All event times eastern

TUESday
March 29th, 5:15-8 PM EDT

Location: The Hunter Museum of American Art

Enjoy beautiful views of the Tennessee River from the lobby of the Hunter Museum during this evening with Karen Russell. Arrive at 5:15pm to experience Baggs McKelvey's new installation, Indigo; the artist will be present to discuss this piece and its connection to themes in Russell's collection. Drift back to the lobby by 6:00pm for Writers@Work's annual interview night. ChattState English Professor Erica Lux will interview Karen Russell about her journey to becoming a writer, her writing process, and what it means to be a Southern author. Join us at the Hunter Museum of American Art to ask questions, get your books signed, and mingle with other readers from the community at our dessert reception. This in-person event is free to the public, and no advance registration is required.

Karen Russell

Karen Russell won the 2012 and the 2018 National Magazine Award for fiction, and her first novel, Swamplandia! (2011), was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, winner of the New York Public Library Young Lions Award, and one of The New York Times’ Ten Best Books of 2011. She has received a MacArthur Fellowship and a Guggenheim award, the Bard Fiction Prize, and a Shirley Jackson Award. She is a former fellow of the NYPL Cullman Center and the American Academy in Berlin. She graduated summa cum laude from Northwestern University and received her MFA from Columbia University’s School of the Arts. Born and raised in Miami, Florida, she now lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband, son, and daughter.

Thank you for your continued support of the ChattState Humanities Department's Writers@Work program.

History of Writers@Work

In 2011, the Chattanooga State Community College Humanities Department founded Writers@Work (W@W) to enhance the practice of literary analysis in its Composition II classes through the reading of a common novel with a focus on Southern culture and people. It quickly transformed into an annual arts experience that touches the lives of countless people in the greater Chattanooga area.

W@W chooses Southern authors whose works center on life in this region, giving participants a new understanding and appreciation for the culture and arts offered in the South, in their own city, and through the community college that serves it. In a media-driven world that shows a limited, and often stereotyped, view of the South, W@W actively works to showcase and celebrate the diversity and rich culture of the Southern people.

Since its beginnings, W@W has expanded to provide more opportunities for public interaction with visiting authors through dynamic events that are always free to attendees. These events take place in various spotlight locations across the city such as the Chattanooga Aquarium, Bessie Smith Cultural Center, and the Hunter Museum of American Art, where the community can interact with the authors in settings that highlight the best of Chattanooga.

Over the last eleven years, W@W has showcased the following authors and their works:

2012 - Terry Kay’s To Dance With the White Dog

2013 - Ishmael Reed’s New and Collected Poems

2014 - Jill McCorkle’s Creatures of Habit

2015 - Rick Bragg’s All Over But the Shoutin’ and Lila Quintero Weaver’s Darkroom: A Memoir in  Black and White

2016 - Ron Rash’s Serena and selected poems from Robert Morgan

2017 - Tayari Jones's Silver Sparrow

2018 - George Singleton’s The Half-Mammals of Dixie

2019 - Tom Franklin and Beth Ann Fennelly’s The Tilted World

2020 - Daniel Wallace’s Big Fish

2021 - Jericho Brown’s The Tradition

2022 - Karen Russell’s Orange World and Other Stories