News
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Escape to Create's first Literary Salon celebrated local author James Harvey's publication of his first novel, Grayton Beach Affair. Set during World War II, Harvey's tale of historical fiction, intrigue, and romance reflects his love and knowledge of the local region. Grayton Beach Affair is available at Sundog Books in Seaside, FL and will be coming soon to independent bookstores throughout the Gulf region. For more information visit www.graytonbeachaffair.com |
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Congratulations to Escape to Create fellow and '95 writer-in-residence Brad Watson, one of five finalists for the prestigious PEN Faulkner Award for Fiction. Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives, a collection of 12 stories, is described as "another triumph...Brad Watson writes with such an all-seeing six-dimensional view of human hopes and inadequacies that his talent must come from another planet..." Watson's debut collection of stories, Last Days the Dogmen, was awarded the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His novel, The Heaven of Mercury, was finalist for the 2002 National Book Award. A native of Meridian, MS, Watson teaches fiction writing at the University of Wyoming and was a faculty member of Escape to Create's 2010 Fall Writers' Conference. |
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| And in other news... |
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Daphne Kalotay's debut novel, Russian Winter, was published by Harper Collins in September 2010 to widespread critical praise. The book is the culmination of over six years' research and development, including Kalotay's January 2007 Escape to Create residency. Shifting between Moscow and Boston and alternating between past and present, the buried memories and long-held secrets of a Soviet-era Bolshoi ballerina are revealed as her exquisite jewelry collection is cataloged for auction. "A sweeping generational novel...Kalotay develops a
neat narrative of deception and betrayal that takes in great strands of literary and political history...an auspicious first novel, elegantly written and without a false note." -Kirkus starred review Selected by Oprah Magazine as One of "10 Titles to Pick Up Now!" |
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To Transgress: Abstract Paintings by Betty Clark William King Museum, Abingdon, VA October 22, 2010 through April 3, 2011 The paintings of 1997 artist-in-residence Betty Clark are steeped in the rich traditions of abstract expressionism and reflect the artist's desire to find balance in a world of political and psychological unrest. A resident of North Carolina, Clark has exhibited throughout the Southeast and her work is held in private and corporate collections in the U.S., France, and Sweden. |
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Escape to Create alumni Wendy Reed and Roger Reid have been honored with an EMMY Award by the 2010 National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for the Southeast Region. Alabama in Space, an episode of the series Discovering Alabama, examined the role of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Space Center in space exploration. Discovering Alabama programs are correlated with the Alabama Course of Study and are used in classrooms throughout the state. Wendy Reed writes, produces and directs for Alabama Public Television and Radio at the University of Alabama, where she teaches scriptwriting. Her critically praised short stories have appeared in numerous anthologies and she was co-editor with fellow Escape alumnus Jennifer Horne (1997) on All Out of Faith: Southern Women on Spirituality. Reed's book, How I Killed Someone and Other Stories, will be published by Jefferson Press in the spring of 2011. Roger Reid is the producer of the award-winning Discovering Alabama series from the Alabama Museum of Natural History in cooperation with Alabama Public Television. He is the author of two critically praised books for young adults, Longleaf and Space. Reid has continued the adventures of his southern teenage sleuth with the publication of his 2010 residency project. Time will be released by NewSouth Books by the end of the year. |
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David Magee's newest work of non-fiction was the focus of his 2009 Escape to Create residency. The Education of Mr. Mayfield: An Unusual Story of Social Change at Ole Miss, published by John F. Blair, was recipient of Foreword Reviews' 2010 Regional Best Book of the Year Award and won the 2010 Independent Publisher Book Award (IPPY) for Best Regional Non-Fiction in the South-East Region. "...poignantly illustrates rural Mississippi and its people as they lived in pre-Civil Rights mid-twentieth century." -Mississippi Library Association "Magee reminds all of us that in the darkest of times, there are men and women willing to step through the door and into the light. The Education of Mr. Mayfield is a wonderful tale of the triumph of goodness." -Robert Hicks, author of The Widow of the South |
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Michael Sledge's debut novel, The More I Owe You, was published to critical praise by Counterpoint Press. The book follows the life and love of Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Elisabeth Bishop during her twenty-year sojourn in Rio de Janeiro. Sledge had recently returned from Brazil where he conducted extensive research in preparation for his 2004 Escape to Create residency. "Sledge's cinematic novel is as lush and fecund as the jungle itself...Strong and intoxicating." -Booklist "Sledge is a wonderfully sensitive and eloquent writer, able to capture the dangers, as well as the dizzy delights, of creativity and love. The More I Owe You is a novel of great beauty and tremendous charm." -Sarah Waters, author of the The Little Stranger Visit www.michaelhsledge.com and www.counterpointpress.com |
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