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2023

 

Maureen Corrrigan Maureen Corrrigan Maureen Corrrigan


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Tue Apr 11th, 2023 noon-12:45 ET Zoom program.

JOURNALIST ANN COTTRELL FREE: WHO SAW & MADE HISTORY

Sponsored by: American Women Writers National Museum
Time & Place: noon-12:45 p.m.
All AWWNM programs are now via Zoom until further notice. Invitations are sent via email to AWWNM’s mailing list. RSVPs are REQUIRED in order to receive a link to a specific program. If you would like an invitation, email request to AWWNM1@gmail.com.

         Former CNN executive producer Elissa Free will profile her mother Virginia native Ann Cottrell Free (1916-2004) , a pioneer American woman writer who saw and made history in an adventuresome journalism career worldwide in an era when very few women moved in those arenas. Elissa Free will be joined in the presentation by journalism historian Maurine Beasley, who is also woman journalist pioneer.
         Photos of Ann Cottrell Free’s life and details of her career will be featured. She testified before Congressional committees on causes such as humane treatment of animals and environmental Protection. A National Press Club award for writing about animal protection is named in her honor. She initiated the establishment of the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge.
         Her personal and professional papers are housed at the Library of Congress. She is the author of three books and in 1996 was inducted into the Virginia Communications Hall of Fame.
         Elissa Free is a D.C. native who attended Holton-Arms School and Bethesda Chevy-Chase High School. She attended Ohio Wesleyan University, St. Clare’s Hall Oxford, and Macalester College. After graduation, she worked as a production assistant/researcher for CBS programs Face the Nation and Morning News. In 1980 she joined CNN, where she held a variety of positions for 21 years including executive producer and newsroom manager in the Washington Bureau. After leaving CNN, she served as executive director of communications at Georgetown University Law Center.
         Co presenter Maurine Beasley is a well known biographer of Eleanor Roosevelt. She is an author or co-author of four books, and professor emerita of journalism at the University of Maryland. She holds a B.A. degree from the University of Missouri, a Master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. in American civilization from the University of Maryland.
        

        
*50-state Project honors women writers in Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana. For more details, See State-Meant 4 U Page

     

 

2022

 

Maureen Corrrigan


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Tue Sep 13th, 2022 noon-12:45 ET Zoom program.

SALUTING WOMEN WHO WRITE FOR THE MILITARY

Sponsored by: American Women Writers National Museum
Time & Place: noon-12:45 p.m.
All AWWNM programs are now via Zoom until further notice. Invitations are sent via email to AWWNM’s mailing list. RSVPS are REQUIRED in order to receive a link to a specific program. If you would like an invitation, email request to AWWNM1@gmail.com.

         Caitlin Doornbos, a Stars and Stripes reporter, will speak on women writers who cover military news. She currently serves as Stars and Stripes' Pentagon reporter covering military policy. Previously she was stationed at Yokosuka Naval Base in Japan, where she reported on the Navy's 7th Fleet.
         In 2017 she was part of an Orlando Sentinel, Florida team that placed as a finalist for the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news.
         "During my time at the Pentagon, I covered the ending of the U.S.’s 20-year war in Afghanistan, and Russia’s war on Ukraine,” she said.
         She estimates that about 35% of the Pentagon Press Corps are women. “But in overseas positions, the number of female military journalists is more like 5%”, she said.
         A native of Hutchinson Kansas, she worked as a crime reporter in Lawrence, Kansas. She was a a member of the breaking news reporter team for the Orlando, Florida Sentinel when they placed as a finalist for the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news.
         Stars and Stripes is partially subsidized by the U.S. government’s Department of Defense. It has a daily audience of about 1 million and an online audience of about 2 million per month. It averages 32 pages per day in tabloid format.
        

        
*50-state Project honors women writers in Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana. For more details, See State-Meant 4 U Page

     

 

 

Maureen Corrrigan


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Wed Feb 23rd, 2022 noon-12:45 ET Zoom program.

House of Gucci: Murder, Madness, Glamor & Greed

Sponsored by: American Women Writers National Museum
Time & Place: noon-12:45 p.m.
All AWWNM programs are now via Zoom until further notice. Invitations are sent via email to AWWNM’s mailing list. RSVPS are REQUIRED in order to receive a link to a specific program. If you would like an invitation, email request to AWWNM1@gmail.com.

         Sara Gay Forden, currently an editor with Bloomberg News in Washington, D.C. will speak on the book-to-movie process of her nonfiction book: House of Gucci: Murder, Madness, Glamour & Greed.
         Lady GaGa stars in the recent movie of the same title which earned $32 million in the first 2 weeks of North America release.
         Forden covered the fashion industry in the 1980s as Bureau Chief in Milan for Women’s Wear Daily.
         She will recount how Maurizio Gucci, the grandson of the company’s founder who was murdered in 1995, drew her to write the story. “The Gucci story is … a chronicle of the rise, near fall and subsequent resurgence of a fashion powerhouse involving high fashion, high finance and personal tragedy.” she said.
         Forden was born in Frankfort, Germany and “grew up between Washington, D.C., Buenos Aires, Warsaw and Mexico City; due to my father’s work for the U.S. government”.
         She holds a degree from the Johns Hopkins affiliate in Bologna, Italy.
        

        
*50-state Project honors women writers in Montana, Nebraska, Nevada and New Hampshire. For more details, See State-Meant 4 U Page

     

 

 

Maureen Corrrigan


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Thur Jan 20th, 2022 noon-12:45 ET Zoom program.

PULITZER WINNER TO SPEAK ON AMERICAN JAZZ AGE MADAM

Sponsored by: American Women Writers National Museum
Time & Place: noon-12:45 p.m.
All AWWNM programs are now via Zoom until further notice. Invitations are sent via email to AWWNM’s mailing list. RSVPS are REQUIRED in order to receive a link to a specific program. If you would like an invitation, email request to AWWNM1@gmail.com.

