Upcoming Readings and Book Signings

Thursday, December 4, 2 pm, Special Collections and Archives Department of the Ralph Brown Draughon Library: Madison Jones, author of The Adventures of Douglas Bragg

Jones, former writer-in-residence at Auburn University, is the award winning author of twelve books, including Nashville 1864: The Dying of the Light, which was awarded a Michael Shaara Award for Civil War Fiction from the United States Civil War Center. His new book, The Adventures of Douglas Bragg, follows a long tradition of Southern humorists, including Mark Twain, Erskine Caldwell and Harry Crews. A coming-of-age novel, it is, according to reviewer Hugh Ruppersburg, "full of jokes, pranks, shenanigans, tall tales, country music, drug-running morticians, houses of ill repute, hypocritical preachers, communes, and fun." In addition to membership in the prestigious Fellowship of Southern writers, Jones has held fellowships from the Sewanee Review, Rockefeller Foundation and Guggenheim Foundation. He is also the recipient of the Harper Lee Lifetime Literary Award.

The reading and book signing is sponsored by the Auburn University Libraries, the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts & Humanities in the College of Liberal Arts and the Auburn University Bookstore.



Wednesday, December 10, 5 pm, Arriccia Fireplace Lounge: Paul Hemphill, author of A Tiger Walk Through History: A Compete History of Auburn Football from 1892 to the Tuberville Era, with an introduction by David Housel

A Tiger Walk Through History is the second title in the Pebble Hill Books imprint series, a cooperative publishing venture of the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts & Humanities in the College of Liberal Arts at Auburn University and the University of Alabama Press. This groundbreaking joint enterprise between Auburn and the University of Alabama is designed to publish works that grow out of or contribute to the Center's programming.

The reception is sponsored by the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts & Humanities in the College of Liberal Arts at Auburn University, the College of Liberal Arts Development Office, the Auburn Alumni Association and the Auburn University Bookstore. Copies of the book will be available for purchase.

Hemphill was sports editor of the Auburn Plainsman during the National Championship season of 1957 and is the author of sixteen books. In A Tiger Walk Through History, he tells the story of the progress of Auburn from that first game-coached by Auburn legend George Petrie-through the team's growth and development into the national force it is today. Contributors to the volume include David Housel, Rheta Grimsley Johnson, Ken and Joy Ringer, Anne River Siddons, Jim Stewart and Cynthia Tucker.

Eugene Walter: Last of the Bohemians

Join us for a screening of Eugene Walter: Last of the Bohemians, a documentary by Robert Clem, on Wednesday November 12, at 3 p.m. in the Special Collections and Archives department of the Ralph Brown Draughon Library.

Preview Last of the Bohemians





Last of the Bohemians documents the life and career of writer, poet, actor, artist and raconteur Eugene Walter. Born in Mobile in 1921, Walter lived at the hub of 20^th-century cultural life, first in New York and later in Paris and Rome. He collaborated with George Plimpton and others in founding the Paris Review, edited Europe's preeminent multilingual literary journal Botteghe Oscure, and worked with film director Federico Fellini as a set and costume designer, translator, actor and songwriter.  His books include the now classic Time Life volume on Southern cuisine, a Lippincott Fiction Prize winning novel, The Untidy Pilgrim, and many other works.

Alum’s Book Chronicles Tiger Experience in the ‘70s

Actor, author, athlete and Auburn alumnus Thom Gossom, Jr., will read from his memoir, Walk-On, on Thursday, Nov. 6, 2008 from 6 - 7 p.m. at the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art in Auburn, Alabama. A reception will follow the reading, and both the reading and the reception are free and open to the public.

Walk-On is a coming of age memoir set in the culturally changing Alabama of the 1970's. The memoir chronicles Gossom's barrier shattering journey to become the first black athlete to graduate from Auburn University. It is a story of overcoming adversity, gaining success, losing it, regaining it and in doing so making history. The author will sign copies and Walk On will be available for purchase at the Museum.

Lewis Nordan and the Heartbreaking Laughter of Transcendence and Hope: A Symposium

Writer Lewis "Buddy" Nordan will be the focus of the second annual Pebble Hill Books Symposium, scheduled for Jan. 23, 2009, in Auburn. An international slate of scholars and writers-including Nordan himself and his friend and colleague Clyde Edgerton-will convene to celebrate the much beloved author of four novels, three short story collections and a memoir.

The symposium, sponsored by the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts & Humanities in the College of Liberal Arts and designed to showcase significant literary, arts and cultural figures with connections to Alabama, follows the successful 2008 symposium on writer and critic Albert Murray.

Details can be found here.

Noted Public Engagement Scholar on Campus in November

The Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts & Humanities in the College of Liberal Arts will host a campus visit from Dr. David Scobey on Thursday November 20.  Dr. Scobey is the founding director of Arts of Citizenship at the University of Michigan, inaugural director of the Harward Center for Community Partnerships at Bates College, and past chairman of Imagining America: Artists in Public Life, a national consortium of institutions that supports the civic work of university artist, humanists, and designers.  Nationally recognized as a leader in the theory and practice of community-based learning, Scobey is the author of several well-respected publications including "Putting the Academy in its Place" and Empire Study: The Making and Meaning of the New York City Landscape.  Scobey will discuss Imagining America's recent report, "Scholarship in Public:  Knowledge Creation and Tenure Policy in the Engaged University" with the Pebble Hill Faculty Committee.  All Auburn University Faculty, students, and staff are invited to visit with Scobey during a reception to be held from 3:30 to 5:00 at the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center on November 20.  For more information, contact the Center at (334) 844-4946.

Panel on Higher Education Available Online

Should a university foster diversity and democracy and produce responsible citizens?  Is this part of its public mission?  Stanley Fish thinks not.  A panel discussion addressing these questions and Fish's recently published Save the World on Your Own Time (Oxford) will be held on Tuesday, Oct. 21 at 3pm in room 239, Broun Hall.

The event will also be available via the web at http://connect.auburn.edu/savetheworld.

CLA Speakers Bureau

Each year the Auburn University College of Liberal Arts Speakers Bureau offers free talks on topics ranging from leadership and democracy to souther literature and child psychology. The faculty selected to participate are seasoned speakers with something to say about a subject that interests you, and the programs are offered free of charge on a first come, first served basis. This year's line up focuses on government, citizenship, and politics.

For more information, or to book one of the programs listed below, call (334) 844-4946 or email claspeakers@auburn.edu.

Murray Jardine -- "The Meaning of Freedom in America"

Rene McEldowney -- "Universal Health Care"

Lindy Biggs -- "Sustainability as Citizenship"

Margaret Fitch-Hauser -- "Can You Hear Me Now?"

Clifton Perry -- "Citizenship Rights of Native Americans"