A! Magazine for the Arts

Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle.

Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle.

Cherokee novelist headlines Writers & Readers Day at VHF

June 28, 2022

Writers & Readers Day at the Virginia Highlands Festival provides opportunities to learn from regionally and nationally renowned writers about the craft of writing. The day is not only for serious writers; avid readers and those curious about the writing process should also find it rewarding. The event is Friday, July 29, beginning with registration from 8-9 a.m. at the executive auditorium of the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center in Abingdon, Virginia.

This year’s theme is “Diversity in Appalachian Literature” which highlights the varied “voices” in fiction, non-fiction, poetry and film coming out of Appalachia. There will be three rounds of workshops during the day.

The day’s events begin at 9 a.m. with a keynote speech by Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle. She is an enrolled member of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee. She holds degrees from Yale University and the College William and Mary. Her work “Going to Water” was a finalist for the PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction, supported by Barbara Kingsolver. Her new novel is “Even as We Breathe.” She teaches English and Cherokee Studies at Swain County High School in Bryson City, North Carolina.

One of Clapsaddle’s workshops will be on developing Native American characters. The other workshop is on a more general topic, infusing physical sensation into writing through practice, observation and structure.

Also featured in the day’s events are Steven James, Jesse Graves, Robert Gipe and David Alford.

Gipe, a Kingsport, Tennessee, native, writes hard-edged novels about poverty, drug addiction and violence in struggling Kentucky coal towns. He uses a comic tone and whimsical drawings that he does himself to counterbalance the subject matter of his books. One of his workshops will be on how writers can write about a past that they can’t live in. The other one will be on creating plot backstory motivation.

Graves, a poet, teaches at East Tennessee State University. His poetry has received wide acclaim, including a James Still Award for writing about the Appalachian South and two Weatherford Awards from Berea College. Graves will be conducting workshops on finding an authentic voice and writing narrative poetry.

James from Johnson City, Tennessee, is the author of 17 novels. He has served as a contributing editor of “Writer’s Digest Magazine” and is the author of the groundbreaking book “Story Trumps Structure.” He is also the author of the widely used “Troubleshooting Your Novel,” a guidebook for aspiring novelists. James will be discussing plot twists as well as rethinking the narrative structure of fiction.

Alford is a screenwriter and film producer from Abingdon, Virginia, who founded Cross Purposes Productions, which has made three feature films since its inception in 2019. His latest film “Royal Ashes” premiered in April of this year. Alford will be discussing how to adapt works from page to screen.

The cost for Writers and Readers Day is $40, students attend free of charge. Registration is online at vahighlandsfestival.com or on the day of the event. Detailed descriptions of all the workshops as well as full biographies of the writers can be found on the festival’s website.

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