         Pulitzer Prize winner Debbie Applegate’s recent book is a narrative portrait of America’s New York City brothels in the 1920s, run by Polly Adler, who had journeyed as a young girl from a small Russian village. Her clients included “both high society and lowlifes, politicians, sports titans and gangsters. Applegate’s book gives readers a look into the simultaneously corrupt and glittering time,” a reviewer noted.
         “… Applegate’s brilliant research and cinematic prose made me feel I was watching (Adler) …drift through her parlor…wisecracking with the Mob and paying off the cops” said another reviewer.
         Dr. Applegate, who holds a PhD from Yale, won a 2007 Pulitzer prize for her biography of Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887 an American preacher and abolitionist.
        

        
*50-state Project honors women writers in Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri. For more details, See State-Meant 4 U Page

     

 

2021

 


Maureen Corrrigan


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Wed May 5th, 2021 noon-12:45 ET Zoom program.

ICONS OF AN ERA: PHOTOS AS HISTORICAL EVIDENCE

Sponsored by: American Women Writers National Museum
Time & Place: noon-12:45 p.m.
All AWWNM programs are now via Zoom until further notice. Invitations are sent via email to AWWNM’s mailing list. RSVPS are REQUIRED in order to receive a link to a specific program. If you would like an invitation, email request to AWWNM1@gmail.com.

         In 1998, Mary Jane Appel joined the Library of Congress team tasked with digitizing the historic archive of photos taken across America by a team of photographers between 1935 and 1943, as part of a documentary government project of the Farm Security Administration.
         Drawing on how that research experience resulted in her new book Russell Lee: A Photographer’s Life and Legacy, she will discuss:
         * How and why the particular talent of photographer Russell Lee stood out as a member of the FSA team.
         *Details of Lee’s biography.
         * Highlights from Lee’s vast contribution of 19,000 photographs to the FSA documentary project.
         Ms. Appel holds a BFA degree in Photography and Art History from Seton Hill College and an MA in History of Photography from the University of New Mexico, where she is currently completing a PhD.
        

        
*50-state Project honors women writers in Missouri, Montana, Nebraska and Nevada. For more details, See State-Meant 4 U Page

     

 

 


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Wed Apr 7, 2021 noon-12:45 ET Zoom program.

BOOKISH BROADS: WOMEN WHO WROTE THEMSELVES INTO HISTORY

Sponsored by: American Women Writers National Museum
Time & Place: noon-12:45 p.m. ET
All AWWNM programs are now via Zoom until further notice. Invitations are sent via email to AWWNM’s mailing list. RSVPS are REQUIRED in order to receive a link to a specific program. If you would like an invitation, email request to AWWNM1@gmail.com.

         In her newest book BOOKISH BROADS: Women Who Wrote Themselves into History, American publishing Executive Lauren Marino, founding editor of Gotham books, and now Executive Editor at Hachette Books, profiles 60 women writers worldwide as “literary powerhouses that history has wrongfully overlooked. Each intimate portrait delves into the circumstances and passions that made them into writers, as well as their unique contributions and the obstacles they had to overcome”, she said.
         “Women have long exercised their power through the written word in times, societies and cultures that have sought to silence them. These women dared to put pen to paper to express the multifaceted female experience,” she explained.
         Ms. Marino is a Magna Cum Laude graduate of Providence College. She was born on an               Army base in Frankfurt Germany during the War in Vietnam era.
American women writers she will profile include: Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, Judy Blume (children’s), Octavia Butler (Sci Fi), Edith Wharton and Louisa May Alcott.
         Illustrations are by artist Alexandra Kilburn, New Orleans, who depicts each literary legend in her element and time.
         Ms. Marino is the author of: What Would Dolly (Parton) Do? as well as Jackie (Kennedy) and Cassini: A Fashion Love Affair.

        

        
*50-state Project honors women writers in Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas. For more details, See State-Meant 4 U Page

     

 

 

Maureen Corrrigan


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Wed Mar 10, 2021 noon-12:45 ET Zoom program.

NELLIE BLY: PIONEER OF INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM

Sponsored by: American Women Writers National Museum
Time & Place: noon-12:45 p.m.
All AWWNM programs are now via Zoom until further notice. Invitations are sent via email to AWWNM’s mailing list. RSVPS are REQUIRED in order to receive a link to a specific program. If you would like an invitation, email request to AWWNM1@gmail.com.

         Author Brooke Kroeger will reveal journalist NELLIE BLY (1864-1922) as “maestro of the front page sensation story”, and as a pioneer of investigative journalism.
         At her 1922 death, the New York Evening Journal called Bly “the best reporter in America”.             Kroeger notes that Bly “got herself admitted to a lunatic asylum to expose its horrid conditions. She was the first woman to report from the eastern front in World War I. She circled the globe faster than any live or fictional person” and specialized in “intimate interviews with the great figures of the day.” She owned and operated steel barrel factories.
         “Together Nellie Bly and her female colleagues were able to bring women—as a class—into the main arena,” writes a reviewer.
         Kroeger, who grew up in Kansas City, is an NYU journalism professor and author of five books. She holds degrees from Boston and Columbia Universities. She is now writing a history of women journalists from 1840 to the present.

        

        
*50-state Project honors women writers in Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania. For more details, See State-Meant 4 U Page

     

 

 

Maureen Corrrigan


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Wed Feb 10, 2021 noon-12:45 ET Zoom program.

women as "visible Stars" in early tv

Sponsored by: American Women Writers National Museum
Time & Place: noon-12:45 p.m.
All AWWNM programs are now via Zoom until further notice. Invitations are sent via email to AWWNM’s mailing list. RSVPS are REQUIRED in order to receive a link to a specific program. If you would like an invitation, email request to AWWNM1@gmail.com.

