CSCC's Writers@Work 2018 Hosts George Singleton And Clyde Edgerton

Chattanooga State Community College will present Writers@Work on April 2-6, with authors George Singleton and guest Clyde Edgerton, with selected works, The Half Mammals of Dixie.

Sponsors of the event are: Unum, Tennessee Arts Commission, Chattanooga State Community College and South Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Partners include: Hunter Museum of Art, EPB, Star Line Books and Southern Lit Alliance.

Author Bios:  

George Singleton: George Singleton was born in Anaheim, Ca., but raised in Greenwood, SC, thereby qualifying him for inclusion in the hallowed halls of the southern writer.

He has written seven collections of short stories, three novels, and an instructional book on writing fiction. He graduated from Furman University in 1980 and received his MFA from UNC, Greensboro shortly thereafter.  He was inducted into the Fellowship of Southern Writers in April of 2015 after accepting the Cobb Endowed Chair in the Humanities at Wofford College where he currently teaches. His works have appeared in many magazines including The Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s Magazine, Playboy, Oxford American, and The Southern Review.

Singleton shares that he grew up wanting to be a track coach, but a college injury changed that trajectory. After some interest in law, he decided to pursue his love of writing that had appeared in his late teens. His writing has led to a number of awards and accolades including a finalist for the 2013 SIBA Book Awards, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Hillsdale Award for Fiction from the Fellowship of Southern Writers.

The Half Mammals of Dixie is the second collection of short stories, published in 2003 – a lively collection about “regular people just trying to get by.” The collection showcases a southern town so tiny it “missed the map” and its unusual citizens who entertain the reader with their “off-the-wall” antics. Entertainment Weekly describes the collection as “Relentlessly offbeat … A disturbingly askew – at times, downright surreal – vision of the South.”
Georgie

Singleton quotes: 

“Short stories are kind of like hard blasts of water from a garden hose, directed toward some unsuspecting person minding his or her own business by a practical joker hunched behind some boxwoods.”

“There’s a ton of truth in Flannery O’Connor’s notion that ‘Anybody who has survived his childhood has enough information about life to last him the rest of his days.’”

“Gilles Deleuze believed that every society needed a madman so we could feel better about ourselves. I do my best to fill that role.”


Clyde Edgerton:  Clyde Edgerton was born (1944) and raised in the community of Bethesda, near Durham, NC. After serving a lengthy tour in the air force during the Vietnam War, he finished his formal education by completing his PhD in 1977. After serving as a high school and college English teacher, he burst on the literary scene with his first work, Raney, in 1985. He has followed the success of his first novel with a long list of honored and awarded works including his latest novel, Where Trouble Sleeps. His works, which are generally set in the South, primarily explore the themes of hypocrisy, religion, and love.

Edgerton is the author of ten novels, a book of advice, a memoir, short stories, and essays. He has been a Guggenheim Fellow and five of his novels have been New York Times Notable Books. He is a member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers and is the Thomas S. Kenan III Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing at UNC Wilmington. He lives in Wilmington, NC, with his wife, Kristina, and their children.

Edgerton Quote:

“Because I was born in the South, I’m a Southerner. If I had been born in the North, the West or the Central Plains, I would be just a human being.”

Writers@Work Public Schedule of Events:

Half-Mammals of the Stage: An Immersive Theater Experience
Monday, April 2, 7 p.m. – Chattanooga State 
Humanities Auditorium
An interactive multimedia dramatization of scenes from Singleton’s
The Half Mammals of Dixie

A Night at the Museum with George Singleton
Tuesday, April 3, 5:15 p.m. - Hunter Museum of American Art
Gallery Walk followed by:
Reading, Q&A, and Book Signing
Dessert Reception with an Author Meet and Greet

Writers@Work gets SoLit with the Southern Lit Alliance and
George Singleton
Wednesday, April 4, 5 p.m. – ArtsBuild (301 East 11th St.)
Light conversation and refreshments with George Singleton, one of
Southern Lit’s most engaging authors, in a small group setting.
Singleton’s work will be available for purchase.

Chautauqua at Chattanooga State: Banter and Banjos
with George Singleton and Clyde Edgerton
Thursday, April 5, 4 p.m. – Kolwyck Library on the main campus
A discussion of writing craft and a little music.
Reading, Q&A, Book Signing

George Singleton and Clyde Edgerton: 
“Behind the Writer” Interview
Thursday, April 5, 7 p.m. – Chattanooga State’s Humanities Auditorium
Interview, Story Swapping, Q&A, and Book Signing
Dessert Reception

For further information, contact Erica Lux at WritersAtWork@chattanoogastate.edu.  This event is funded in part by a grant from South Arts in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and Chattanooga State Community College.