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News from |
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Michael D. Chason Director of Public
Relations ABAC 30, 2802 Moore Hwy |
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For IMMEDIATE
Release June 10, 2010
Daugharty
Chosen as Writer-In-Residence at ABAC
TIFTON—Pulitzer
Prize-nominated author Janice Daugharty will join Abraham Baldwin Agricultural
College as the Writer-in-Residence for the campus on July 1.
“I think this is a great accomplishment for ABAC to secure
the services of an author of this magnitude,” ABAC President David Bridges
said. “Janice knows the people of south Georgia and will relate well to
our students.”
Daugharty is a familiar face to ABAC since she has
lectured on several occasions and was the speaker at the Tom M. Cordell Lecture
Series in 1996 for her novel, “Pawpaw Patch.”
Dr. Niles Reddick, Vice President of Academic Affairs at
ABAC, is also excited about the addition of Daugharty to the campus.
“I first met Janice in 1994 when I interviewed her for my
dissertation work at Florida State University,” said Reddick. “She has been
extremely helpful to me in my own writing career. She is a prolific author who
is already being noted as one of the great Southern writers.”
As a part time Writer-in-Residence at ABAC, Daugharty
will be active in campus events, including Celebrate ABAC, the college’s
Homecoming; and George Scott Day, the annual celebration of the arts. She
will also serve as a consultant and participant in conferences, guest lecture
in ABAC classes through the School of Liberal Arts, and do public readings and
book signings in conjunction with the Department of Literature and Language, as
well as with student literary organizations at the college.
“I'm
excited about representing ABAC as its first Writer-in-Residence, but even more
excited about being part of a team with such innovative ideas, especially
ABAC's one-of-a-kind Rural Studies Program,” said Daugharty. “I'm looking
forward to interacting with students, particularly those interested in a career
in writing.”
She
also hopes to inspire students to stay within their communities after their
education is complete.
“I'm
interested in helping to establish a spirit of pride in our rural communities,”
said Daugharty. “I grew up in an era of thinking ‘if it ain't New York,
it's nothing’. As I've gotten older I've become enamored with the idea of God
placing most of us where we should stay and give back what we've been given.
Some seem to feel that the rural South is just dirt that holds the larger, more
sophisticated world together. I've written hundreds of stories, and maybe fifty
novels, set in rural South Georgia, so I know my place inside and out. And I
love it!”
Daugharty
has established a nation wide following as a storyteller of life and people in
South Georgia and is one of the state's most admired and creative present-day
authors. “Pawpaw Patch”
and “Earl in the Yellow Shirt”, her 1997 novel, were both listed in “Best Books
of the Nineties.” She
was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in Fiction in 1997 for “Earl in the Yellow
Shirt.” The film rights to “Dark of the Moon”, her 1994 novel,
were purchased by the Hallmark Corp., in 1994 and were optioned by Rose Film
Productions in 2005.
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