         Dr. Rosanne Welch, a Stephens College professor and Book Reviews editor of the Journal of Screenwriting will profile pioneer women who created, produced and worked on many of America’s most wildly popular early TV Programs.
         “My goal is to rescue these talented women from historical oblivion”, she said. Some of the women writers she will discuss are:

*Lucille Ball (1911-1989) of “I Love Lucy” fame, who also ran Desilu production company and greenlighted the blockbuster Star Trek productions.
*Treva Silverman (1936- ) winner of two Emmy awards for the brilliant comedy The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
*D.C. Fontana (Dorothy Catherine) Fontana (1939-2019) a story editor of Star Trek
*Leigh Brackett (1915-1878) known as “Queen of the Space Opera” who wrote on or worked on timeless films: The Big Sleep (1946), Rio Bravo (1959), The Long Goodbye (1973) and The Empire Strike Back (1980).
*Peg Lynch (1915-2015) She wrote about 11,000 scripts for radio and TV
        

        
*50-state Project honors women writers in Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania. For more details, See State-Meant 4 U Page

     

 

 


Maureen Corrrigan


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Wed Jan 13, 2021 noon-12:45 ET Zoom program.

Eudora Welty Can Sure Tell a Fine Story!

Sponsored by: American Women Writers National Museum
Time & Place: noon-12:45 p.m.
All AWWNM programs are now via Zoom until further notice. Invitations are sent via email to AWWNM’s mailing list. RSVPS are REQUIRED in order to receive a link to a specific program. If you would like an invitation, email request to AWWNM1@gmail.com.

         In the American South, the ability to tell well, often with a humorous edge, a really good story was, and still is, an admired skill.
         Few American writers, even William Faulkner and Rick Bragg, tell as well as Eudora Welty (1909-2001), the one-time news photographer from Jackson Mississippi. A Rolleiflex camera was one of her trademarks. She worked as a book reviewer for the New York Times, held a Guggenheim Fellowship, and lectured a at Harvard, Oxford and Cambridge Universities.
         She was skilled in short stories, novels, and photography. In 1973 she won a Pulitzer Prize and in 1980 she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
         Speaker Dr. Sarah Ford, professor of American literature at Baylor University, explained (below) how she will interweave three aspects of Welty’s life, work and career: photography, “visual prose”, and “point of view”.
         In the “How to See” section, Dr. Ford will discuss how Welty’s photographs of 1930s rural Mississippians influenced her choice of subjects and the way she shaped her stories.
         A “What to See” section will examine how Welty packs her stories with descriptions and lists of objects so that readers can see the world her characters inhabit.
         The “Who to See” third section will explore how Welty shifts “point of view” among characters, “to allow the reader to see around the perspective of a first-person narrator.”
        

        
*50-state Project honors women writers in Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia. For more details, See State-Meant 4 U Page

     

 

2020

 


Maureen Corrrigan


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View Online From November 2020 to March 2021.

AWWNM’S VIRTUAL STROLL THROUGH poet EMILY DICKINSON’S GARDEN

You are Cordially Invited to

AWWNM's Video Virtual Garden Stroll

for November 2020 to March 2021

Through Poet Emily Dickinson's Garden!

Featuring Marta McDowell

Author of "Emily Dickinson's Gardening Life"

Discussing "How Emily Dickinson's passion for plants inspired and informed her writing."


"I pay in Satin cash-
You did not state your price.
A petal for a paragraph
is near as I can guess"
--Emily Dickinson (1863)-


https://youtu.be/RtNeuK4V-rI


        
*50-state Project honors women writers in Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming. For more details, See State-Meant 4 U Page

     

 

 


Maureen Corrrigan


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Wed Oct 28, 2020 noon program.

Invisible Stars: "Forgotten" Women of (early) Radio Broadcasting

Sponsored by: American Women Writers National Museum
Time & Place: noon-1 p.m.
All AWWNM programs are now via Zoom until further notice. Invitations are sent via email to AWWNM’s mailing list. RSVPS are REQUIRED in order to receive a link to a specific program. If you would like an invitation, email request to AWWNM1@gmail.com.

        Dr. Donna Harper, professor at Lesley University, and a former deejay, will profile four of the many “forgotten” women who wrote for and performed on American radio from 1898 to the present time, but never received proper recognition for their talent and their work.
        The women include:
*Martha Jean “The Queen” Steinberg (1930-2000) : “One of the most influential African American women on the air. She got her start “as an announcer at pioneering Black radio station WDIA in Memphis, before moving to Detroit where she spent the rest of her career working as a broadcaster and commentator,” explained Dr. Halper.

*Kathryn Cravens (1898-1991): “When air travel was still new, she was known as the ‘Flying Reporter’, using airplanes to distant cities to interview newsmakers. She created what came to be known as ‘human interest stories.’”

Bertha Brainard (1890-1946) “One of America’s first theater and entertainment reporters, she became NBC’s first female executive. She auditioned ad hired talent, and even decided some of the shows that went on the air.”

Eunice Randall (1898-1982) “One of America’s first female announcers, she worked for IXE, later known as WGI, Boston’s first radio station. She also worked as an engineer, singer, news reader, and The Story Lady. Early broadcasters had to be versatile.”         
        A widely quoted media historian, Dr. Harper is the author of six books and multiple articles. She has been featured on the PBS News Hour, and CBS Sunday morning. She is also considered to be an expert on baseball history. She holds a PhD degree from Lesley University in Cambridge, MA.

        
*50-state Project honors women writers in Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming. For more details, See State-Meant 4 U Page

     

 

 


Maureen Corrrigan


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Sept 23, 2020 noon program.

Dear Eleanor Roosevelt: If you ask me..

Sponsored by: American Women Writers National Museum
Time & Place: noon-1 p.m.
All AWWNM programs are now via Zoom until further notice. Invitations are sent via email to AWWNM’s mailing list. RSVPS are REQUIRED in order to receive a link to a specific program. If you would like an invitation, email request to AWWNM1@gmail.com.

