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4 lauded authors to appear in App State’s first virtual Hughlene Bostian Frank Visiting Writers Series

“While it’s always wonderful to have writers visit in person, one of the pleasures of online readings has been the intimacy. … There’s something wonderful about having the writer in your living room.”

Mark Powell, author and associate professor of creative writing in Appalachian’s Department of English, on the virtual format of the university’s fall 2020 Hughlene Bostian Frank Visiting Writers Series.

View larger image

Appalachian State University’s Hughlene Bostian Frank Visiting Writers Series is named in honor of late alumna Hughlene Bostian Frank ’68, left. She is pictured with her husband, William “Bill” Frank. Photo by Marie Freeman

The Visiting Writers Series’ eponymous patron

Appalachian’s Hughlene Bostian Frank Visiting Writing Series, named in honor of late alumna Hughlene Bostian Frank ’68, brings distinguished and up-and-coming creative writers to the university’s campus throughout the year to present readings and discuss their works.

Frank was a 2013 Appalachian Alumni Association Outstanding Service Award recipient and past member of Appalachian’s Board of Trustees and the Appalachian State University Foundation, as well as a generous supporter of Appalachian. She also served as a member on the College of Arts and Sciences Advancement Council and the Beaver College of Health Sciences Advisory Council.

Learn more about Frank and her legacy.

By Jessica Stump
Posted Sep. 11, 2020 at 4:17 p.m.

BOONE, N.C. — Pivoting in response to 2020’s pandemic plot twist, Appalachian State University has adapted its fall 2020 Hughlene Bostian Frank Visiting Writers Series into virtual events featuring renowned national authors, including novelist Jacinda Townsend, poets Jacinta White and Nickole Brown, and creative nonfiction writer Graham Hoppe.

As part of the prerecorded events, the authors will read from their work and deliver talks on the craft of writing, which provide aspiring writers with examples on how to refine their writing techniques, develop sounder work habits and gain a greater appreciation of the writing process. Talks given by Townsend, Hoppe and White will be available to both the public and Appalachian students, faculty and staff, with Brown’s talk on poetry and animal advocacy reserved for classroom use upon instructor request.

“While it’s always wonderful to have writers visit in person, one of the pleasures of online readings has been the intimacy. … There’s something wonderful about having the writer in your living room.”

Mark Powell, author and associate professor of creative writing in Appalachian’s Department of English, on the virtual format of the university’s fall 2020 Hughlene Bostian Frank Visiting Writers Series.

The series’ director, Mark Powell, author and associate professor of creative writing in Appalachian’s Department of English, said, “While it’s always wonderful to have writers visit in person, one of the pleasures of online readings has been the intimacy. I’ve watched a number of readings over the past months and been consistently delighted and surprised with both how much I took away and how close the writer felt. There’s something wonderful about having the writer in your living room.”

Video links for the authors’ recordings will be featured on the Visiting Writers Series webpage and will be available to the public and the campus community until Dec. 15. Each author’s video will be made available on the day of their scheduled appearance in the series, beginning with White's on Sept. 17.

More on the visiting authors

Poet Jacinta White

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Poet Jacinta White. Photo submitted

White, author of “Resurrecting the Bones: Born from a Journey through African American Churches & Cemeteries in the Rural South” (Press 53, 2019), is the first writer to appear in the series.

“With a voice drawing its energy from an underrepresented perspective of religion and the black female body politic, Jacinta White offers the sharp notes of history, victimhood and subjugation as a testament to the visceral injuries upon the backs and spirits of generations of African Americans,” said Jaki Shelton Green, current poet laureate of North Carolina.

Green described White’s “Resurrecting the Bones” as a “divining rod” that guides readers “past shores where ancestral ghosts have forgotten their names but still manage to write themselves home in between all the expressive lines in this collection.”

In her craft talk, White plans to discuss her process of exploring African American churches and cemeteries in the rural South and how that journey led to “Resurrecting the Bones.” She plans also to speak on poetry’s use as a research tool and how it not only helps individuals make sense of the world, but how it also stands within a historical context.

