Emory & Henry Hosts Nationally-Renowned Authors with Roots in Appalachia As Part of The Origin Project’s 10th Anniversary
The event held in Memorial Chapel at Emory & Henry was a pre-event for the Virginia Festival of the Book and was part of the 10th Anniversary celebration for The Origin Project. Area high school students and teachers, Emory & Henry students, and members of the community were treated to a special morning on campus as New York Times best-selling author, Adriana Trigiani, interviewed best-selling author Barbara Kingsolver about her latest book Demon Copperhead.
A native of Eastern Kentucky and a resident of Washington County, Virginia, Barbara Kingsolver is a best-selling author with two books on the list of picks for Oprah’s Book Club. The Origin Project (TOP) is a program to help students, grades 2-12 find their voices through the craft of writing about their family and regional roots. Each year co-founder Adriana Trigiani brings in outstanding authors to talk with students participating in TOP.
In advance, guests were encouraged to read Demon Copperhead (and, if possible, the Dickens classic-David Copperfield) as well as to view the 1935 film version of David Copperfield, which closely mirrors the scene structure of both books and is available at the following link: https://amzn.to/3j5ngPW.
The event with Barbara Kingsolver was a pre-event of the Virginia Festival of the Book (to be held March 23–26). Kalela Williams, Director of the Virginia Center of the Book, was on campus for the event. More information can be found at http://vabook.org/.
About The Origin Project:
The Origin Project, co-founded by author Adriana Trigiani and education advocate Nancy Bolmeier-Fisher, seeks to inspire students to find their voices through the craft of writing about their Appalachian roots. The program began in 2014 with 40 students, and now serves more than 2700 in 27 schools. Each student is provided with a writing journal at the beginning of the school year. As each student works on their writing project about origin, they take field trips to places in the Commonwealth that celebrate history, music, theater and literature. They enjoy visits from guest authors in historic places including the Barter Theatre and Emory & Henry College. Their final writing projects are published at the end of the school year in an anthology and presented in an assembly. Every student receives a copy of the anthology; the books are also made available in every school and public library. The anthology is published by the Gupta Foundation in Virginia. The Origin Project aims to create a life-long love of reading and writing in students in grades 2-12. Organizers of The Origin Project believe “our family stories are the building blocks of our self-esteem and dreams for the future.” Margot Lee Shetterly, Jarrett Krosoczka, Jocelyn Nicole Johnson, and David Baldacci are just a few of the authors who have been featured speakers since the program’s founding.
More here: https://theoriginproject.org/
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