        Mary Jo Binker is consulting editor for the Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, a five-volume documentary editing project devoted to ER’s post-White House career (1945-1962). In addition to serving as associate editor on the first two volumes of the series, Ms. Binker also edited the project’s digital editions of Eleanor Roosevelt’s newspaper column “My Day” and her monthly magazine column “If You Ask Me.” She is also the editor of two book-length collections of Eleanor Roosevelt’s writings: What Are We For: The Words and Ideals of Eleanor Roosevelt (HarperCollins 2019) and If You Ask Me: Essential Advice from Eleanor Roosevelt (Atria 2018)
        Ms. Binker’s other publications include a book, A Defense Weapon Known To Be of Value: Servicewomen of the Korean War Era (University Press of New England/Women’s Military Press, 2005), a handbook, HerStory: An Oral History Handbook for Collecting Military Women’s Stories, (Military Women’s Press, 20002) and seven articles for the Journal of White House History. She has also published articles on American First Ladies, African-American history, and the American Civil War.
        Since 2011, she has been an adjunct professor of history at George Mason University.
        Ms. Binker holds a bachelor’s degree in communication from Oregon State University and a master’s degree in history from George Mason University.

        
*50-state Project honors women writers in Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri. For more details, See State-Meant 4 U Page

     

 

2019

 


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Tues Nov 19, 2019 noon program.

Flannery O’Connor Documentary Wins Major Prizes
Co-Director to Speak Nov 19

Sponsored by: American Women Writers National Museum
Time & Place: noon-1 p.m. in the McLendon Room of the National Press Club, 529 14th St. NW, 13th Floor, Washington, D.C. 20045.

        Mark Bosco of Georgetown University, co-director of a documentary on iconic American woman writer Flannery O’ Connor (1925-1964) will outline O’Connor’s life and work, and his process of creating the 96 minute film over an eight year period. His co-director was Elizabeth Coffman of Loyola University in Chicago.
        The widely-praised Bosco/Coffman film was recently awarded the $200,000 Lavine/Ken Burns Prize at the Library of Congress, as well as garnering the “Best Documentary” award at the 2019 Austin, Texas film festival.
        Documentary film maker Ken Burns said: “Flannery” is an extraordinary documentary that offers insight into the creative process of one of America’s greatest authors.”
        O’Connor, a Georgia native who died at a young age from the disease Lupus, wrote two novels and 36 short stories, after an earlier career as a cartoonist.
        Her stories are haunted by the sense of mystery—where readers know something more is going on,” Bosco explained.
        
*50-state Project honors women writers in Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming. For more details, See State-Meant 4 U Page

     

 

 


Maureen Corrrigan


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Wed Apr 10, 2019 noon program.

WOMEN BEHIND the CURTAIN: PAY ATTENTION to the WIZARDESSES!

Sponsored by: American Women Writers National Museum
Time & Place: noon-1 p.m. in the McLendon Room of the National Press Club, 529 14th St. NW, 13th Floor, Washington, D.C. 20045.

        Maureen Corrigan, book critic for National Public Radio (NPR) will pull aside the curtain of years of nonrecognition, to reveal the who and what and how of talented American women who worked tirelessly behind the scenes to shape America's modern literary culture.
        Although the women's fame never came until Ms. Corrigan, their influence was strobe light wattage and enduring.
        Ms. Corrigan, who served as a juror for the 2012 Pulitzer prize in fiction, is the author of the best seller book: "Leave me alone! I'm reading!" She is also a literary critic for the Book World section of The Washington Post.
        "I'll share my research on American women who worked as editors, librarians, book sellers and book critics in New York City during the late 19th and early 20th century", she said.
        "We tend to focus on great male editors and great literary (male) writers. But I am also interested in the women behind the scenes. Some names are familiar, some are not:, she said, citing Ruth Hale, Lillian Ross, May Lamberton Becker, Ann Carrol Moore, Harriet Stratemeyer, and Blanche Knopf".
        At AWWM these unsung women will take center stage April 10.
        
*50-state Project honors women writers in Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri. For more details, See State-Meant 4 U Page

     

 

 



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Wed Mar 13, 2019 noon program.

MBE: THE AMERICAN WOMAN WRITER WHO FOUNDED AN ICONIC NEWSPAPER & A RELIGION

Sponsored by: American Women Writers National Museum
Time & Place: noon-1 p.m. in the McLendon Room of the National Press Club, 529 14th St. NW, 13th Floor, Washington, D.C. 20045.

        Mary Baker Eddy (1821-1910), or MBE as she is sometimes known, was an accomplished writer of 15 books, who, at age 87, founded The Christian Science Monitor, a internationally famous newspaper which won seven Pulitzer prizes. Her life and accomplishments as an American woman writer and publisher, in an historical era when American women were not prominent in those worlds, will be profiled by Allison Rose-Sonnesyn.
        Ms. Eddy, a mother, published 15 books, started several weekly and monthly magazines, and in 1879 founded the Church of Christ, Scientist.

        In 1995 MBE was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame. In 2002, the MBE library opened in Boston with one of the largest public collections about an American woman writer.
        The Women's National Book Association selected her book "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures", as "One of 75 Books by Women Whose Words Have Changed the World".
        Allison J.Rose-Sonnesyn, who will profile Ms. Eddy's life and her development as a publisher and writer, worked as a researcher at the MBE Library, and as a Congressional committee staffer.
        Ms. Rose-Sonnesyn serves as Government and Media Liaison for the Christian Science Church in Washington, D.C. and the Christian Science Committee on Publication for D.C.
        
*50-state Project honors women writers in Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas. For more details, See State-Meant 4 U Page

     

 

2018

 



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Wed Oct 17, 2018 noon program.

TRAILBLAZING AMERICAN WOMEN CARTOONISTS AND ILLUSTRATORS

Sponsored by: American Women Writers National Museum
Time & Place: noon-1 p.m. in the McLendon Room of the National Press Club, 529 14th St. NW, 13th Floor, Washington, D.C. 20045.

