Tusculum department leader to read from her new collection of essays at Clem Allison Gallery event

GREENEVILLE – Dr. Desirae Matherly, chairwoman of Tusculum University’s English and Fine Arts Department, will read from her new collection of essays, “Echo’s Fugue,” Tuesday, Oct. 8, at 7 p.m. in the Clem Allison Gallery on the Greeneville campus.

Dr. Desirae Matherly

During this free public event, Dr. Matherly will also discuss the processes of editing and publishing. “Echo’s Fugue,” published by Ohio State University Press, covers topics of love, desire and obsession, as well as music, while paying homage to composer Johann Sebastian Bach’s unfinished work “The Art of Fugue.”

“I don’t think anyone writes as sharply, inventively or unegotistically about the details of human life as Desi,” said Kelsey Trom, a fellow writer and an assistant professor English at Tusculum. “She does this in conversation, in meetings and in her work.”

Dr. Matherly’s work has been featured in many prestigious literary journals, including “Hotel Amerika” and “Fourth Genre.” Four of her published essays have made the notable list in “Best American Essays,” and one essay was anthologized in “The Best Creative Nonfiction, Volume 2.” She also won the 2018 Curt Johnson Prose Award in nonfiction.

She earned her doctorate in nonfiction from Ohio University and was a Harper Fellow at The University of Chicago.

“Echo’s Fugue” will be available for purchase, and the author will autograph copies by request. This event is part of Tusculum’s Humanities Series, sponsored by the Department of English and Fine Arts.

For more information, please call Teresa Smith in the College of Civic and Liberal Arts at 423-636-7300, extension 5236.