American Women of Writers Color Conference, October 29-31
SALISBURY, MD--More than 100 scholars from across the United States will meet at the Sheraton Hotel in Ocean City for the American Women Writers of Color Conference on October 29-31. Now in its eighth year, the event is sponsored by Salisbury State Universitys Charles R. and Martha N. Fulton School of Liberal Arts and the Department of English.
Over 30 panels will discuss the works of Toni Morrison, Zora Neale Hurston, Alice Walker, Harriet Jacobs and others, and topics such as Reconstruction to the Harlem Renaissance, Politics and Spirituality in African American Womens Fiction, Multicultural Politics: From Docudrama to Gorilla Politics, Connecting to the Spiritual and Shaping Latina Literary History.
Following a full day of panel discussions on Friday, October 29, the conference spotlight shifts from the beach to the SSU campus for A Tribute to African American Women Writers in Holloway Hall Auditorium at 7:30 p.m. A combination of music and readings from literary works, themes examined are slavery, self-love, sisterhood, blues and claiming voice.
Readers include Rachel Polk, owner of Grassroots II bookstore, Dr. Della Dameron-Johnson, assistant professor of English at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, and Jymece Seward, an SSU student. Music is by The Nichols Sisters and Family, organist Henry Martin and the SSU and UMES Gospel Choirs.
Admission to the Tribute is free and the public is invited.
On Saturday, October 30, at the Sheraton, the Sarah E. Wright Best Graduate Paper Award will be presented at a noon luncheon, followed by a presentation by guest writer Gish Jen, author of Typical American, Mona in the Promised Land and Who's Irish?
That evening a Writers Forum features Andrea Herrera, author of (Re)membering Cuba: The Legacy of the Cuban Diaspora (forthcoming from University of Texas Press) and The Pearl of the Antilles (forthcoming from Bilingual Review Press), and Ruth Kocher, author of Desdemonas Fire (Lotus Press, 1999), winner of the Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award.
The conference cost for all three days is $35 and includes the Saturday luncheon presentation. Reservation deadline is Wednesday, October 27.
For more information contact conference coordinators, Dr. Judith Pike or Dr. Connie Richards in the SSU English Department, at 410-543-6445.