        Trailblazer American women cartoonists and illustrators from the late 1800s to the present will be profiled by Martha H. Kennedy, curator of popular and applied graphic art in the Prints and Photograph Division of the Library of Congress (LOC).
        “Special attention will be paid to artistic forms that have received scant notice: eye-catching book cover designs, editorial illustrations and political cartoons,” said Ms.Kennedy, who holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in art history, plus a Master of Library and Information Science degree, all from the University of California at Berkeley.
        Some of the American women graphic artists to be featured are: Grace Drayton, Lynn Johnston, Sue Coe, Frances Jetter, Roz Chast, Raina Telgemeier, Rose O’Neill and Jillian Tamaki.
        Why was this particular topic of interest to Ms. Kennedy?
        “I was very impressed with the quality of work by women, especially in illustration and cartooning. I was saddened that many of these women have been overlooked in histories of these art forms. I want to celebrate women’s contributions, and contribute to a sense of shared history and pride among both established and aspiring women illustrators and cartoonists. I want to help inspire women to keep creating,” Ms. Kennedy explained.
        “In fields traditionally dominated by men, women have long earned their livelihoods creating art intended for newspapers, periodicals and books. Women pursuing careers in the early days of the visual arts, as in nearly every other profession, encountered limitations in training, permitted subject matter and adequate work environments. A host of challenges and longstanding social restrictions in a traditionally male-controlled system, impeded many women from advancing in their chosen fields,” said Gayle Osterberg, LOC Communications Director, speaking of a recent LOC exhibit of the women’s creations.
        “These women have gained immense new opportunities for self-expression and discovery to share with growing appreciative audiences,” Ms. Osterberg added.
        
*50-state Project honors women writers in Arkansas, Hawaii, Utah and Washington, D.C. For more details, See State-Meant 4 U Page

     

 

2018

 



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Wed May 9 2018 noon program.

7 SURPRISING SECRETS OF BEST-SELLING FEMALE AUTHORS

Sponsored by: American Women Writers National Museum
Time & Place: noon-1 p.m. in the McLendon Room of the National Press Club, 529 14th St. NW, 13th Floor, Washington, D.C. 20045.

        If you’ve ever wondered how successful women writers become best-selling authors, Marjory Grant Ross will reveal the secrets May 9 at noon. Marjory is President and Publisher of Regnery publishing, and is one of a vey few women to head a major national publshing house.
        On May 9 she will reveal 7 Surprising Secrets of Bet-selling female authors she has published.
        Under her helm, Regnery has placed more than 75 books on the New York Times bestseller list, including 12 titles at #1.
        She joined Regnery in 1999 as vice president and general manager, and was promoted to President and publisher in 2003, making her the first person outside the Regnery family to hold that post.
        Prior to joining Regnery, Marji worked as vice president and senior group publisher for the newsletter publisher Phillips International where she ran several business units, including investment newsletters, business newsletters and health newsletters. In her early career, Marji was a business editor and writer.
        She is a graduate of Dartmouth College with a BA in English. She earned a Masters in journalism from the American University in Washington, D.C. She lives in Virginia with her husband and three daughters.
        
*50-state Project honors women writers in West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming and Washington. For more details, See State-Meant 4 U Page

     

 

 


Eudora Welty Mary Karr


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Wed Mar 14 2018 noon program.

Director of Center for the Book Reveals
American Women Writers Who Influenced Her!

Sponsored by: American Women Writers National Museum
Time & Place: noon-1 p.m. in the McLendon Room of the National Press Club, 529 14th St. NW, 13th Floor, Washington, D.C. 20045.

        Becky Brasington Clark, Director of Publishing and Acting Director, Center for the Book at the Library of Congress will discuss which American women writers most influenced her and why: Eudora Welty (1909-2001) and Mary Karr (1955- ).
        AWWNM is one of about 80 national reading promotion partners with the Center for the Book. CFB, a public-private collaboration, was established by Congress in 1977 to promote books, reading and literacy. Included is the Poetry and Literature Center in the Jefferson building.
        "I find in the work of Eudora Welty and Mary Karr a fearless compassion that is simply startling. Both women are keen observers of people, yet, even as they expose the foibles of the human condition, they write with deep empathy and affection for their subjects. So many writers hide behind their pens or laptops, using prose to eviscerate the weak and the flawed. In the work of Welty and Karr, we recognize our weaknesses and flaws as essential parts of our humanity", Clark added.
        Before joining the Library of Congress, Clark spent 12 years as marketing director for Johns Hopkins University Press. She held similar positions at the Brookings Institution Press, New Republic and Counterpoint Press, and Moon Travel handbooks.
        Clark serves on the board of the American Association of University Presses, and has served as an adjunct faculty member in George Washington University’s master of professional Studies in Publishing program.
        Pulitzer Prize winner Eudora Welty is an American short story writer and novelist from Jackson, Mississippi who was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She is known for writing about “the paradox of human connection.” VIDEO AVAILABLE: Click Here to see and hear off-Broadway actress Benda Currin perform a dramatic reading of Welty’s work.
        Mary Karr is a poet essayist and memorist from East Texas whose 1995 best-seller book about “her troubled childhood” put her on the road to literary stardom. Her subsequent books have discussed her journey “from agnostic to conversion to Catholicism.” She is a professor of English literature at Syracuse University.
        
*50-state Project honors women writers in Alabama, Alaska, Arizona and Arkansas. For more details, See State-Meant 4 U Page

     

 

 


Emily Post Amy Vanderbilt
Judith Martin Pauline Phillips


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Tues Feb 6 2018 noon program.

SEASONAL OPENER & AWWNM 6th Birthday:
Women Who Are Always Write.

Sponsored by: American Women Writers National Museum
Time & Place: noon-1 p.m. in the McLendon Room of the National Press Club, 529 14th St. NW, 13th Floor, Washington, D.C. 20045.

