The English department of Catawba College is sponsoring a reading by South Carolina authors Phebe Davidson and Debra Daniel. The event, which is free to the public, will be on Tuesday, Nov. 11, at 7:30 p.m. in Tom Smith Auditorium, Ketner Hall.
A retired professor of English at the University of South Carolina-Aiken, Davidson is the author of several published collections of poems, most recently “Fat Moon Rising,” released this year by Main Street Rag, and a new volume, “The Surface of Things,” that is forthcoming from David Robert Books in 2009.
She is the founding editor of Palanquin Press, a staff writer for “The Asheville Poetry Review” and reviews editor of “Yemassee.” In 2007, she received the Erica F. Wiest Poetry Award from “Cream City Review” and “The Blue Earth Review’s” Flash Fiction Award.
Daniel was the S.C. Arts Commission Poetry Fellow (2006, 1994) and won the 2002 Guy Owen Prize and fellowships in poetry and fiction from the S.C. Academy of Authors. Her fiction has won six S.C. Fiction Project prizes and was included in “Inheritance: an Anthology of Fiction Project Winners.” Her poetry chapbook, “As Is,” is forthcoming from Main Street Rag.
Her work has appeared in numerous journals, including: “Kakalak,” “Emrys Journal,” “Southern Poetry Review,” “Tar River Poetry” and “Gargoyle.” She sings and plays mandolin and cardboard box in an acoustic band with her husband, Jack McGregor.
Chicken Soup edition
Sisters Quinn and Spencer Scarvey of Salisbury have essays in the new “Chicken Soup for the Soul: Teens Talk Middle School” book.
Part of the multi-book series, this one is subtitled, “101 Stories of Life, Love and Learning for Younger Teens.”
Quinn and Spencer are daughters of Dave and Katie Scarvey of Salisbury. Katie Scarvey is Lifestyles editor of the Post.
Quinn submitted a letter she that won the Andre Sobel River of Life Foundation Award in 2003. The title of the entry in the book is “A Letter of Support” and is about how Quinn’s friendships evolved during her battle with a brain tumor.
Her sister Spencer’s entry follows. “A Mental Cancer” is her essay about the jealousy that followed all the attention on her sick sister. She overcomes that by realizing “life isn’t always going to be about me.” She writes, “If I can instill in my kids one-tenth of the courage and love their Aunt Quinn has shown me, I will consider my life a success.”
The book, published by Chicken Soup for the Soul Publishing, is a $16.95 paperback available starting Nov. 4.
Reading of poems on recovery
On Sunday, Nov. 9, there will be a reading of “After Shocks: The Poetry of Recovery for Life-Shattering Events” at the Joseph Beth Booksellers, 4345 Barclay Downs Drive, Charlotte, at 2 p.m.
This anthology, edited by Tom Lombardo, includes 152 poems by 115 poets from 15 nations. Chapters cover stories of recovery from grief, war, exile, abuse, divorce, illness, addiction and more. A book signing and reception will follow the reading.
Poets who will read include Anthony Abbott, Cathy Smith Bowers, Barbara Presnell and others from North and South Carolina.