Participation Type
Panel
Session Title
Session 1.13 Issues in Gender and Sexuality
Presentation #1 Title
The Women I'm From - The Influence of Appalachian Women
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
The image of the Appalachian woman is varied and ever changing. Throughout Appalachian literature and scholarship, the positions and attitudes of Appalachian females have ranged from polite and demure to feisty and independent. This panel of writers will take a deeper look at the various roles and influences of women from the region and how they have helped shape their respective careers and creativity. Members of the panel will each read a short selection of original work that has been inspired by the Appalachian females they have encountered in their personal lives as well as in the literature of the region. Each will comment on the importance of the Appalachian female influence in their work. Members of the panel will engage in discussion about the varying roles of Appalachian women and how they treat the issue of gender and the evolving portrayal of women in their own writing. They will also welcome questions from the audience.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Amanda Jo Runyon's fiction and poetry has appeared in Still: The Journal, Kudzu, Open Mic, and The Louisville Review. She is currently working on her first collection of short stories which explore the mental and emotional complexities of Appalachian women.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #2
Karen Salyer McElmurray's Surrendered Child : A Birth Mother's Journey, was an AWP Award Winner for creative nonfiction. Her novels are The Motel of the Stars, Editor's Pick by Oxford American, and Strange Birds in the Tree of Heaven, winner of the Chaffin Award for Appalachian Writing.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #3
Jessie van Eerden is author of the novel Glorybound (WordFarm), winner of the 2012 Foreward Reviews Editors Choice Fiction Prize, and her work has appeared in The Oxford American, Best American Spiritual Writing, and Red Holler: An Anthology of Contemporary Appalachian Literature.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #4
Darnell Arnoult, Writer-In-Residence at Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, TN, is author of the prize winning collection What Travels With Us: Poems (LSU Press) and the novel Sufficient Grace (Free Press). Arnoult has received the Weatherford Award for Appalachian Literature, SIBA Poetry Book of the Year, Mary Frances Hobson Medal for Arts and Letters, and in 2007 was named Tennessee Writer of the year by the Tennessee Writers Alliance.
The Women I'm From - The Influence of Appalachian Women
Corbly Hall 464
The image of the Appalachian woman is varied and ever changing. Throughout Appalachian literature and scholarship, the positions and attitudes of Appalachian females have ranged from polite and demure to feisty and independent. This panel of writers will take a deeper look at the various roles and influences of women from the region and how they have helped shape their respective careers and creativity. Members of the panel will each read a short selection of original work that has been inspired by the Appalachian females they have encountered in their personal lives as well as in the literature of the region. Each will comment on the importance of the Appalachian female influence in their work. Members of the panel will engage in discussion about the varying roles of Appalachian women and how they treat the issue of gender and the evolving portrayal of women in their own writing. They will also welcome questions from the audience.
