Since 2001, the Humanities Council has presented its annual Little Lecture Series at the historic MacFarland-Hubbard House in Charleston. More than 60 Little Lectures by outstanding scholars and speakers on a variety of topics have been presented to audiences at the Council’s headquarters. The Little Lectures for 2016 will continue that long tradition.
The 2016 series starts on Sunday, Mar. 6, at 2 p.m. with the presentation “A Place Called Solid: West Virginia Re-Imagined in the Novel” by West Virginia author Glenn Taylor. Taylor was born and raised in Huntington and is the author of the novels A Hanging at Cinder Bottom, The Marrowbone Marble Company, and The Ballad of Trenchmouth Taggart, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. His books will be available for purchase from Taylor Books at the Little Lecture. Taylor’s work has appeared in The Guardian and GQ magazines, and on Electric Literature. He recently presented at the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville and will appear later in March at the Virginia Festival of the Book in Charlottesville, VA. He lives with his wife and three sons in Morgantown where he is on the English faculty at West Virginia University.
Taylor believes that West Virginia and its people are often misinterpreted, misrepresented, or simplified into a homogenous group by national media. “Such a phenomenon need not be the case if our unique history is given its due treatment,” says Taylor. He will examine the notion that perhaps the best chance of a more complex public understanding of a place and its people might be realized through writing found in novels combined with such works as the recent PBS film “The Mine Wars.”
Admission to the lecture is $10 and includes a reception after the program. Seating is limited and people interested in attending should confirm that seats are available by calling 304-346-8500 no later than noon on Thursday, Mar. 3.
The remaining 2016 Little Lectures are:
• Apr. 10 – Reporting the Blankenship Trial by Ken Ward
• May 15 – The Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, Kentucky by Jill Malusky
• June 12 – Folklore and Folklorists by Judy Byers
All Little Lectures are presented on Sunday afternoons at 2 p.m. in the MacFarland-Hubbard House, located at 1310 Kanawha Boulevard, East, in Charleston. For more information call the West Virginia Humanities Council at 304-346-8500, visit www.wvhumanities.org, or contact program officer Mark Payne at payne@wvhumanities.org.
