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The Journal of the Alabama Writers’ Forum FA PARTNERSHIP PROGRAM OF THE ALABAMA STATE COUNCIL ON THE ARTS IRST DRAF• FALL 2004T FY 04/05 BOARD OF DIRECTORS President LINDA HENRY DEAN AWF WELCOMES NEW BOARD MEMBERS Auburn Immediate Past President AWF is joined this fall by eight new board members. We are happy BETTYE FORBUS to introduce them in this issue of First Draft. Dothan Vice-President Huntsville resident LINDA SPALLA retired in 2000 as presi- PHILIP SHIRLEY Jackson, MS dent and general manager of WHNT-TV. She was the fi rst Secretary female CBS Television general manager in the South and fi rst JULIE FRIEDMAN with the NY Times Broadcast Group. She is a motivational Fairhope speaker and author of Leading Ladies: 30 Tips for Dynamic Treasurer Female Leaders. Spalla notes, “I’m excited to be on the Ala- DERRYN MOTEN Montgomery bama Writers’ Forum board because I believe that preserving Writers’ Representative and advancing our Southern culture through the written word DARYL BROWN is vital. The older I grow, the more precious and necessary Florence that preservation seems to me, and the Forum is the perfect Writers’ Representative vehicle. Because I am a writer novice, I look forward to all the STUART FLYNN new contacts and friends I will meet as a part of this association.” Birmingham JAMES A. BUFORD, JR. Auburn PAM KINGSBURY teaches English at the University of North RUTH COOK Alabama in Florence. She is a regular reviewer for Library Birmingham Journal, ForeWord, Southern Scribe, and First Draft, as well as JAMES DUPREE, JR. a member of the National Book Critics Circle and the South- Montgomery ern Book Critics Circle. Kingsbury has been active in public JOHN HAFFNER literary programming for many years. According to Kingsbury, Mobile “The Forum is an extraordinary gift to the writers, readers, PAM KINGSBURY teachers, students, and humanists in Alabama. While we often Florence think of ourselves as ‘a poor state,’ AWF reminds us that we MICHAEL MARTONE Tuscaloosa have a rich cultural heritage and a vibrant literary community. RUTH MITCHELL OTT As a board member I will promote AWF and to work with local Montgomery groups and/or institutions that are interested in the literary arts in the state.” CHARLOTTE CABANISS ROBERTSON Fairhope CHARLOTTE CABANISS ROBERTSON is the former director of the Bay Minette BONNIE G. SEYMOUR Public Library, founder of Alabama Athenaeum, and founding member of both the Ala- Anniston bama Center for the Book and Gulf Coast Storytelling. She co-directs the Southeast LINDA C. SPALLA Mystery Writers Workshop in Bay Minette and is a free-lance writer and columnist/ Huntsville contributor to Mobile Register’s Book Page, First Draft, and Southern Scribe. She SHELDON BURTON WEBSTER Birmingham currently coordinates events for Page and Palette Bookstore/Fairhope. Robertson Executive Director is “honored to be entrusted with the fostering of the great talent I see emerging in JEANIE THOMPSON Alabama’s literary arena. I hope that I will be able to use my resources and contacts to Montgomery elevate national opinion of Alabama writers.” ASCA Liasion RANDY SHOULTS Montgomery BONNIE G. SEYMOUR has served as the director of the Public Library of Anniston and Calhoun since 1984. She notes, First Draft is a journal for communication among writers and those interested in literature/publishing in Alabama and “The Public Library of Anniston and Calhoun County has al- elsewhere. Contact The Alabama Writersʼ Forum, Alabama State ways supported literary programming and has an Accent on Council on the Arts, 201 Monroe Street, Montgomery, Alabama 36130-1800. Phone: 334/242-4076, ext. 233; the Author program that brings four to six authors to the library FAX: 334-240-3269 • [email protected]. for readings/discussions each year. I am honored to join the www.writersforum.org board of the Forum. Our state has so many talented writers Editor: Jay Lamar Copy Editor: Brian Gillis and wonderful literary events. The Forum does such a good Editing and Graphic Design: job of supporting and publicizing them.” Bob and Faith Nance, Auburn RUTH OTT lives in Montgomery. She has been active in the League of Women Voters Cover art by Alabama artist Nall, a native of Troy who divides his time between Vence, France and Fairhope, for twenty-fi ve years and currently serves as president of the Montgomery Genealogi- Alabama. “Red Doors at Chateau Saint Martin, Vence cal Society. She also writes a column for the Montgomery Independent newspaper. France, 2002” was one of the featured pieces in “Nall Among the interests Ott brings to the Forum is that “as a member of the AWF board, I Paysages,” a major showing of the artist’s watercolor look forward to encouraging young writers to work at their craft and to showcasing the mosaic