News & Events

Tommy Hays Kicks Off Summer Author Speaker Series at UNC Asheville July 1

June 6, 2012

NOTE - THIS IS NOW A TICKETED EVENT - SEE UPDATED NEWS RELEASE FOR THIS SERIES OF TALKS AT THIS LINK:

http://www.unca.edu/news-events/news/2012/6/now-ticketed-event-unc-asheville-talks-ron-rash-charles-frazier-and-others

Tommy Hays, acclaimed novelist and executive director of UNC Asheville's Great Smokies Writing Program, will speak at 3 p.m. Sunday, July 1, to kick off a new series of talks by great Southern writers at UNC Asheville's Reuter Center.

Charles Frazier, Wayne Caldwell, Ron Rash and Erica Abrams Locklear will be featured in subsequent talks. The series is free and open to the public, and will feature 3 p.m. author talks every Sunday afternoon in July.

Hays, whose work is featured in two recent collections – "27 Views of Asheville" and "Naked Came the Leaf Peeper" – begins the series. He is best known for his novels, "In the Family Way" (Random House, 1999), a Book-of-the-Month Club selection and winner of the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award; and "The Pleasure Was Mine" (St. Martin's Press, 2005), a National Public Radio "Radio Reader" selection chronicling a man's journey as husband and caregiver as Alzheimer's disease consumed his wife. Hays also has a forthcoming novel, "What I Came to Tell You," for young adults. He is on the faculty of UNC Asheville's Master of Liberal Arts Program.

The full series schedule is:

• Tommy Hays, July 1
• Charles Frazier, July 8
• Wayne Caldwell, July 15
• Ron Rash, July 22
• Erica Abrams Locklear, July 29

The summer author series is produced by the Appalachian Studies Program of College for Seniors at UNC Asheville's N.C. Center for Creative Retirement. For more information, visit the center's website or call 828.251.6140.