Topic: Clarksville Writer’s Conference

Writer’s Conference: John Seigenthaler Sr. offers “A Word on Words”

By Turner McCullough Jr. | July 26, 2008 |

Famed writer, editor, publisher and 1st Amendment advocate encourages audience, “Everyone has at least one story to tell!”

The Clarksville Country Club Dining Room was the host site for this year’s Writers Conference Buffet Dinner, which featured John Seigenthal Sr. as their keynote speaker.

In listing his many life achievements, one must acknowledge his 43 years as an award-winning journalist of Nashville’s The Tennessean being editor, publisher and CEO; his tenure as president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors; serving as the founding editorial director of USA Today; and being an administrative assistant to Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and chief negotiator with the governor of Alabama during the Freedom Rides. In 1991, he founded the First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University, whose mission is creating national discussion, dialogue and debate about First Amendment rights and values. Seigenthaler is also the author of the 2004 biography of American President James K. Polk. He currently hosts a weekly book-review program, “A Word on Words” on Nashville public television station WNPT. «Read the rest of this article»

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‘The Way Home’ is storytelling set in Clarksville

By Debbie Boen | July 21, 2008 |

Traveling from California to be at the Clarksville Writer’s Conference and share her book The Way Home was Bernis Terhune. Bernis claims Clarksville, Tennessee, as the hometown of her heart and most, if not all, of her stories are based in Clarksville with sites like Greenwood cemetery and Tarpley’s mentioned. She talks about the ice man and his donkey in one story.

Patricia Winn describes Bernis as a born storyteller with stories that are hilarious, sensitive, imaginative, packed with unexpected situations, vivid description, and colororful eccentric characters. She says Bernis uses accurate diction of the day and experiences tell the story of a time that is fading quickly.

Bernis now lives in San Jose, CA, and worked many years as an educator helping children with special needs. She is a founding member of a playwright’s theatre in San Francisco.

With permission to reprint from the author here is an exerpt from The Way Home by Bernis Calvin Terhune: «Read the rest of this article»

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Author Karen Spears Zacharias offers a message to all Christians

By Debbie Boen | July 19, 2008 |

This author at the Clarksville Writer’s Conference put a high powered jolt into our coffee. When she was done speaking my hand went up in the air. ‘How do you get away with this? ‘ was all I could muster. Having had countless discussions about what is right and wrong about war according to the Bible, I lack in the background needed to truly make a stand for the message of Jesus. I have never been a Baptist and I am not a child of a Vet killed in war. Several people talked to Karen after her talk saying they are deeply religious as she is, but also opposed to fear based hate.

Karen Spears Zacharias: Author of Revelation from a Potty Mouth Believer and Where is Your Jesus Now

Where is Your Jesus Now is taken from the crime story about a grandma being taken hostage by her son. Tied up to a chair with a gun pointed at grandma’s head he said to her, Where is your Jesus now? She looked him in the eyes and said calmly, He’s right here. Karen said that in the midst of all that danger, threatened with death, she answered with love and faith, not fear. «Read the rest of this article»

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The Clarksville Writer’s Conference: exploring writers and their work

By Debbie Boen | July 19, 2008 |

Writer Debbie Boen offers Clarksville Online readers a view of the participating authors in the recent Clarksville Writers Conference at APSU. Each author discusses the work, the ideas and influences of their writing, and suggestions for aspiring writers.

Barry Kitterman: Editor, playwright, professor of literature and author of The Baker’s Boy

Always exposing Clarksville to creative writing through his classes at APSU and the visiting writers series is Barry Kitterman. He told us the background of and read a passage in his book, The Baker’s Boy. It is a story set in Belize where we explore the world of a school teacher Tanner Johnson, who is in the Peace Corp. Taking the first steps into the school Tanner saw two boys fighting and it wasn’t even breakfast yet. He sees a boy disciplined by being beaten with a rope. The 15 boys in his class are wild birds suddenly in a cage when they are indoors. Out doors they re-energized as if fingers were in sockets. Tanner is a man who is painfully aware of his personal limitations and who, in present time, is incapable of being very responsible because of the doubt in himself. This is his story of how the past follows him.