White also served as the final judge for Appalachian’s 2020–21 Truman Capote Literary Trust Scholarship for Creative Writing competition.

Novelist Jacinda Townsend

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Novelist Jacinda Townsend, who serves as Appalachian State University’s 2020–21 Rachel Rivers-Coffey Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing. Photo submitted

Townsend, who appeared in the fall 2019 Visiting Writers Series, currently serves as Appalachian’s Rachel Rivers-Coffey (RRC) Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing and will be featured as the second author in the fall 2020 series.

“We are delighted to have professor Townsend back as our Rachel Rivers-Coffey Professor this fall,” Powell said. “Jacinda gave one of the most insightful craft talks and riveting readings in the fall of 2019. Asking her to return to work directly with Appalachian students was an easy decision to make.”

According to Powell, the Rachel Rivers-Coffey Professorship allows students to interact with working writers beyond those who are part of Appalachian’s Department of English faculty. “It’s an incredible opportunity not only to focus on the craft of writing but to make connections with the larger literary world,” he said.

For her craft talk, Townsend plans to examine the literary genres of magical realism, fabulism, absurdism and surrealism, and help writers find answers to these questions: How and on what occasions might writers use magical realism to help them speak the deepest truths? How might writers haunt their characters with the ghosts that are so deeply in their subconscious?

“Jacinda Townsend’s ‘Saint Monkey’ is an insightful novel about two girls coming of age in rural Kentucky and Jazz Age New York,” Powell added.

Townsend’s recently completed novel, “Kif,” will be published by Graywolf Press in 2022.

Creative nonfiction author Graham Hoppe

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Creative nonfiction author Graham Hoppe. Photo submitted

In “Gone Dollywood: Dolly Parton’s Mountain Dream” (Ohio University Press, 2018), Hoppe, the series’ third author, “blends tourism, public history and personal reflection into an interrogation of Southern American identity,” according to the publisher’s website.

William Ferris, author of “The South in Color: A Visual Journal” and professor emeritus of history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said, “‘Gone Dollywood’ is a landmark study. Graham Hoppe eloquently explains why Dollywood draws thousands of visitors each year and captures East Tennessee worlds in significant ways. This fine book, like Dolly Parton, will touch the heart of its readers.”

For his craft talk, Hoppe plans to speak about approaching a public place such as a theme park and a public personality such as Dolly Parton. He plans also to talk about working with popular history, as well as dealing with and gaining access to corporations — and how to push a narrative forward when this access isn’t granted.

Poet Nickole Brown

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Poet Nickole Brown. Photo submitted

Dr. Kathryn Kirkpatrick, poet and professor in Appalachian’s Department of English, commented on the “beautiful and brave poems” of Brown, the series’ concluding author.

“She (Brown) addresses issues of social class, gender, sexuality and speciesism, quite often in the same poem,” Kirkpatrick said. “The connections she makes are powerfully illuminating: How does the domination and abuse of other animals echo in the exploitation and domination of women? Her poems of witness don’t stop at the borders of the human. She’s fearless in giving a voice to the suffering of other animals.”

Brown, who serves as co-editor of the Marie Alexander Poetry Series, is the author of “Sister,” a novel-in-poems; “Fanny Says,” a biography-in-poems; and “The Donkey Elegies,” an essay-in-poems.

More on the series

The fall 2020 Hughlene Bostian Frank Visiting Writing Series is co-presented by the Department of English and the university’s Appalachian Journal: A Regional Studies Review.

Books by the visiting authors are available for purchase through the University Bookstore. The university’s Belk Library and Information Commons has created a Fall 2020 Visiting Writers Series guide that provides information about each author and shows which of the authors’ books are available through the library.

Fall 2020 schedule

Poet Jacinta White
Sep
17
Poet Jacinta White

Hughlene Bostian Frank Visiting Writers Series

Sep. 17, 2020
12 p.m.

