GLENVILLE, WV – Two Glenville State University students, a recent graduate, and a professor recently took part in the 2022 Writers Conference of Northern Appalachia. The conference took place at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in mid-March.
Students Zoe Yates and Anna Childers, Associate Professor of English Dr. Marjorie Stewart, and recent alumnus Sadie Murphy all took part in the conference. Their panel session, titled “Crafting Genuine Appalachian Culture: Honoring the Traditional While Avoiding the Stereotypical,” examined tensions between Appalachian traditions and the need for progress and social change. Stewart served as the panel moderator.
“I heard about the conference about two days before the proposals were due, so I sent a notice to the Literary Nonfiction and Features class. Sadie and Zoe responded to that, and they recommended Anna. We brainstormed on campus the next day, and Sadie and Anna came to my house that evening to put the proposal together with Zoe on Zoom. They did a fabulous job – I mostly advised and fed them,” Stewart said.
As part of the panel, Murphy shared excerpts of her writing revealing how differing perspectives on tradition – or more accurately the breaking from traditions – caused conflict in her own interpersonal relationships and Stewart discussed how her move from an urban area to rural Appalachia has informed her experience and her writing. Together, the group explored the ways in which writers choose to depict the balance between the conflicting forces of a changing culture in stories and how those stories can be told in respectful ways, striving to be Appalachian writers telling personal truths without claiming to hold the one truth about the region.
Their session was one of the “four-to-many” format at the conference where a panel of two to four presenters provided group lectures, round table discussion, or readings and discussion of their work. Attendees of the conference included novice and experienced authors, educators representing the humanities, literature, and Appalachian studies, librarians, and individuals with an interest in northern Appalachian literature and culture.
For more information about the presentation, contact (304) 462-6330.
