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Mae Miller Claxton

Mae Claxton

Professor

College of Arts and Sciences

English

Contact Information

Email: mclaxton@wcu.edu
Phone: 828.227.3920
Office: 407 Coulter Building

Biography

Mae Miller Claxton teaches classes in Southern, Appalachian, and Native American literature. Her scholarship focuses primarily on Eudora Welty, but she has recently expanded her interests to Horace Kephart, Appalachian women writers, and the Native South. She has published <i>Conversations with Dorothy Allison</i> (University Press of Mississippi) and <i>Conversations with Ron Rash</i>, co-edited with Rain Newcomb. Along with co-editor George Frizzell, she published a collection of Horace Kephart’s writings (University of Tennessee Press) in 2020. Articles have appeared in <i>Mississippi Quarterly</i>, <i>South Atlantic Review</i>, and <i>Southern Quarterly</i>, among others. She was the Hunter Scholar for 2012-2013, developing a number of projects from the Kephart collection in Hunter Library. She served as president of the Eudora Welty Society from 2010-2012.

Education

  • Ph D, University of Georgia
  • MA, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • BA, University of Georgia

Teaching Interests

Mae Miller Claxton teaches classes at all levels, from the freshman seminar in literature to graduate literature classes. She teaches a liberal studies Appalachian literature class and a senior seminar literature class that includes organizing and hosting a senior seminar conference on a different topic each year. Other classes focus on southern literature and Native South literature. At the graduate level, she teaches Southern, Native American, and 19th c. American literature.

Research Interests

Mae Miller Claxton's scholarship has focused primarily on Eudora Welty, especially connections between her photography and fiction. Her recent focus, however, has shifted to Appalachian writers. Current research interests are Horace Kephart and Appalachian women writers, especially Wilma Dykeman.

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