Poet Jacinta V. White, the author of “Resurrecting the Bones: Born from a Journey through African American Churches & Cemeteries in the Rural South,” attributes poetry to being her lifeline and began seriously writing after the sudden passing of her father in 1996. “Resurrecting the Bones” is a collection of 37 poems attempts to convey the impressions the poet received through her visits to churches and cemeteries in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Texas. Link to Reading and Craft Talk video to be posted Thursday, Sept. 17 at 12 p.m.

Learn more
Novelist Jacinda Townsend
Oct
8
Novelist Jacinda Townsend

Hughlene Bostian Frank Visiting Writers Series

Oct. 8, 2020
12 p.m.

Jacinda Townsend recently served as the Appalachian Writer in Residence at Berea College. She is the author of Saint Monkey (Norton, 2014), which is set in 1950s Eastern Kentucky and won the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize and the James Fenimore Cooper Prize for historical fiction. Saint Monkey was also the 2015 Honor Book of the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. Link to Reading video to be posted Thursday, Oct. 8, at 12 p.m.

Learn more
Creative Nonfiction Author Graham Hoppe
Oct
15
Creative Nonfiction Author Graham Hoppe

Hughlene Bostian Frank Visiting Writers Series

Oct. 15, 2020
12 p.m.

Graham Hoppe, a graduate of the folklore program at UNC Chapel Hill, writes about culture and history with a focus on food, music and tourism. His work has appeared in South Writ Large, The Ethnic American, Food Today Encyclopedia, The Southern Foodways Alliance, and Bit and Grain. His first book, “Gone Dollywood: Dolly Parton’s Mountain Dream,” is available now from Ohio University Press. Raised in Indianapolis, Indiana, Graham currently lives in Raleigh, North Carolina. Link to Reading and Craft Talk video to be posted Thursday, Oct. 15, at 12 p.m.

Learn more
Poet Nickole Brown
Oct
22
Poet Nickole Brown

Hughlene Bostian Frank Visiting Writers Series

Oct. 22, 2020
12 p.m.

Poet Nickole Brown received her MFA from the Vermont College, studied literature at Oxford University and was the editorial assistant for the late Hunter S. Thompson. Currently, she is the Editor for the Marie Alexander Poetry Series and teaches periodically at a number of places, including the Sewanee School of Letters MFA Program, the Great Smokies Writing Program at UNCA and the Hindman Settlement School. Link to Reading video to be posted Thursday, Oct. 22, at 12 p.m.

Learn more

For additional information about the spring 2020 series, visit the Department of English website and/or contact the series coordinator, Susan Weinberg, at 828-262-2871 and/or [email protected].

View larger image

Appalachian State University’s Hughlene Bostian Frank Visiting Writers Series is named in honor of late alumna Hughlene Bostian Frank ’68, left. She is pictured with her husband, William “Bill” Frank. Photo by Marie Freeman

The Visiting Writers Series’ eponymous patron

Appalachian’s Hughlene Bostian Frank Visiting Writing Series, named in honor of late alumna Hughlene Bostian Frank ’68, brings distinguished and up-and-coming creative writers to the university’s campus throughout the year to present readings and discuss their works.

Frank was a 2013 Appalachian Alumni Association Outstanding Service Award recipient and past member of Appalachian’s Board of Trustees and the Appalachian State University Foundation, as well as a generous supporter of Appalachian. She also served as a member on the College of Arts and Sciences Advancement Council and the Beaver College of Health Sciences Advisory Council.

Learn more about Frank and her legacy.

The Hughlene Bostian Frank Visiting Writers Series
The Hughlene Bostian Frank Visiting Writers Series

The Hughlene Bostian Frank Visiting Writers Series brings distinguished and up-and-coming creative writers to Appalachian State University’s Boone campus throughout the year to present lectures and discuss their works.

