Carpenter's fiction to be honored at Southern Festival of Books
Chris Pepple |
Dr. Dana Chamblee Carpenter, associate professor of English at Lipscomb University, recently won third place in the Tennessee Writers Alliance Short Fiction Contest. Her award will be presented at the 2008 Southern Festival of Books on Saturday, October 11, at 5:00 p.m. She will be reading her short story at the festival. Her narrative titled “The Crop Duster’s Daughter” will also be included in the next edition of the journal published by the Tennessee Writers Association. The competition was judged by William Gay, an American author who won the 1999 James A. Michener Memorial Prize for his first novel.
“The Crop Duster’s Daughter” is an excerpt from a novel in progress. Carpenter, originally from Walnut Ridge, Ark., draws from her Southern heritage and her extensive studies of Southern literature to create the first-person account of a young woman’s journey back to Arkansas. The woman returns to attend the wrongful death trial of the person accused of causing the death of her father. As she returns, she faces the physical journey back to her home as well as her journey into her past and her relationship with her father.
“I used to write a lot during high school and college, but I took the academic route instead of choosing writing as my career. I love teaching, but I am enjoying the chance to return to writing. About three years ago, I felt personally driven to feed the creative community here at Lipscomb. I want to open doors for our students to develop their creative writing skills. I have been teaching an online class every summer that gives students an opportunity to strengthen their writing skills and explore new avenues for publication. The course topics rotate between fiction, screenwriting, creative nonfiction and poetry. My husband Greg, an adjunct professor at Lipscomb, teaches the screenwriting course. Our students have been successful in several competitions, with one student recently having work accepted for publication in Connecticut Review,” said Carpenter.
Carpenter received her undergraduate degree from Arkansas State University. She then received her master’s degree from the University of Missouri, completing doctoral work at the University of Mississippi. She is a member of the Tennessee Writers Alliance. Their mission is to support the work of Tennessee writers and to enhance the role of literary arts in Tennessee culture by promoting interaction among writers and writers' organizations, developing and serving a multicultural audience, and providing opportunities for the artistic and professional development of writers of Tennessee.
The association will be presenting their awards and hosting the readings on Saturday, October 11, in room 31 of the Legislative Plaza. Southern Festival of Books hours are Friday, October 10 from noon–6 P.M.; Saturday, October 11 from 9 a.m.–6 p.m.; and Sunday, October 12 from noon–5 p.m. The festival is open to the public, offering attendees the chance to explore a diversity of genres and meet authors whose work they love.