Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Audio: Alabama Author Podcasts from AFN

The Atlanta Forum Network (part of Public Broadcasting Atlanta) provides free access to podcasts of public lectures and readings. Many of these are readings by and/or discussions with recently published authors. They take place at venues such as the High Museum of Art, the Georgia Center for the Book, and the Jimmy Carter Library and Museum.

Some of these files are in RealPlayer format and some are in Windows Media format. To install RealPlayer, download the free version from the RealPlayer installers page. To install Windows Media Player, download the free version from the Windows Media Player installers page.

If you prefer to save files for later listening, some audios are available as downloadable mp3 files through the WGBH Forum Network, a partner program to AFN. To download, right-click on the "MP3 Download" link and choose "Save Link As ..." (Firefox) or "Save Target As ..." (Internet Explorer). (Left-clicking the link will cause the mp3 file to stream using your default media player.)

American Wars, American Peace (Philip K. Beidler)

The Prince of Frogtown (Rick Bragg)

Ralph Ellison: Invisible Man (Arnold Rampersad)

Download mp3 audio of Rampersad/Ellison lecture

Resisting History: Gender, Modernity, and Authorship (Barbara Ladd on Zora Neale Hurston)

Download mp3 audio of Ladd/Hurston lecture

The Girl Who Stopped Swimming (Joshilyn Jackson)

Queen of Broken Hearts (Cassandra King)

Download mp3 audio of King reading

Meet the Poet: Sonia Sanchez

Gay Talese: His Portraits and Encounters

Georgia Review: Natasha Trethewey and Stephen Dunn

Download mp3 audio of Trethewey and Dunn readings

Poetry Readings: Natasha Trethewey

Mr. Sebastian and the Negro Musician (Daniel Wallace)

Download mp3 audio of Wallace discussion

Midge Coates, Project Manager
This Goodly Land: Alabama's Literary Landscape

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Alabama Authors on The New York Times "Notable Books" List

The New York Times recently published its list of "100 Notable Books of 2008." Authors on this year's list that have connections to Alabama are Tony Earley, Edward O. Wilson, and Tobias Wolff. All three have appeared on the Times "Notable Books" list in previous years. Other Alabama writers that have been included in earlier lists are Rick Bragg, Ralph Ellison, Fannie Flagg, Homer Hickam, and Sena Jeter Naslund.

Midge Coates, Project Manager
This Goodly Land: Alabama's Literary Landscape

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Lewis Nordan and the Heartbreaking Laughter of Transcendence and Hope: A Symposium

The Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts & Humanities presents a Symposium on renowned author Lewis "Buddy" Nordan, an Auburn University graduate and nationally acclaimed author of eight books including Music of the Swamp and The Sharpshooter Blues. The day-long event will be held on January 23 at the Hotel at Auburn University and Dixon Conference Center.

The Symposium will bring together a host of well-known writers, international scholars, experts in Alabama and Southern literature, and Auburn University's own art and theater students. Nordan himself will deliver the keynote address, introduced by North Carolina writer Clyde Edgerton, who will sing his rendition of Nordan's "Sugar Among the Chickens" and offer an appreciation of the author. Celebrated author Hal Crowther will offer his own appreciation of Nordan entitled "Critical Barbs: Archer or Arrow Catcher," introduced by Southern literary scholar Noel Polk.

Other speakers will include international scholars Manuel Broncano and Marcel Arbeit and Alabamians Bert Hitchcock, Don Noble, Constance Relihan, and Barbara A. Baker. Auburn University art students will display drawings rendered from Nordan's stories, and theater students will enact a dramatic reading of "How Bob Steele Broke My Father's Heart."

The Nordan Symposium will be recorded and made available through iTunes, and papers from the Symposium will be compiled in a volume to be published by Pebble Hill Books. The program will be of interest to both general and scholarly audiences and to aficionados of great Southern storytelling.

Read more about the Symposium at the CMDCAH blog.

Find the Symposium schedule, directions, hotel information, and a brief video of Lewis Nordan at the CMDCAH Web site.

Download the Symposium press packet, which includes a poster and a press release.

Midge Coates, Project Manager
This Goodly Land: Alabama's Literary Landscape

Monday, December 1, 2008

Audio: Edward O. Wilson on NPR's All Things Considered

On November 30, Alabama author Edward O. Wilson was interviewed by Andrea Seabrook on the National Public Radio program All Things Considered. At the All Things Considered Web site, you can listen to the interview, see (and hear) a narrated slide show about leafcutter ants, and read an excerpt from The Superorganism: The Beauty, Elegance, and Strangeness of Insect Societies, Wilson's most recent book (co-written with Bert Hölldobler).

Listen to the All Things Considered interview with Edward O. Wilson.

Midge Coates, Project Manager
This Goodly Land: Alabama's Literary Landscape