Learn more
Hughlene Bostian Frank touched students’ lives through Appalachian’s Visiting Writers Series
Hughlene Bostian Frank touched students’ lives through Appalachian’s Visiting Writers Series
Aug. 27, 2019

Through Appalachian’s Visiting Writers Series, Hughlene Bostian Frank hoped to broaden students’ lives and open opportunities.

Read the story

What do you think?

Share your feedback on this story.

About the Department of English

The Department of English at Appalachian State University is committed to outstanding work in the classroom, the support and mentorship of students, and a dynamic engagement with culture, history, language, theory and literature. The department offers master’s degrees in English and rhetoric and composition, as well as undergraduate degrees in literary studies, film studies, creative writing, professional writing and English education. Learn more at https://english.appstate.edu.

About the College of Arts and Sciences

The College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) at Appalachian State University is home to 17 academic departments, two centers and one residential college. These units span the humanities and the social, mathematical and natural sciences. CAS aims to develop a distinctive identity built upon our university's strengths, traditions and locations. The college’s values lie not only in service to the university and local community, but through inspiring, training, educating and sustaining the development of its students as global citizens. More than 6,800 student majors are enrolled in the college. As the college is also largely responsible for implementing App State’s general education curriculum, it is heavily involved in the education of all students at the university, including those pursuing majors in other colleges. Learn more at https://cas.appstate.edu.

About Appalachian State University

As a premier public institution, Appalachian State University prepares students to lead purposeful lives. App State is one of 17 campuses in the University of North Carolina System, with a national reputation for innovative teaching and opening access to a high-quality, affordable education for all. The university enrolls more than 21,000 students, has a low student-to-faculty ratio and offers more than 150 undergraduate and 80 graduate majors at its Boone and Hickory campuses and through App State Online. Learn more at https://www.appstate.edu.

“While it’s always wonderful to have writers visit in person, one of the pleasures of online readings has been the intimacy. … There’s something wonderful about having the writer in your living room.”

Mark Powell, author and associate professor of creative writing in Appalachian’s Department of English, on the virtual format of the university’s fall 2020 Hughlene Bostian Frank Visiting Writers Series.

View larger image

Appalachian State University’s Hughlene Bostian Frank Visiting Writers Series is named in honor of late alumna Hughlene Bostian Frank ’68, left. She is pictured with her husband, William “Bill” Frank. Photo by Marie Freeman

The Visiting Writers Series’ eponymous patron

Appalachian’s Hughlene Bostian Frank Visiting Writing Series, named in honor of late alumna Hughlene Bostian Frank ’68, brings distinguished and up-and-coming creative writers to the university’s campus throughout the year to present readings and discuss their works.

Frank was a 2013 Appalachian Alumni Association Outstanding Service Award recipient and past member of Appalachian’s Board of Trustees and the Appalachian State University Foundation, as well as a generous supporter of Appalachian. She also served as a member on the College of Arts and Sciences Advancement Council and the Beaver College of Health Sciences Advisory Council.

Learn more about Frank and her legacy.

The Hughlene Bostian Frank Visiting Writers Series
The Hughlene Bostian Frank Visiting Writers Series

The Hughlene Bostian Frank Visiting Writers Series brings distinguished and up-and-coming creative writers to Appalachian State University’s Boone campus throughout the year to present lectures and discuss their works.

Learn more
Hughlene Bostian Frank touched students’ lives through Appalachian’s Visiting Writers Series
Hughlene Bostian Frank touched students’ lives through Appalachian’s Visiting Writers Series
Aug. 27, 2019

Through Appalachian’s Visiting Writers Series, Hughlene Bostian Frank hoped to broaden students’ lives and open opportunities.

Read the story

What do you think?

Share your feedback on this story.

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Appalachian Today is an online publication of Appalachian State University. This website consolidates university news, feature stories, events, photo galleries, videos and podcasts.

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Appalachian Today is an online publication of Appalachian State University. This website consolidates university news, feature stories, events, photo galleries, videos and podcasts.

If you cannot find what you're looking for here, please refer to the following sources:

  • Podcasts may be found at Appalachian State University Podcasts
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