face native has written the true story of her uncle, Paul Crook, a World War II veteran, who fell in love with Anna, a German girl, during the war. After he died, King discovered letters from Anna that her uncle had saved. Once they were translated into English, King chronicled the love story, including its shocking ending.
* Wednesday at 6 p.m. A panel of Dalton State College authors will discuss their works: Dr. Marsha Mathews, associate professor of English and author of “Northbound, Single Lane”; Chad Prevost, assistant professor of English and author of “A Walking Cliché Coins a Phrase”; and Barbara Tucker, associate professor of communications and author of “Traveling Through.”
Mathews’ book explores the themes of loss and separation, survival and renewal as it follows the journey of a woman who finds herself suddenly single and raising young children. Prevost’s work is a collection of “prose poems, letters and microfictions,” according to its subtitle. Tucker’s “Traveling Through” deals with themes of forgiveness and reconciliation, centering on a minister’s family protecting a secret.
* Thursday at 6 p.m. Susan Gregg Gilmore will discuss “Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen.” The setting for the Nashville author’s first novel is around Catoosa County, Ga., where she spent summer vacations with her paternal grandparents as a child. Her novel focuses on a revival-bred preacher who always took his granddaughters to the Dairy Queen after church on Sundays.