Emilee Hackney
Emilee Hackney, the young Tazewell, Virginia, writer whose memoir, “All That’s Unseen,” debuted at #12 on the New York Times non-fiction bestseller list this summer, is the guest speaker at a Sunday with Friends event at the Washington County Public Library, Abingdon, Virginia, Sunday, Nov. 15 at 3 p.m.
Hackney was two-and-a half-weeks from marrying an aspiring minister when he was arrested on child pornography charges. After that shocking episode, Hackney’s life continued to shift in unforeseen ways.
While working at Subway and going to a community college, she decided on a whim to apply to Harvard University — and was accepted as a transfer student. While there, her life devolved into loneliness and isolation.
Hackney finished Harvard and then attended Vanderbilt University in its MFA program. The memoir tells the story of her escaping the confines of mountains as well as the elitism of an Ivy League community — and redefining herself.
Ron Rash says that the book is “a complex, in some ways transcendent, vision of how to love and honor a place and yet also realize we must leave it.”
The Friends of the Washington County Public Library is a volunteer, non-profit organization whose purpose is to help strengthen the resources of the library and to make it a dynamic force in the community.
The event is free of charge. There will be book sales and signings after the event.
