Chattanooga State Community College has reeled in two prize catches for its next Writers@Work program.
Daniel Wallace was the first trophy. The author of the 1998 best-seller “Big Fish,” popularized by director Tim Burton’s 2003 film adaptation, had agreed to a weeklong campus visit in April to culminate the two semesters in which students had studied his work. When the coronavirus wiped spring schedules clean, Wallace’s visit was postponed until this month. But the same challenges were present for fall.
Rather than canceling, organizers converted live events to virtual ones, to be presented free of charge Sept. 21-25. The schedule is still rich in programming. The only one that got away was the chance to see the author of “Big Fish” speak at the Tennessee Aquarium.
But the COVID restrictions also meant that organizers could cast a wider net, just as they did for last week’s virtual YA-hoo Fest, which drew participants “from across the country and from, literally, around the world” in celebration of young-adult literature, says English professor Joel Henderson, Humanities Department chairman.
“In addition to opening the doors to a larger audience, the move to virtual has allowed us to expand our programming in ways that would prove cost-prohibitive if we tried to make it happen in person,” he says. “So, once we decided to go virtual, we started to brainstorm. That’s how we ended up with Andrew Lippa.