2010 schedule of events
Sept. 10 - Oct. 3
Anthology of Appalachian Writers Photographic Art, Scarborough Library Exhibit, Scarborough Reading Room.
Monday, Sept. 27
Screening of In Country with Bruce Willis, 7:00 p.m., Reynolds Hall, sponsored by the Shepherdstown Film Society. Following the screening will be a discussion of the social and political issues addressed in the film: “Soldiers at War and Coming Home.”
Tuesday, Sept. 28
“Another Kentucky Muse and Readings from the Anthology of Appalachian Writers, Volume II,” 7:00 p.m., Robert C. Byrd Center for Legislative Studies, Reception and book signing will follow in Scarborough Reading Room.
Wednesday, Sept. 29
Bobbie Ann Mason Visits with Martinsburg, Jefferson, Musselman, and Berkeley Springs High School students at Martinsburg High School, 9:00 a.m. in Martinsburg; “Mason Reading” at Martinsburg Public Library and Reception, 10:30 a.m. “Writers Master Class with Bobbie Ann Mason, 3:00-4:30 p.m., Robert C. Byrd Center for Legislative Studies; "The Critic’s Corner, with Bobbie Ann Mason," 7:00 p.m., Robert C. Byrd Center for Legislative Studies.
Thursday, Sept. 30
Scarborough Society Lecture and Awards Ceremony, “In My Country: the Fictional World of Bobbie Ann Mason,” 8:00 p.m., Erma Byrd Hall. Bobbie Ann Mason will receive the Appalachian Heritage Writer's Award and present a reading from her work; the WV Fiction Competition Awards will be presented by Bobbie Ann Mason.
Friday, Oct. 1
Evening reading of award-winning work of fiction at The Appalachian Heritage Festival Concert, 8:00 p.m., Frank Theater.
Saturday, Oct 2
Appalachian Heritage Festival activities and demonstrations, events, and evening Festival Concert, 8:00 p.m., Frank Theater.
Bobbie Ann Mason: 2010 Writer-in-Residence
"In My Country: the Fictional World
of Bobbie Ann Mason"
Bobbie Ann Mason is a Pen/Hemingway honoree, winner of two Southern Book Awards, O. Henry and Pushcart awards, and a Pulitzer Prize finalist. Mason will participate in a variety of programs throughout the year and during the week of the residency, September 27 - October 3, 2010.
Bobbie Ann Mason’s rich and thought-provoking stories are set in western Kentucky. Her award-winning collections—Shiloh and Other Stories, Love Life, Midnight Magic, Zigzagging Down a Wild Trail, and Nancy Culpepper— portray the lives of working class people in conflict with changing values and struggling against the cultural overload and disconnect produced by America's consumer culture. Mason’s compressed style and memorable characters offer readers a unique opportunity to explore important issues in contemporary American life. Her novels In Country, Feather Crowns, Spence + Lila, and An Atomic Romance, as well as her memoir Clear Springs, present slices of the American cultural landscape that resonate with poignancy and contemporaneity. In Country, a coming of age story dealing with the cost of war on both our returning American soldiers and their families, has been selected by the West Virginia Center for the Book as the One Book, One WV Community Read.
Mason will serve throughout 2010 with the Appalachian Heritage Writer's Project, selecting the winners of the WV Fiction Competition awards and serving as senior advisor to the Anthology of Appalachian Writers, Volume III. Bobbie Ann Mason will receive the Appalachian Heritage Writer’s Award on September 30, 2010.