        Writing about business and social etiquette is a narrow specialty. But four iconic American women writers became household words in this niche which retains popularity today.
        A seasonal opener honoring these extraordinary women writers seemed even more appropriate to celebrate AWWNM’s sixth anniversary in the “correct” way.
        “You can deny all you want that there is etiquette, and a lot of people do in everyday life. But if you behave in a way that offends the people you’re trying to deal with, they will stop dealing with you”, Judith Martin (AKA Miss Manners) told a 1995 interviewer.
        Business and social etiquette expert Margery Sinclair will profile four dazzling women writers who achieved “big time” international success: Emily Post (1872-1960), Amy Vanderbilt (1908-1974), Judith Martin AKA Miss Manners) (1938- ), and Pauline Phillips AKA Dear Abby (1918-2013).
        Sinclair, a former international model, became interested in etiquette at the age of 12 in small town Markesan, Wisconsin, population then 900.
        “I received my first etiquette book, Amy Vanderbilt’s Complete Guide to Gracious Living. I still have it. I didn’t know that it was a reference book: you look up a specific topic, read the answer, then replace the book on the shelf. Not knowing that, I read the entire book cover to cover,” Sinclair remembers. www.margerysinclair.com
        “I wanted to escape my small town. That book was my first glimpse into a wider world. If I knew how to behave in other places with different people, I could fit in anywhere in the world, I reasoned”, Sinclair added.
        Baltimore born Emily Post was “tall, pretty and grew up in a world of grand estates”, said one biographer. Less known is that Post authored five novels. Her children Nicholas and Jacobina continue her legacy via the Emily Post Institute.
        Daughter of a journalist mother, Amy Vanderbilt also authored cook books including one illustrated by Andy Warhol in pen and ink line drawings. Born on Staten Island, she also hosted radio and television programs, and worked as a consultant for the U.S. Department of State.
        D.C. born syndicated columnist Judith Martin, always speaks of herself in the third person as Miss Manners. Known for her sarcastic but hilarious wit, Martin says her writing “clarifies the essential qualities of politeness.”
        Pauline Phillips first took the pen name of Abigail van Buren, then became even more widely known as Dear Abby. “She covered all aspects of human behavior, although she didn’t write specifically about etiquette,” Sinclair explained.
        “I will speak just a bit about Sue Fox, author of ‘Etiquette for Dummies’, a best seller”, Sinclair added.
        
*50-state Project honors women writers in West Virginia, Wyoming, Wisconsin and Washington. For more details, See State-Meant 4 U Page

     

 

2017

 



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Wed Oct 18 2017 noon program.

TWO-TIME OSCAR NOMINEE DOROTHY PARKER

Sponsored by: American Women Writers National Museum
Time & Place: noon-1 p.m. in the McLendon Room of the National Press Club, 529 14th St. NW, 13th Floor, Washington, D.C. 20045.

        Two-time Oscar nominee (screenwriting 1937 “A Star is Born” and 1947 “Smash Up, the Story of a Woman”) Dorothy Parker (1893-1967) will be the subject of a presentation by Elaine Flynn, a Washington, D.C. tour guide who appears as a “dramatic recreation” of Ms. Parker and reads from Parker’s work.
        Born Dorothy Rothschild to affluent parents in New Jersey, Ms. Parker was a Roman Catholic convent and Miss Dana’s finishing school graduate who ended up with a bulky FBI dossier and placement on the 1950s era “blacklist” by Hollywood movie studio executives.
        She was a poet whose work was described as “short vicious and humorous”, who also wrote short stories, was a radio personality, trenchant book reviewer, razor-edged columnist and editor. Her personal life was chaotic and messy as she struggled with alcoholism and depression. She was part of the Algonquin (Hotel) Round Table (1919-1929) , a literary and theatrical group who met daily at the New York Algonquin Hotel. In later years, she publicly attacked the group.
        Ms. Parker died of cardiac arrest at age 73. Her ashes remained unclaimed in her attorney’s filing cabinet for 17 years.
        Elaine Flynn, a Washington D.C. tour guide whose avocation is researching Ms. Parker, will appear October 18 as a “dramatic recreation” of Ms. Parker. Ms. Flynn explains she became interested in Dorothy Parker’s work and life as an outgrowth of her original intent to portray historic First Ladies in dramatic recreations. She has worked as a docent in historic homes, and studied at American University’s School of International Service.
        “My October 18 talk will introduce or reintroduce the audience to the work, life and wit of the fascinating Dorothy Parker. I will discuss the people at the Algonquin Round Table, her marriages and her successes, and read some of her verses. She gave voice to the women of her age”, Ms Flynn said.
        
*50-state Project honors women writers in D.C., Florida, Georgia and Hawaii. For more details, See State-Meant 4 U Page

     

 

 



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Thur Sept 28 2017 noon program.

ZORA NEALE HURSTON

Sponsored by: American Women Writers National Museum
Time & Place: noon-1 p.m. in the McLendon Room of the National Press Club, 529 14th St. NW, 13th Floor, Washington, D.C. 20045.

        Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960), among the first African American women writers to achieve national recognition will be the subject of a presentation by A. Anokwale Anansesemfo a National Park Ranger whose avocation is studying Hurston’s work and legacy. 
        Hurston, born in Notasulga Alabama, is the author of four novels and more than 50 plays, short stores and essays. Eatonville, Alabama, where she grew up, which is the setting for some of her work, holds an annual festival in January in her honor. Her literary interests included racial struggles in the American South, anthropology and ethnography, and Haitian voodoo. She attended a Baptist private boarding school in Florida, then attended Barnard College of Columbia University where she received a B.A. degree in anthropology in 1928 when she was 37 years old. She also attended Howard University.
        Hurston’s work was relatively unrecognized by the American literary community until a 1975 magazine article featured what became her most famous book: Their Eyes Were Watching God.
        Anansesemfo holds a B.A. degree in history from Coppin State University (which honored her with an Outstanding Public Service award) and a Master’s degree in art history from Howard University. She says she is is “most passionate about the African Diaspora in America.” She has appeared on C-Span3 and spoken at various conferences and schools. She is scheduled to teach at Goucher College this fall, and has served as an adjunct Public History professor at Stevenson University.
        Anansesemfo works as a National Park Service Ranger at the Hampton National Historic Site near Towson, Maryland.
        “It is through the National park Service that I can perform my mission in life which is to tell the trials, tribulations and triumphs of my ancestors to the world’s community,” she said.
        
