Perry County TN Arts

LITERATURE

 Although the mission of the Perry County Arts Committee (PCAC) is to promote all the arts, our first focus was on the literary arts.  Our most important goal was to demonstrate to Perry County residents how literary arts can enhance their lives, educate their children, and advance economic development. 

Additionally, PCAC wanted to demonstrate that we can have the same types of literary events in Perry County that one can enjoy in the State's urban settings.  Thus, we have the Meet the Author Series.

BUFFALO RIVER WRITERS

The Buffalo River Writers was an outgrowth of a writers’ workshop conducted by Randy Mackin, editor of the local newspaper, the Buffalo River Review, and professor at Middle Tennessee State University, during the summer of 2008.  The participants decided to continue meeting at the conclusion of the workshop.  The Writers meet monthly to share their writing with each other.  Participation is open to the public, consequently, the size of the group has expanded considerably.  

In December 2008, the Buffalo River Writers published a 175 page book, Writers ‘Round Here, of short stories, poems and essays, authored by members of the Writers’ group.  The Perry County Bank, Chamber of Commerce, and the City of Linden contributed to the publication costs.  Sue Franks, a resident published author and painter, designed the cover of the book.  Several Perry County High School students contributed poems.  Proceeds from the sale of the book funded in part the return of the Westenn String Quartet in May 2009, and will fund in part the future funding of the theater.

PERRY COUNTY BIBLIOPHILES

In May 2009, a group of bibliophiles gathered to organize a book club under the guidance of Randy Mackin.  Since the first meeting, the Bibliophiles have concentrated on southern writers starting with Flannery O’Connor’s short stories, then moving to Ron Rash (Saints at the River and Serena), and Rick Bragg (The Prince of Frogtown).  During the November meeting the Bibliophiles decided to branch out into other areas.  In December 2009 they will review Khaled Hasseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns and The Kite Runner.   

MEET THE AUTHOR

The PCAC’s 2007-08 Literary Arts program, Meet the Author consisted of three literary events: a reading by William Gay, novelist, in the fall of 2007 at the Lobelville Library; a reading by Jeff Hardin, poet, the following spring, at the Linden Library; and Heritage Days’ Second Annual Book Signing, held in May at the Linden public library.  Receptions followed each event and allowed the audience to literally meet the authors. 

William Gay was born in Lewis County, TN and lives in Hohenwald today.  According to Gay, he has been writing since he was a teenager, but only first published in 1998.  Since that time, he has gained a reputation of belonging "firmly in the gothic tradition of Southern Literature."  Gay's published works include: The Long Way Home (1999); Provinces of Night (2000); I Hate to See that Evening Sun Go Down (2002); and Twilight (2006).  He has another novel that is expected to be published soon, The Lost Country. 

Jeff Hardin, born in Savannah, TN, is Assistant Professor of English at Columbia State Community College in Columbia, TN. He earned a B.S. in English from Austin Peay State University (1990) and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Alabama (1993) where he twice won the Academy of American Poets Award (1992 and 1993). In addition, he has been a Summer Fellow at the Stadler Semester for Younger Poets at Bucknell University, as well as a faculty member with the Young Fugitives Writers Workshop, sponsored by the Tennessee Humanities Council. His poems have been nominated five times for a Pushcart Prize, and two of his manuscripts, A Song for This Town and A Large Land Where No One Dies, have placed in first book competitions. He published his first poems in 1987 at the age of 18.  Over the last decade, he has contributed to such journals as Ascent, Amaranth, Appalachian Journal, Birmingham Poetry Review, Blueline, Crab Orchard Review, The Distillery, The Florida Review, The G.W. Review, Hayden's Ferry Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, Plainsong, Pleiades, Poem, Poet & Critic, Poet Lore, Puerto del Sol, Quarterly West, Whirligig, Zone 3 and many others. His work has appeared in Homeworks: An Anthology of Tennessee Writers (University of Tennessee Press). His first collection, Fall Sanctuary, received the Nicholas Roerich Poetry Prize from Story Line Press (2004). 

The PCAC’s 2007-08 Literary Arts program received funding from the Tennessee Arts Commission with contributions from Perry County Friends of the Library.  

Meet the Author continued in 2008-09 with Readings and Audience Discussions in Lobelville and Linden (see David Tucker Poster).  The program in Lobelville was presented in collaboration with Hugh Waddell, Robert Mathis, the City of Lobelville, and the West Girls and Warren Brothers who provided original lyrics and acoustical music.

David Tucker is a poet and career journalist who has won several national awards in both fields. Tucker’s poetry has appeared in over 60 magazines and periodicals including The New York Quarterly, Boulevard, Slate, Greensboro Review, Seneca Review, Carolina Quarterly, Christian Science Monitor, Missouri Review, Southern Poetry Review, Ploughshares, The New York Times, Atlanta Review and Mississippi Review. He has been featured on several radio programs including NPR’s Fresh Air, with Terry Gross, WHYY’s Radio Times and The Bob Edwards show on Sirius Radio. He was a featured reader at the 2006 Dodge Poetry Festival, and read twice at the Library of Congress. During his 30 year career as a journalist Tucker has worked at United Press International, The Philadelphia Inquirer and at the Star-Ledger where he is currently Deputy Managing Editor, supervising investigations. Stories that he has overseen have won many major journalism awards, including the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News. David Tucker was born and raised in Linden, TN.

The 2008-09 Meet the Author was funded in part by a grant from the Southern Arts Federation in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.