Participation Type
Panel
Session Title
Session 6.05 Literature
Presentation #1 Title
From the Greek Chorus and Psalmists' Choir: Writers Tuning into Old Music to Make New
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
These four Appalachian writers are attracted to the transpersonal stories that can carry their own stories. The Greek myths, the ballads of family lore, the tales in the King James Bible, the long history of hymnody, the myths that carry our subcultures—these traditional strains of music infuse the work of these contemporary writers; each one crawls into the old songs to challenge, re-imagine, and re-enliven them in order to create a new version. As members of the core and guest faculty of West Virginia Wesleyan’s MFA Program (West Virginia’s only low-residency graduate creative writing program), these writers will each read a short selection from their original poetry or prose and will discuss their influences. During the final fifteen minutes of the session, the writers will engage one another and the audience in a conversation about the influence of transpersonal stories on contemporary writing. They will also welcome questions from the audience.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Jessie van Eerden is author of the novel Glorybound, winner of the 2012 ForeWord Reviews Editor’s Choice Fiction Prize. Her work has appeared in The Oxford American, Bellingham Review, River Teeth, and other magazines. Her prose has been included in Best American Spiritual Writing and Red Holler: An Anthology of Contemporary Appalachian Literature. Jessie received her MFA in nonfiction at the University of Iowa. She directs the low-residency MFA program at WV Wesleyan.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #2
Doug Van Gundy’s work has appeared in The Oxford American, Ecotone, The Louisville Review and other journals. His first book of poems, A Life Above Water, is published by Red Hen Press. Doug teaches in the MFA program at West Virginia Wesleyan and directs the undergraduate Honors program. A graduate of the Goddard College MFA program, Doug is also an award-winning old-time musician; he plays fiddle, guitar and mandolin in the duo, Born Old.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #3
Mary Carroll-Hackett earned an MFA from Bennington College. Her work has appeared in Superstition Review, Drunken Boat, The Prose-Poem Project, and other journals. She is author of the chapbook The Real Politics of Lipstick, winner of Slipstream’s 2010 poetry competition; Animal Soul (Kattywompus Press, 2013); and If We Could Know Our Bones (A-Minor Press, 2014). She teaches at Longwood University and is a member of the guest faculty for WV Wesleyan’s MFA.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #4
Jeremy B. Jones is the author of Bearwallow: A Personal History of a Mountain Homeland. His essays have been named Notable in Best American Essays and appear in various literary journals, including Brevity and Crab Orchard Review. Jeremy hails from the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina and teaches creative writing at Western Carolina University and has served as guest faculty for WV Wesleyan’s MFA.
From the Greek Chorus and Psalmists' Choir: Writers Tuning into Old Music to Make New
These four Appalachian writers are attracted to the transpersonal stories that can carry their own stories. The Greek myths, the ballads of family lore, the tales in the King James Bible, the long history of hymnody, the myths that carry our subcultures—these traditional strains of music infuse the work of these contemporary writers; each one crawls into the old songs to challenge, re-imagine, and re-enliven them in order to create a new version. As members of the core and guest faculty of West Virginia Wesleyan’s MFA Program (West Virginia’s only low-residency graduate creative writing program), these writers will each read a short selection from their original poetry or prose and will discuss their influences. During the final fifteen minutes of the session, the writers will engage one another and the audience in a conversation about the influence of transpersonal stories on contemporary writing. They will also welcome questions from the audience.