landscapes at the Galerie de la Marine in considerable talents of our many experienced writers.” Nice, France, June 24-August 31, 2004. For further information visit www.nall.org. Vol. 11, No. 1 • Fall 2004 University of Alabama Cre- ative Writing Program faculty member MICHAEL MAR- In This Issue TONE is the author of more than a half dozen books, in- ASCA Fellowship Award Winners 2 cluding Blue Guide to Indiana and the award-winning Flat- Priscilla Hancock Cooper and Charles Rose ness and Other Landscapes. MARY JO WOODS He was editor of The Scrib- ner’s Anthology of Contem- Writing Lives 4 porary Short Fiction, among other works. In addition The Ada Long Creative Writing Workshop to UA, Martone has taught at Iowa State, Harvard, Syracuse, and Warren Wilson College. As an AWF board member, he looks forward to “making more Literary Infl uence 6 connections with other writers and poets around A Memorist Remembers Alabama.” SHERRY KUGHN JIM BUFORD is a manage- ment consultant and ad- Joy for the Asking 8 junct professor at Auburn Alabamaʼs Poet Laureate Speaks University. He is also author of three volumes of essays, 2004 High School Literary Arts Awards 31 the most recent of which is Pie in the Sky: A Few More Clues to the Meaning The Scoop on Low-Residency of Life, as well as a social MFA Programs 34 history, four textbooks and LINDA BUSBY PARKER many professional articles. As a new member of the Forum board, Buford hopes to encourage col- leagues in management and related disciplines In the Thick of It 38 to broaden their perspective from dull academic Launching an Online Journal of Alabama Literature journals and to include in their work material people JAKE ADAM YORK might actually read. A Teacher’s Guide to RUTH BEAUMONT COOK is a Birmingham author and Growing Young Authors 40 communication skills consul- tant returning to the Alabama Preserving and Protecting Writers’ Forum board after a Our Cultural Assets 42 three-year break. She also serves on the planning com- Campaign for Sustainability mittee for the Writing Today PHILIP SHIRLEY conference at Birmingham- Southern College and is a A Very Mysterious Weekend 43 past chairperson of that com- mittee. Ruth has written book reviews and articles for First Draft, numerous articles for Birmingham magazine and other publications, and four corporate Departments histories of Birmingham institutions. Her Civil War Book Reviews 10 narrative documentary, North Across the River, was Literary News 32 published by Crane Hill in 1999 and issued in paper- back in 2000. She is currently at work on a second Executive Directorʼs Journal 44 book with a World War II setting in Alabama. “I look forward to renewing my association with the AWF board and hope to help promote more local and The Alabama Writers’Forum is generously funded by the Alabama State Council on the Arts, individual interest in the Forum and its wonderful op- with additional funding from the “Support the Arts” Car Tag, the Children’s Trust Fund of portunities for writers.” Alabama and corporate, institutional, and individual associates. ASCA4 STORY TITLE ASCA ASCA Fellowship ASCA Award Winners ASCA 2004-05 ASCA by Mary Jo Woods ASCA PRISCILLA HANCOCK COOPER A woman. A strong woman. An even stronger woman after events in her life transpired that would knock most people fl at on their faces, like a baseball unexpectedly hitting ASCA them in the back of the head. This woman, however, didn’t let the curveballs knock her down. In fact, a piece she is working on tentatively called “Wounded Hearts Will Heal” deals with issues of loss. ASCA Her name is Priscilla Hancock Cooper and she is a recipient of an Alabama State Council on the Arts fellowship. A Birmingham poet and dramatist, she endured trying times in the ’90s. She went through a divorce, had people close to her die, and endured a house fi re. “Even through a diffi cult, painful period, it also was a period of great ASCA growth for me,” Cooper says. She calls up an old saying: what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger. Cooper is a woman of many talents. She balances writing with community involve- ASCA ment and consulting work. “I have three different tracks,” Cooper says. She is a writer, teaches in the Alabama Writers’ Forum “Writing Our Stories” program, and is an edu- cational consultant. She is the founder/director of the Nia Institute, Inc., a non-profi t dedicated to edu- cating youth, teachers, and parents about African-American history. She also works with Cooper and ASCA Associates, a fi rm specializing in African-American experience along with diversity issues. Since 1990, she has toured the region with her one-woman dramatic shows of “Ebony Legacy: The Oral Tradition in African-American Literature” and “Call Me Black Woman.” In addition, she tours nationally with ASCA Dhana Bradley-Morton.