Fiction writer Charles Dodd White will read from his work and announce his choices for winners of the 2013 Curtis and Billie Owens Literary Awards on Thursday, Feb. 21, at 7 p.m. in the Chalmers Conference Center in Niswonger Commons on the Tusculum College campus.
The reading is part of The Humanities Series, sponsored by the Tusculum College English Department. The event is free and open to the public. Arts and Lecture credit is available for Tusculum College students.
White teaches writing and literature at South College in Asheville, N.C. He has been a U.S. Marine, a fishing guide and a newspaper journalist. He is the author of the story collection, Sinners; the novel, “Lambs of Men,” and co-editor of the contemporary Appalachian short story anthology Degrees of Elevation.
His short fiction has appeared in Appalachian Heritage, The Collagist, Fugue, The Louisville Review, North Carolina Literary Review, PANK, the Tusculum Review and other publications. In 2011 he was awarded a fellowship in prose by the North Carolina Arts Council. His work has been nominated for the Appalachian Book of the Year, The Weatherford Award and the Chaffin Award.
The Curtis and Billie Owens Literary Awards are annually given to recognize the literary achievements of Tusculum College’s creative writing students. The literary award was named for Curtis Owens, a 1928 graduate of Tusculum College who went on to a teaching career at what is now Pace University in New York. He and his wife established the award at his alma mater to encourage and reward excellence in writing among Tusculum College students.