Ferrum College - The Ferrum Newsstand

Kenan has written two other books: A Visitation of Spirits and Let the Dead Bury Their Dead. Let the Dead was nominated for the Los Angeles Times Book Award for fiction, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and was listed among The New York Times Notable Books of 1992.

Ferrum College is a four-year, private, co-educational, liberal arts college affiliated with the United Methodist Church. Ferrum offers a choice of nationally recognized bachelor’s degree programs at a cost well below the national average for private colleges. For more information on Ferrum, visit www.ferrum.edu. # # #

AFRICAN-AMERICAN LITERARY CONFERENCE November 7-8, 2003 Author Randall Kenan Student Presenters from Katherine Grimes's African-American literature class (Eng. 207). The students are (left to right) Jimmy Pride, Jessica Dillon, Anna Korshakova, Kathy Hall, Tiffany Dennis, and Joanne Joseph. Willie Pryer, not pictured, also presented a paper. AFRICAN-AMERICAN LITERARY CONFERENCE TO BE HELD NOV. 7-8
For immediate release:		Contact:
October 14, 2003		Lisa J. Bowling, (540) 365-4307, lbowling@ferrum.edu
On November 7-8, 2003, the Office of Multicultural Education and the African-American Student Association of Ferrum College will host an African-American Literary Conference. Sessions will include academic papers by students and faculty from the region and a poster presentation. The keynote speaker for Friday evening is Randall Kenan, who will be reading and signing his books throughout the conference. Admission, with lunch, is $10. There is no cost for Ferrum students and faculty. Registration will take place on Saturday morning in the Panther’s Den of Franklin Hall at 10 a.m. Randall Kenan is the author of several books, most notably Walking on Water, Black American Lives at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century (Alfred A. Knopf, March 1999). Kenan spent eight years gathering information for his book and spoke to people as diverse as an Air Force major whose father was lynched, an ex-gang member, a woman judge in skinhead country, a gay AIDS activist, and many others across the United States. In this book, Kenan covers issues such as what it means to be black, whether or not there is a black community, and how to integrate. In a review on March 14, 1999, The New York Times had this to say of his latest book, Walking on Water, “In talking to individuals seemingly so unrepresentative of the group he wants to understand, Kenan violates every rule of the sociologist. And that may just be the reason his book succeeds so well as a work of insight and compassion."
	Kenan has written two other books: A Visitation of Spirits and Let the Dead Bury Their Dead. Let the Dead was nominated for the Los Angeles Times Book Award for fiction, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and was listed among The New York Times Notable Books of 1992. Ferrum College is a four-year, private, co-educational, liberal arts college affiliated with the United Methodist Church. Ferrum offers a choice of nationally recognized bachelor’s degree programs at a cost well below the national average for private colleges. For more information on Ferrum, visit www.ferrum.edu. # # #
Additional Links: Multicultural Events