*50-state Project honors women writers in Mississippi, Missouri, Montana and Nebraska. For more details, See State-Meant 4 U Page

     

 

 



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Thur May 18 2017 noon program.

STIRRED, NOT SHAKEN: NARRATIVES OF EARLY FEMINIST WRITERS

Sponsored by: American Women Writers National Museum
Time & Place: noon-1 p.m. in the McLendon Room of the National Press Club, 529 14th St. NW, 13th Floor, Washington, D.C. 20045.

        Megan Metcalf, Women’s Studies specialist in the historic Main Reading Room of the Library of Congress will speak noon May 18 on early feminist writers in America. 
        She also has an interest and has creaed an exhibit on the women’s music movement.
        In STIRRED NOT SHAKEN I will be discussing how I envision using influential feminist texts as a launching point to uncover what popular history gets wrong about American feminism.
        “I’m gong to reveal my research process and highlight the vital role libraries and archives play in preserving, interruptiing and re-interrupting mainstream narratives of American womanhood, Ms. Metcalf explained.     
        “My interests in feminism and library science both started while I was still a high school student. By the time I got to college, I was a self-identified feminist ready to dive head first into the world of libraries and research, It became clear to me then that feminism has a lot to contribute to conversations about how we organize, preserve, and facilitate access to information, and to our very own stories,” Ms. Metcalf said.
        “While I was in graduate school, I taught “An Introduction to Women’s Studies” while also working in the reference department at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where I received a Masters degree in Women’s and Gender Studies. In August of 2015 I moved to Washington, D.C.”
        
*50-state Project honors women writers in Kansas Kentucky Louisiana and Maine. For more details, See State-Meant 4 U Page

     

 

 




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Tues Apr 18 2017 noon program.

CLARE BOOTHE LUCE (1903-1987) HAD IT ALL

Sponsored by: American Women Writers National Museum
Time & Place: noon-1 p.m. in the McLendon Room of the National Press Club, 529 14th St. NW, 13th Floor, Washington, D.C. 20045.

        The multi-dimensional American woman writer Clare Boothe Luce (1903-1987) had it all, and was all: playwright, war correspondent journalist, U.S.Representative, Ambassador to Italy, and Medal of Freedom honoree, for starters.  She had no college education.
        Attorney Michelle Easton, founder and President of the Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute in Reston, Virginia, will speak and show photos of Ambassador Luce’s extraordinary life, April 18, 2017 at noon in the McLendon Room of the National Press Club, 529 14th St. NW, 13th Floor, Washington, D.C. 20045.
        Beautiful and witty, Clare Boothe was married to multi millionaire Henry Luce, owner and publisher of TIME, Life, Sports Illustrated, Fortune and Vanity Fair magazines when print journalism dominated They were known as one of the great “power couples” in America’s history.
        Her 1936 satirical comedy play, with an all woman cast, was a 1936 Broadway smash made into a 1939 movie. Her plays Kiss the Boys Goodbye and Margin for Error were also made into successful movies. Albert Einstein and Thomas Mann attended opening night. Otto Preminger directed.     
        Known for the acidic tinge to her wit, her most famous line was: “No good deed goes unpunished”, and “Widowhood is a fringe benefit of marriage.” In 1942 Luce was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Connecticut, a seat formerly held by her stepfather.
        In 1952 she was appointed America’s ambassador to Italy, the first female to hold such a high ambassadorial post.
        Her only child, a daughter Ann, was killed in a 1944 car accident. Ms. Luce died of a brain tumor in 1987, Her fortune was estimated at $50 million.
        
*50-state Project honors women writers in Alabama, Alaska, Arizona and Arkansas. For more details, See State-Meant 4 U Page

     

 

2016

 




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Thur Oct 20 2016 noon program.

MEET NPR’S Senior Business Editor
Marilyn Geewax “Here & Now”!

Sponsored by: American Women Writers National Museum
Time & Place: noon-1 p.m. in the McLendon Room of the National Press Club, 529 14th St. NW, 13th Floor, Washington, D.C. 20045.

        Marilyn Geewax, Senior Business Editor for National Public Radio, always has her finger on the pulse of business, as she assigns, writes and edits national stories.  She is an award-winning  regular contributor to NPR’s midday Here and Now show.  She has traveled the world covering business  and economic issues, filing news stories from China, Japan, South Africa and Europe.
        She will discuss her personal career: how she came up through the print journalism ranks as national economics correspondent for Cox Newspapers’ Washington bureau, as well as her work at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution where she also served on the editorial board. She got her start as a business reporter for the Akron Beacon Journal.
        She is a native of Youngstown Ohio.
        Her work on the foreclosure-crisis contributed to NPR’s 2011 Edward R. Murrow Award for hard news , and she was also recognized with a 2009 Heywood Broun Award.     
        A graduate of The Ohio State University, she earned a Master’s degree from Georgetown She also won a Neiman Fellowship at Harvard.
        
*50-state Project honors women writers in Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New Jersey. For more details, See State-Meant 4 U Page

     

 

 




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Wed Apr 6, 2016 noon program.

STAND BY YOUR MAN: FIRST LADIES CAMPAIGNING

Sponsored by: American Women Writers National Museum
Time & Place: noon-1 p.m. in the McLendon Room of the National Press Club, 529 14th St. NW, 13th Floor, Washington, D.C. 20045.

        Who could forget Nancy Reagan’s mesmerized focus on her Ronnie’s (Ronald Reagan) every activity as he campaigned for the Presidency?
        
