Michael Griffith Book Talk

Michael Griffith Book Talk from SC Center for the Book on Vimeo.

Join the Friends of the Richland County Public Library and the University of South Carolina Institute for Southern Studies for a the 2012 Southern Writers Series that features several of the South’s best authors. All events are held at the Main Library, 1431 Assembly St.

Michael Griffith, 6 p.m., Tuesday, April 17. Griffith is the author of three books of fiction, including Bibliophilia, Spikes and now Trophy, a new novel set in Lexington. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Virginia Quarterly Review, Southern Review, Oxford American, The Washington Post and many other periodicals. An associate professor of English at the University of Cincinnati, he also serves as editor of the Yellow Shoe Fiction Series for Louisiana State University Press.

State Library’s South Carolina Center for the Book Announces 2011-2012 Letters About Literature Competition Award Winners

The Letters About Literature program, sponsored by the South Carolina Center for the Book and the Library of Congress, in partnership with Target Stores, is a national reading and writing promotion contest.  To enter, readers write personal letters to an author, living or dead, from any genre, explaining how that author’s work changed their way of thinking about the world or themselves.  Nine winners will be honored at an awards ceremony at the South Carolina State Library’s Center for the Book in Columbia. The ceremony will be held on June 1 from 11:00 am to noon in Room 309, 1430 Senate Street, Columbia.  Contest judges, the President of the South Carolina State Library Foundation, and the Director of the State Library will be on hand to present awards.  Winners will be reading their letters and each will receive a check from the South Carolina State Library Foundation ($100 for first place, $50 for second, and $25 for third).  In addition, first place winners receive a $50 gift card from Target stores.

Level One: Grades 4 – 6
First Place – Mikayla Zwerdling, Charles Townes Center at Sterling School, Greenville
Second Place – Shelby Higgenbottom, Hammond Hill Elementary School, North Augusta
Third Place – Kiara Johnson, McDonald Elementary School, Georgetown

Level Two: Grades 7 – 8
First Place – Gina Joerger, Charles Townes Center at Sterling School, Greenville
Second Place – Katherine Woo, Riverside Middle School, Greer
Third Place – Kathryn Simmons, Charles Townes Center at Sterling School, Greenville

Level Three: Grades 9 – 12
First Place – Kristyn Robinson, Individual Submission, Greer
Second Place – Kelly Ellis, Individual Submission, Easley
Third Place – Madeline Giess, Dreher High School, Columbia

For more information about the South Carolina Center for the Book, please visit www.readsc.org.

Nikky Finney – Head Off & Split Book Talk Q&A, pt.2

Join the Friends of the Richland County Public Library and the University of South Carolina Institute for Southern Studies for a the 2012 Southern Writers Series that features several of the South’s best authors. All events are held at the Main Library, 1431 Assembly St.

Nikky Finney, 6 p.m., Thursday, March 22. Finney’s fourth poetry collection, Head Off & Split, was awarded the 2011 National Book Award for poetry. She is also the author of the story collection Heartwood, editor of The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South and co-founder of the Affrilachian Poets. A native of South Carolina, Finney is currently a professor of English and creative writing at the University of Kentucky.