Johnson Awarded Alabama Humanities Alliance Grant
Apr. 19, 2023
Michelle R. Eubanks , UNA, at meubanks@una.edu, 256.765.4392
FLORENCE, AL – Dr. Lorie Johnson, Special Assistant to the Senior Vice Provost for Academic Affairs at the University of North Alabama, has been awarded a grant from the Alabama Humanities Alliance to have Our Story: An Alabama Writer’s Symposium, which will be April 21 from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. at the Helen Keller Public Library in Tuscumbia.
New York Times best-selling author Patti Callahan Henry and North Carolina Poet Laureate Joseph Bathanti will provide the keynote. UNA faculty in the Department of English, Jason McCall and Dr. Katie Owens-Murphy, will join Dr. Johnson in presenting concurrent sessions.
“We are thrilled to have this opportunity to bring Patti Callahan Henry and Joseph Bathanti to the Shoals,” said Johnson, who serves as State Coordinator for the International Literacy Association. “We are so grateful to the Alabama Humanities Alliance for its support of this project. We look forward to exploring themes and contexts of various works and examining the intersection between the historical context and the narrative. As part of this symposium, we will hopefully find our own voices and add our perspectives to our collective story.”
The symposium will focus on poetry, personal narratives, and historical fiction and will include and Art Walk through the Tennessee Valley Museum of Art as well as a writing walk through downtown Tuscumbia.
“Writing is such a powerful way to process and to share our story,” Johnson said. “We will explore the writings of others and then share our own voice, our own lived experiences. I’m so excited about the opportunity to join with my colleagues in offering a space in which to share, examine, think critically, and to offer our own voices.”
The Alabama Humanities Alliances partnered with the Alabama Literacy Association to host the event. It is free and open to the public. More details may be found at this link.
About The University of North Alabama
The University of North Alabama is an accredited, comprehensive regional state university offering undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral degree programs through the colleges of Arts, Sciences, and Engineering; the Sanders College of Business and Technology; Education and Human Sciences; and the Anderson College of Nursing and Health Professions. Occupying a 130-acre campus in a residential section of Florence, Alabama, UNA is located within a four-city area that also includes Muscle Shoals, Sheffield, and Tuscumbia. UNA Athletics, a renowned collegiate athletics program with seven (7) Division II National Championships, is now a proud member of NCAA Division I as part of the Atlantic Sun and United Athletic conferences. The University of North Alabama is an equal opportunity institution and does not discriminate in the admission policy on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, disability, age, or national origin. For more: una.edu and una.edu/unaworks/.