Literary Events at SCAD – Savannah, Georgia

SAVANNAH, Ga.—Two new events hosted by the Savannah College of Art and Design School of Liberal Arts offer exposure to an array of literary genres for the public. Award-winning writer Shirley Geok-lin Lim, Ph.D., appears as part of the Visiting Writers Series April 10, 7 p.m., at the SCAD Student Center, 120 Montgomery St. On April 14, the first-ever SCAD Writer’s Assembly happens at 7 p.m., Trustees Theater, 216 E. Broughton St. Both events are free and open to the public.

Lim headlines the spring installment of the Visiting Writers Series with “Diasporic and Immigrant Imaginations and Lives: Shirley Geok-lin Lim Reads from ‘Among the White Moon Faces: An Asian-American Memoir of Homelands’ and ‘Passports and Poems From Other Lives’.” Her memoir, fiction and poems are about settling and unsettling, travel and getting lost, and finding and losing. Originally from Malaysia, Lim will talk about literature as passports that document transnational lives.

Professional writers from SCAD’s liberal arts faculty offer an evening of literary entertainment as they bring to life their poems, plays, fiction and non-fiction works at the SCAD Writer’s Assembly, moderated by professors Stephen Geller, Ph.D., and Dennis Randall, Ph.D.

Mary Aswell Doll, Ph.D., will read excerpts from her book “Mother Matters” (1995). She is the author of four additional books that relate world mythology and literature to everyday life issues, and also serves on the advisory board for the Jungian journal “Spring: A Journal of Archetype and Culture.”

Mary Chi-Whi Kim will read from her work-in-progress “Family Man Underground,” a novel about a distant relative who lived beneath his family’s house for three years. She is author of the multi-genre book “Karma Suture” (2005), and winner of the 2006 Atlanta Review International Merit Award in Poetry, along with two poem commissions from The Ohio State University Multicultural Center.
Adam Davies will read from “Mine All Mine,” his third novel scheduled for publication in August. Davies is the author of “Goodbye Lemon” and “The Frog King,” which is being adapted to film by director Darren Star, creator of “Sex and the City,” with a script Bret Easton Ellis. He has appeared on A&E’s “Breakfast with the Arts,” many National Public Radio broadcasts, and was selected by The New Yorker and Bacardi as the inaugural writer in their new literary reading series.

Stephen Geller, Ph.D., will read from his novel in progress “Feist,” the darkly comic story of an impoverished Jewish man living in 19th-century Savannah. Title character Nathan Feist experiences an epiphany in which God promises to show him “the promised land” if he can stop the Civil War. An internationally renowned screenwriter known for his adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse-Five,” Geller has written a screenwriting textbook and four novels, including “She Let Him Continue,” which was made into “Pretty Poison,” a cult film classic and winner of the 1968 New York Film Critics’ Circle Award.
James Lough, Ph.D., will read from various works. His book “Sites of Insight” (2003) won the Publications Prize from the Colorado Endowment for the Humanities. Lough has published more than 60 articles, short stories and book reviews, and served as editor for several literary journals. Lough is seeking a publisher for his book “This Ain’t No Holiday Inn: Bohemian Life at the Chelsea Hotel.”

Angela Merta will read from various works. Her work has appeared in Kalliope, The Louisiana Review, The Nebraska Review, The Southern Anthology and Moon City Review, and she is currently working on a translation of poetry by Iranian women.

John Valentine, Ph.D., will read selected poems from his personal collection. McGraw-Hill recently published his textbook “Beginning Aesthetics” (2007). Valentine’s work has been published in 20 poetry journals, and he is the author of three poetry chapbooks.

George Williams, Ph.D., will read a story originally published in “Convergence I,” a literary arts journal by SCAD faculty. His numerous stories and essays have appeared, or will soon appear, in literary journals including “The Pushcart Prize,” “New Virginia Review,” “Boulevard,” “Gulf Coast” and “Pleiades.”
Additional professional writers from among the liberal arts department faculty are scheduled to read from their works as well.