>BOMBINGHAM= AUTHOR SEPTEMBER 30 AT ABAC

Author Anthony Grooms will be the featured speaker at the next edition of the Tom M. Cordell Distinguished Lecture Series on Sept. 30 at 7:30 p.m. in the Cordell Conference Room in the Carlton Center on the Abraham Baldwin College campus.

Free tickets to the lecture can be picked up in the Public Relations Office on the second floor of Tift Hall. Because of limited seating, everyone attending the lecture must have a ticket. For additional information, call (229) 386-3264.

Groom’s debut novel, Bombingham, was selected as a Washington Post Notable Book in 2001 and was praised by that publication as “a taut, devastating novel. . .[that marks] the emergence of a brave and promising talent. . . .Bombingham is a considerable achievement.”

The novel chronicles the events of the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War through the eyes of narrator Walter Burke, a young African-American soldier who struggles to find the meaning of his role in both events. As Burke attempts to write a letter to the parents of a fallen soldier, he is reminded of the violence of the Civil Rights Movement.

The majority of the novel occurs in flashback, focusing on Burke’s adolescence in Tittusville, the Birmingham suburb where he lived with his family. The book derives its title from the name African-Americans gave to Birmingham in the 1950s and 1960s in response to the violent bombings in their community.

Grooms earned a B.A. degree in Theatre and Speech from The College of William and Mary and an M.F.A. degree from George Mason University. He is the author of a collection of poems, Ice Poems, and a collection of stories, Trouble No More. Grooms has twice been awarded the Lillian Smith Prize for Fiction, a national award given by the Southern Regional Council, the venerable civil rights organization. He was a finalist in the 2002 Legacy Award, a national award given by the Hurston-Wright Foundation. Grooms has also been awarded the Sokolov Scholarship from the Breadloaf Writing Conference.

A professor of creative writing at Kennesaw State University, Grooms teaches a variety of writing and literature courses but specializes in creative writing and American literature. He lives in Atlanta with his wife, Pamela B. Jackson, a federal administrative judge, and their son, Ben.

The series is named in honor of Cordell, who was the director of ABAC=s continuing education program for 39 years. He retired in 1979 and passed away in 1991.

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