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Karen S. Zacharias leads off at the Clarksville Writers Conference

By Turner McCullough Jr. | July 16, 2008 |

Fourth annual writers conference opens with exciting author from the Fairhope Center for the Writing Arts

Karen S. Zacharias at the Clarksville Writers Conference

July 11th was the first day of presentations at the 2008 Clarksville Writers Conference. With registration completed and name tags attached, attendees moved onto their choices of the various author presentations of the morning. Karen Spears Zacharias, current author-in-residence for the Fairhope Center for the Writing Arts, in Fairhope, Alabama, proved a most intriguing introduction to the conference. She told of not starting her own writing career until age 40 as a way of allaying the fear that anyone is too old to become a writer. Karen titled her presentation after her book, “Mama, Mayhem and Memories.” A breakdown of the primary elements showed her admiration for her mother as she struggled to sustain her family, the mayhem that struggle incorporated and the memories that grew out of their collective struggles.

Having been reared in a military family setting for the first half of her young life, she chronicles the upheaval that followed her father’s death as the family struggles to adjust to this new reality. Everything from having to vacate on-post housing to the sudden lack of structure and support the family faced when they could no longer utilize the military family support system.

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Headin’ South, Goin’ North

By Bill Larson | July 14, 2008 |

The second event of the 4th annual Clarksville’s Writers Conference was a play at the Roxy Regional Theater. Headin’ South Goin’ North written by John McDonald mixes local historical sites and personages into a fictional story to give an engaging account of the Civil War era.

The story is of Charlie Lurton, a Clarksville boy.  The play follows Charlie (Brad Vile) and his companion Peter (Humberto Figueroa) through their escape from a Union prison camp, to their fate when they arrive back home. The story also follows Mrs. Lurton (Jill Whittinghill) as she makes her way to secure authorization for the release of another son, Horace (Joe Sonenshein) who was suffering from tuberculous. «Read the rest of this article»

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Bus tour of historic Clarksville launched the 4th annual Writers conference

By Bill Larson | July 13, 2008 |

On Thursday morning the 4th annual Clarksville’s Writers Conference began. The first event was a bus tour of historic locations throughout our city. Included in this years tour was Riverview Cemetery, Trinity Episcopal Church, The United Methodist Church, The Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, and the historic Tip Top mansion owned by Elwyn and Rubye Patch.

The tour was organized by Dr Minoa Uffelman, a history professor at Austin Peay State University; and guided by Taylor Emery and Dr. Ellen Kanervo, who both did an excellent job keeping the group on plot and on schedule. As the tour progressed they read aloud excerpts from the diary of Nannie Haskins Smith about her life in Clarksville during the Civil War era.

Monday Morning February 16th `63
Again I have commenced a journal. I used to keep one but two years ago when the war broke out, I ceased to write in it just when I ought to have continued. Yes! Our country was then perfectly distracted; To arms! To arms! was echoed from every side; volunteer companies were being gotten up all over the country to fly to her rescue; and of course Clarksville did her part….

Haskins goes on in this to describe the mustering of two Clarksville regiments, the fall of Fort Donelson, Clarksville’s occupation, it’s brief reprieve from Woodward’s raid, and Col. S. D. Bruce’s recapture of the city.

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Journalist John Seigenthaler to speak at annual Clarksville Writers’ Conference

July 1, 2008 |

Journalist and author John Seigenthaler will be a featured speaker at the 4th annual Clarksville Writer’s Conference to be held July 10-12 at Austin Peay State University. Seigenthaler is the current host of WNPT’s book-review program “Word on Words”.

Joining Seigenthaler will be Young Adult author Tracy Barrett (Anna of Byzantium), author/editor Sonny Brewer (The Poet of Tolstoy Park, Stories from the Blue Moon Cafe: An Anthology of Southern Writers), poet/editor Leigh Anne Couch (Houses Fly Away, The Sewanee Review), poet Blas Falconer (The Perfect Hour, A Question of Gravity and Light), fiction and nonfiction author Joe Formichella (Murder Creek: The “Unfortunate Incident” of Annie Jean Barnes), and novelist Suzanne Hudson (In a Temple of Trees, In the Dark of the Moon). «Read the rest of this article»

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