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Brent E. Kinser, assistant professor of English at Western Carolina University, is the official host of the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Society’s 21st annual meeting in Asheville – the first to be held outside of the Pulitzer Prize-winning author’s home state of Florida.
The conference celebrating Rawlings (at right), who lived from 1896 to 1953 and authored “The Yearling,” will be held on Friday, April 25, and Saturday, April 26, at the Renaissance Asheville Hotel.
Kinser said moving the event from Florida to Asheville acknowledges Rawlings’ national significance and the important connections between her and Western North Carolina.
“She wrote part of ‘The Yearling’ in Banner Elk and was a friend of Asheville native writer Thomas Wolfe’s,” said Kinser, president-elect of the society and co-editor of “The Uncollected Writings of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings.” “She also came to visit F. Scott Fitzgerald at the Grove Park Inn. The story of their day together is worth hearing and will be shared at this year’s meeting.”
In addition, Rawlings, who won three O’Henry Awards for her short stories, wrote “Mother in Mannville,” which is set in North Carolina and was the basis for the 1949 Lassie movie “The Sun Comes Up.”
Featured conference presenters will include Western faculty. Elizabeth Heffelfinger, director of film studies, will make a presentation about the movie “The Yearling.” Mae Claxton, assistant professor of English, will present “A Family Farm in the Everglades” based on her family’s experience in Florida. Catherine Carter, director of the English education program and winner of the 2007 Roanoke-Chowan Prize Poetry, will read from her works.
Also, Ron Rash, award-winning writer and the Parris Distinguished Professor of Appalachian Culture at WCU, will speak at the event’s formal banquet to be held from 7 to 10 p.m. Friday, April 25, at the hotel. Tickets to the banquet, which is open to the public, are $35.
Conference registration is $65 and includes access to conference presentations on Friday and Saturday, membership in the society and subscriptions to “The Journal of Florida Literature” and the society’s quarterly newsletter. For additional information, check out www.marjoriekinnanrawlings.ucf.edu contact Kinser at (828) 227-3933 or at bkinser@email.wcu.edu.
Photo of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (above right) and dog Pat is courtesy of the special and area studies collections department of University of Florida's George A. Smathers Libraries.
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Last Modified: Monday, April 7, 2008