Stacey Isom
TJ Jarrett
Lisa Neely
Erin Tockwell
Kevin Brown
William Woolfitt
Lee University’s annual Writer’s Festival will begin Wednesday, Jan. 28, with special guests TJ Jarrett, Lisa Neely, and Erin Tockwell, along with Lee professors Kevin Brown, Stacey Isom, and William Kelley Woolfitt. The three-day event, hosted by Lee’s Department of Language and Literature, will represent a range of creative writing genres.
Ms. Jarrett, a poet, writer, and software developer in Nashville will read selections of her work on Wednesday, Jan. 28, at 7 p.m. in the Rose Lecture Hall in the Education building. Her recent work has been published or is forthcoming in Poetry, African American Review, Boston Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, Callaloo, DIAGRAM, Third Coast, VQR, West Branch, and others. Jarrett’s debut collection “Ain’t No Grave” was a finalist for the 2013 Balcones Prize and the 2014 Debulitzer Prize. Her second collection “Zion” won the Crab Orchard Open Competition 2013 and was published by Southern Illinois University Press.
On Thursday, Jan. 29, Dr. Woolfitt and Dr. Brown will read selections of their work at 4 p.m. in the Rose Lecture Hall.
Dr. Woolfitt, assistant professor of creative writing, is the author of two books of poetry, “Beauty Strip” and the forthcoming “Charles of the Desert.” His poems and stories have appeared in Shenandoah, Michigan Quarterly Review, The Threepenny Review, Notre Dame Review, New Ohio Review, The Cincinnati Review, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Ninth Letter, and elsewhere. He recently received a Howard Nemerov Scholarship from the Sewanee Writers’ Conference.
Dr. Brown, professor of English, has published three books of poetry: “Liturgical Calendar: Poems; A Lexicon of Lost Words” (winner of the Violet Reed Haas Prize for Poetry); and “Exit Lines.” He also has a memoir titled, “Another Way: Finding Faith, Then Finding It Again”; and a book of scholarship, “They Love to Tell the Stories: Five Contemporary Novelists Take on the Gospels.” He received his master of fine arts degree from Murray State University.
Continuing the conference Thursday evening at 7, non-fiction writer Ms. Tockwell will also present selections from her work in the Rose Lecture Hall.
Born and raised in Nashville, Ms. Tockwell has lived and studied in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Kalispell, Montana; and Morgantown, West Virginia. Once a staff reporter for the Columbia Daily Herald in Columbia, Tenn., her essays have been published in The Southern Review, Creative Nonfiction, The Tampa Review, and Proximity Magazine. Her essay collection, “Confederate Streets,” earned the Social Justice and Equity in Creative Nonfiction Award. She currently resides in Chattanooga, where she teaches English, coaches rowing, and advises a writing outreach program at The McCallie School.
On Friday, Jan. 30, Ms. Isom, an associate professor of creative writing, will present a staged reading of her work along with guest director Neely in the Dixon Center.
An accomplished playwright, Ms. Isom’s plays include “Letters to John Lennon,” “Touching Aurora,” “Smokin’ Devils,” “California Dreamin’,” “On the 8’s,” and “Dough and Cookies,” and more. Her work has been seen or won awards at the Barter Theatre, the Playwright’s Theatre (Dallas), Pittsburgh New Works Festival, L.A. First Stage, 3rd Course: Theatre (Austin), the Great Plains Theatre Conference, EstroGenius Xtended (Manhattan Theatre Source), and others. Isom is also a Fellow of The Hambidge Center, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation of New Mexico.
Ms. Neely engages the theatre as a director, actor, teacher, and researcher. Her work ranges from contemporary plays to Greek classics, from mime to new play development. She was awarded best director by Portfolio magazine of Hampton Roads, Virginia, for her production of “Medea.” She currently resides in Austin, Texas, where she continues an initiative in theatrical hospitality through 3rd Course: Theatre.
This event is free and open to the public. For more information, call Ms. Isom at 614-8219 or email sisom@leeuniversity.edu.