"What Makes a Southern Story Southern?" - A Discussion

Writer Tamra Wilson, M.F.A., on "What Makes a Southern Story Southern?"

Presented by Watauga County Public Library, High Country Lifelong Learners, and the Road Scholar program of the North Carolina Humanities Council (http://www.nchumanities.org/).

Southern stories are more than tangled tales of honeysuckle and kudzu. The thirteen states that comprise the Old South have collectively produced some of the nation’s finest writers and the past century’s most honored books.

While some insist that “authentic” Southern stories must include a dead mule, Tamra Wilson begs to differ. In this presentation she will share from her own research the six essentials that define Southern fiction and memoir. You’ll never look at Southern literature quite the same way again.

BIOGRAPHY of the Speaker

Tamra Wilson spent most of her career writing and editing for public and private organizations.
For the past twelve years, she has penned a biweekly column for local newspapers. She has also contributed to WFAEats: All Things Food and Culture hosted by WFAE public radio in Charlotte, NC.
Wilson’s graduate research of Southern literature has morphed into two Humanities Council presentations, “Southern Selves: The Child as Storyteller” and “What Makes a Southern Story Southern?” as a Road Scholar for the North Carolina Humanities Council.
Her creative work often explores themes of family conflict, belonging, and obsession with celebrity.
Her work has appeared in such publications as storySouth, North Carolina Literary Review, Epiphany, Our State, and Crossroads Journal of Southern Culture.
A Fellow at the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, Wilson was part of the 2002 Blumenthal Writers & Readers Series.
She is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism and earned an MFA in creative writing from the University of Southern Maine. She is author of 'Dining with Robert Redford & Other Stories', which delves into small-town life.
Wilson is the recipient of the Jesse Stuart Prize for Young Adult Fiction, a Blumenthal Award and has been a two-time finalist for Press 53 Novella Award.
She is at work on a novel based on her great-grandmother, an orphan train rider in 1860.
She is also co-editor of 'IDOL TALK: Women Writers on the Teenage Infatuations that Changed Their Lives', published this year by McFarland & Co.
Among the 44 outstanding female contributors are North Carolina’s own Jill McCorkle, Stephanie Powell Watts and Judy Goldman.

Tamra Wilson.
Co-editor of I'DOL TALK: Women Writers on the Teenage Infatuations That Changed Their Lives' (McFarland, June 2018)

www.tamrawilson.com

This presentation is made possible through funding from the North Carolina Humanities Council. The North Carolina Humanities Council is a nonprofit foundation and a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

http://www.nchumanities.org/