Presentations by former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins and South African novelist Zakes Mda will highlight the 34th annual Sandhills Writers Conference. Mr. Collins will read from his recent work on Wednesday, March 18, at 7 p.m. in the Maxwell Theatre, and Mr. Mda’s keynote address will be held on Thursday, March 19, at 11 a.m. in Galloway Hall.
Mr. Collins has authored several books of poetry including Ballistics, She Was Just Seventeen, and The Trouble with Poetry. His book, The Art of Drowning, was a finalist for the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize and Questions About Angels was selected by Edward Hirsch for the National Poetry Series.
Mr. Mda, a professor of creative writing at The Ohio University, is both a novelist and a playwright. He is the author of Ways of Dying, Cion, and The Heart of Redness. His plays have been awarded numerous prizes including the Amstel Playwright of the Year Award. Books containing all of his plays, The Plays of Zakes Mda, have been translated into South Africa’s eleven official languages.
Other well-known authors also will be participating in the conference. Milam Propst is the author of Creola’s Moonbeam, It May not Leave a Scar, and A Flower Blooms on Charlotte Street. She is a 2000 Parents’ Choice® Recommended winner. Martin Lammon is the Fuller E. Callaway/Flannery O’Connor Chair in Creative Writing at Georgia College and State University, poet, and author whose collection of poems News from Where I Live won the Arkansas Poetry Award. He also is the author of Written in Water, Written in Stone: Twenty Years of Poets on Poetry, and Nine Degrees North. Phyllis Tildes is a published author and illustrator of over 50 children’s books. Some of her published credits include Baby Face, Plant Secrets, The Baby Babushka, and Apple. Dolph Lemoult is known primarily as a crime writer through such novels as Street Dance, Dream Street, Death Spiral, The Killing Moon, Blood Tide, Rock Solid, Hands of the Enemy, and Messages from Enrique, but he enjoys a varied career as novelist, advertising copywriter, and illustrator.
Literary agent, Peter Miller, known as “The Literary Lion,” has been a literary and film manager for over 30 years. He is president of PMA Literary and Film Management, Inc., and Millennium Lion, Inc. His company has successfully managed more than 1,000 books as well as motion picture and television properties, including 11 New York Times best sellers and 11 produced films, three of which have been nominated for Emmy Awards: Goodbye, Miss Fourth of July; A Gift of Love; and Helter Skelter.
Registration is necessary for the conference, although there will be several free readings by authors. Other conference highlights include a free concert by Augusta singer and songwriter Tara Scheyer and an open mic reading by participants and members of the public in Galloway Hall on Thursday, March 19, at 5.15 p.m.
The Sandhills Writers Conference is funded, in part, by The Georgia Council for the Arts, the Augusta State University Foundation, the Jean DeWitt Fitz Memorial Fund, and the Mary Lu Kuhl Writing Scholarships. For more information, call the conference director, Mr. Anthony Kellman, in the Department of Communications and Professional Writing at 706-729-2416.
Feb 21, 2009
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