Decades before Mrs. Reagan , wives of Presidential candidates did little to actually campaign with their husbands on the hustings. But after Mrs. Reagan set the pace, wives of Presidential hopefuls became, and continue to be, very actively involved in on- the -scene campaigning.
        Patricia Krider, executive Director of the First Ladies Library and Museum in Canton, Ohio, will review that fascinating historical arc.
        Before 1920, women were literally in the background because, by law, they were ineligible to vote because of their gender.
        Nineteenth century wives “might wave a handkerchief from a window during a parade”, or “ delight the crowd by sending them a winsome smile from the front porch of her own home”. Krider said.
        “But the right to vote also gave women the opportunity to take a dynamic role in the political arena. Today a potential First Lady must multi-task while campaigning. She must know her husband’s issues and concerns while answering questions about her own causes and activities”, Krider said.
        “The media still scrutinize her clothes and hair, but now they also report on what potential assets she brings to a presidency”, Krider continued.
        “Dolly Madison was the first openly successful political First Lady who hosted the first public Inaugural Ball. Helen Taft worked so tirelessly on Howard’s Presidential campaign that President Theodore Roosevelt accused her of aspiring to the Presidency on her on behalf!” Krider added.
        Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt were probably the first true “team” of campaigners—giving the astute Eleanor a public independence as a politically active woman never seen before. Eleanor was the first candidate’s wife to speak publicly at a party convention.
         Krider is a magna cum laude graduate of Ashland University and also holds degrees from Walsh University and Stark State college.
         *50-state Project honors women writers in Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho. For more details, See State-Meant 4 U Page

     

 

 




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Wed Mar 9, 2016 noon program.

LET's KEEP DANCING!
PULITZER WINNER SARAH KAUFMAN TALKS ABOUT WRITING CULTURE

Sponsored by: American Women Writers National Museum
Time & Place: noon-1 p.m. in the McLendon Room of the National Press Club, 529 14th St. NW, 13th Floor, Washington, D.C. 20045.

        Texas- born Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Sarah Kaufman, dance critic for The Washington Post, will on Wed March 9, share her 20 years of experience writing about arts, sports and culture.
        She was, in 2010, the first dance critic to win the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 35 years
        NBC News and The PBS News Hour have featured her work. She has done onstage interviews with celebrities and newsmakers for the Smithsonian museums, the Goethe Institut, and City Arts & Lectures since she began writing for the WP in 1996.
        While an undergraduate at University of Maryland, work at a ballet school, triggered her first published dance reviews
        “As a young survivor of open-heart surgery, I learned that life is fragile—and rebuildable. Ballet paired well with my recovery and my writing. I learned to perfect small details, get the rhythm right; smoothing and refining and making it all look easy”, Kaufman explained.
        “I apply my sense of grace and movement everywhere in my writing: seeing the (bicycle) Tour de France as art, analyzing politicians’ body language, and examining pop music’s Lady Gaga as a cultural phenomenon” she added.
        Raised near Washington, D.C., Kaufman served as a US Senate page at the age of 15. At that time, pages lived in an attic of the Library of Congress—a space now utilized as an office-reception area by the Poetry Center.
        A year as an exchange student in Cannes, France followed.
        She won a scholarship to Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, where she earned a Masters degree. She began working for newspapers in Chicago, Detroit and Buffalo.
        She is married to a trust and estates attorney with whom she parents three children in Takoma Park, MD.
        Her just-released first book nonfiction “The Art of Grace” explores the many ways grace, or the absence of grace, affects our daily lives.
        *50-state Project honors women writers in Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa. For more details, See State-Meant 4 U Page

     

 

 




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Wed Feb 3, 2016 noon program.

AWWNM CELEBRATES A 4th BIRTHDAY!
with
OBIE AWARD WINNING ACTRESS BRENDA CURRIN
PRESENTINg DRAMATIC EXCERPTS FROM her
ONE WOMAN SHOW on EUDORA WELTY’s WORK!

Sponsored by: American Women Writers National Museum
Time & Place: noon-1 p.m. in the McLendon Room of the National Press Club, 529 14th St. NW, 13th Floor, Washington, D.C. 20045.

        Obie (Off Broadway) theatrical award winner, actress Brenda Currin will help AWWNM celebrate embarking on a fourth year honoring America’s premier women writers, historical and contemporary.
        Currin will perform the theatrical fantasia portion of “June Recital” (AKA Sister & Miss Lexie) based on a short story by 1973 Pulitzer Prize winner Eudora Welty (1909-2001). The Fantasia was adapted by David Kaplan and set to the the adagio and rondo section of Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto, Currin explained.
        Mississippi native Welty is the beloved author of short stories and novels about the American South. In addition to the Pulitzer, Welty was awarded America’s Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the Legion of Honor from France. Welty is also a skilled photographer.
        Currin met and interviewed Welty in New York. “We started to talk about Stella Rondo and the characters in her short story “Why I live at the P.O.” (Post Office). We both started to laugh as if they were members of our family, and it just broke the ice,” Curriin remembered.
        Described by a literary peer as “a sure renderer of dialect” Welty so brilliantly captures the absolute tones and cadences of her friends, relatives and strangers with such mastery that readers can almost hear them speaking off the page.
        Currin’s film credits include: In Cold Blood and The World According to Garp. Her stage work includes: Three Penny Opera, Sister Mary Ignatius Explains it All for You, and many others. She has worked with actresses Estelle Parsons and Olympia Dukakis.
        Currin grew up in North Carolina. She received her BA degree from the University of Kansas, and her MA in anthropology from Hunter College.
        Currin explains her love for Welty’s work by citing the novel “Delta Wedding”. “I loved those ladies from my childhood in Oxford, N.C. playing bridge at 8 a.m., fully dressed with lipstick and nail polish, smoking and drinking Coca Cola,” Currin said.
        *50-state Project honors women writers in Mississippi, Missouri, Montana and Nebraska. For more details, See State-Meant 4 U Page

     

 

American Women Writers National Museum
PO Box 22365
Houston, Texas 77227-2365

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