Dr. Ted Olson of East Tennessee State University has edited the 2009 edition of "CrossRoads: A Southern Culture Annual."
JOHNSON CITY, TN -- Dr. Ted Olson of East Tennessee State University's Center for Appalachian Studies and Services has edited the 2009 edition of CrossRoads: A Southern Culture Annual, a publication dedicated to the interdisciplinary study and artistic appreciation of the South and Southern culture.
The scholarly work in CrossRoads explores such topics as Southern language, literature, art, music, food, religion, race, ethnicity, gender, and politics. CrossRoads also includes creative work in such genres as poetry, short fiction, creative non-fiction, and visual art.
The 2009 edition of CrossRoads features the work of such writers and visual artists with connections to the Tri-Cities region as Fred Sauceman, ETSU Executive Assistant to the President for University Relations; former ETSU graduate student in the Liberal Studies program Ajay Kalra; poet Dan Stryk; and visual artist Suzanne Stryk, who provided the artwork for the front and back covers of CrossRoads 2009. Other people who contributed to CrossRoads 2009 include such respected Southern voices as Robert Morgan, Ron Rash, R.T. Smith, Sue Walker, M. Thomas Inge, Elaine Fowler Palencia, and Charles Semones.
The first three volumes of CrossRoads: A Southern Culture Annual garnered acclaim from many leading scholars of Southern culture, including from Encyclopedia of Southern Culture co-editor William R. Ferris.
A University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill professor and former Chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities, Ferris described CrossRoads as "a fascinating harvest of writings and visual art" and asserted that "Ted Olson has created a uniquely valuable resource that should be required reading for all who are interested in our region." Ferris added, "The annual publication thoughtfully monitors developments within the South through bringing together new work by authors and photographers who celebrate its worlds."
The annual publication has been published by Mercer University Press since 2004. CrossRoads began in the early 1990s as a biannual periodical entitled CrossRoads: A Journal of Southern Culture and was founded by Ted Olson when he was a graduate student at the University of Mississippi. Adopted and published by the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi in the mid-1990s, the periodical was revived by Olson in 2002 as CrossRoads: A Southern Culture Annual after he began teaching at ETSU.
Olson, a 2007 Fulbright Senior Scholar, is the author of Blue Ridge Folklife and Breathing in Darkness: Poems. He has edited volumes of works by the influential Appalachian author James Still, and, with the late Charles Wolfe, Olson edited the award-winning scholarly study The Bristol Sessions: Writings About the Big Bang of Country Music.
For further information, contact Olson at (423) 439-4379 or e-mail olson@etsu.edu.
