Southern Literary Festival Speakers Enthrall; Organizers Recognized

What a weekend! Columbus State University had the distinct pleasure of hosting the extraordinary 2013 Southern Literary Festival and bringing to the campus and community such luminaries as Natasha Tretheway, the nation's poet laureate.

Also speaking at the festival were fiction writer Kevin Wilson, poet Daniel Albergotti, nonfiction writer Madge McKeithen and Tim O'Brien, author of The Things They Carried, our First Year Experience common reading for 2012-2013.

My sincere thanks go to CSU professors Nick Norwood, Aaron Sanders and Terry Irvin, as well as the Department of English, for their exceptional work in orchestrating this important event. I had the pleasure of hearing O'Brien twice, once on campus and again at the Springer Opera House. His talks were powerful and moving.