Art Matters announces ‘Writing about Writing’

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 5, 2013
Media Contact: Jonathan Dye, jonathan@maconarts.org, (478) 308-1660

Art Matters announces ‘Writing about Writing’
Second symposium focuses on literary criticism

MACON, Ga. — Art Matters: Engaging the Community through Embedded Arts Journalists is pleased to announce the second in its series of six public symposia on the role of criticism and arts journalism in fostering an informed and engaged community. “Writing about Writing” will be held at the Sidney Lanier Cottage at 935 High Street in Macon, Georgia on November 18 at 5:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. “Writing about Writing” is co-sponsored by the Historic Macon Foundation and Crossroads Writers Conference.

The discussion at this symposium will focus on the role of literature and literary criticism in society, current trends in the fields, and how the changing media landscape is affecting critics and writers. Featured panelists will be Valerie Boyd, Charles McNair and Teresa K. Weaver. Art Matters Critic-in-Residence Steve Murray will moderate the discussion.

Valerie Boyd is the author of the award-winning biography, Wrapped in Rainbows: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston. She is currently curating and editing the journals of Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Alice Walker. To be published by 37 Ink/Simon & Schuster, Gathering Blossoms Under Fire: The Journals of Alice Walker will be released in 2017. Formerly the arts editor at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Boyd has written about the intersection of race, arts and culture for several national and regional publications. Her articles, essays and reviews have appeared in such publications as The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, Paste, Ms., Essence and Atlanta Magazine. She is an associate professor at the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, where she serves as the Charlayne Hunter-Gault Distinguished Writer in Residence and teaches arts journalism and narrative nonfiction.

Charles McNair, a native of the Yellowhammer State of Alabama, released his first novel, Land O’ Goshen, to critical acclaim. Land O’ Goshen was a nominee for the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1994. His long-awaited second novel, Pickett’s Charge, was published in September 2013 from the University of West Alabama’s Livingston Press. McNair currently lives in Atlanta where he writes full-time, combining freelance literary duties with assignments for corporations and businesses, including “Power of Storytelling” workshops. Since 2005, he has served as books editor for Paste magazine and has shared his reviews on Atlanta radio station WMLB 1690 AM. Charles is currently at work on his third novel, The Epicureans.

Teresa K. Weaver writes a monthly book column for Atlanta magazine and serves as editorial director at Habitat for Humanity International. Formerly the book editor at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (1998-2007), Weaver was elected to the board of the National Book Critics Circle for six years and was a longtime member of the Southern Book Critics Circle. She now serves as a member of the advisory council for the Georgia Center for the Book.

Steve Murray is the critic-in-residence at Macon Arts Alliance as part of the Art Matters project. He is an award-winning writer, reporter, critic and playwright with years of experience as both a theater and film critic. He began his career at the weekly newspaper Southline in Atlanta as a staff writer and theater critic. He went on to be a staff writer at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Over his years at the paper, he was an arts writer, a film and television critic, and an adjunct editor for its weekly film section, Movies & More. Since 2009, Murray has worked as a columnist and film critic for ArtsATL.com, one of Atlanta’s leading arts blogs, covering all forms of art in the Atlanta metro area.

Art Matters: Engaging the Community through Embedded Arts Journalists is a one-year initiative designed to engage the community through high-quality arts journalism. A $40,000 National Endowment for the Arts Art Works grant and a matching $40,000 grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation support the $80,000 project. The project received one of only four national arts journalism grants funded by the NEA in 2013 and is the first time in seven years that Macon Arts Alliance has been awarded an NEA grant.

The Macon Arts Alliance (MAA), in collaboration with Mercer University’s Center for Collaborative Journalism, will embed paid journalism interns in various arts organizations served by Macon Arts Alliance. These journalists will create news articles, blogs, video reports and more for local news outlets, the CCJ’s newsroom, and Macon Arts Alliance’s Ovations365.com and other publications. The program provides for a critic-in-residence at the CCJ and a series of public symposia that will pair different artists and critics to discuss the state of various art forms and criticism.

About Art Matters
Art Matters is an arts journalism partnership of Macon Arts Alliance and Mercer’s Center for Collaborative Journalism that seeks to engage the community through embedded arts journalists. This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, Art Works. Matching funding provided by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

About Macon Arts Alliance
The mission of the Macon Arts Alliance is to foster and support the advancement of arts and culture in Central Georgia. Macon Arts Alliance works to create an environment where arts and culture thrive and Central Georgia is recognized as an unparalleled cultural destination.

About the Center for Collaborative Journalism
The Center for Collaborative Journalism (CCJ) is a unique partnership between Mercer University, The Telegraph and Georgia Public Broadcasting, with generous support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and The Peyton Anderson Foundation. The Center’s groundbreaking collaboration has students, faculty and veteran journalists working together in a joint newsroom. Learning in a “teaching hospital” model, students engage the community.

 

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