In keeping with our strong literary arts legacy, Ashley Hall, alma mater of noted authors such as Madeleine L'Engle '37, Josephine Humphreys '63, Margaret Bradham Thornton '77, Nancy Friday '51 and Alexandra Braid Ripley '51, is proud to offer our Writers Series to the greater Charleston community. Novelists, poets and non-fiction writers share insights on the art and practice of writing. Recent guests have included Josephine Humphreys, Brett Lott and Natasha Trethaway.

Friday, February 3

7:00 - 8:30 P.M.
Burges Auditorium

Internationally Renowned Storyteller

Master Talesman, Odds Bodkin, is a storyteller, children's author, musician and educator. His unique performance art - telling stories with hundreds of character voices, amazing vocal effects and live, muse-inspired music - has been mesmerizing audiences since 1982. His original musical accompaniments on 12- string and electric guitar, Celtic harp, African thumb piano and other instruments flavor each tale with a movie-like score creating a cinematic experience for the imagining listener. Twice the subject of Lincoln Center Institute in New York's Window on the Work, he has performed twice at The White House, at the National Storytelling Festival, in Thailand and Great Britain and across America at schools, museums, universities and festivals.

This event is open to the public free of charge. For more information contact Dr. Nick Bozanic at 843-720-2855

TUESDAY NOVEMBER 29 7:30 P.M.
Sottile Thompson Recital Hall

Author of Oil Notes, The Watch, Wild to the Heart, The Ninemile Wolves, Where the Sea Used to Be and Nashville Chrome

'If it's wild to your own heart, protect it. Preserve it. Love it. And fight for it, and dedicate yourself to it.... It doesn't matter if it's wild to anyone else: if it's what makes your heart sing, if it's what makes your days soar like a hawk in the summertime, then focus on it. Because for sure, it's wild, and if it's wild, it'll mean you're still free. No matter where you are.' ~ RICK BASS

Rick Bass is the author of twenty-five books, including short-story collections, novels, and essays. A long-time resident of Montana's remote Yaak Valley, Bass has written extensively about that region and has used his talents to advocate for the preservation of its old-growth forests and the plenitude of species that depend on those forests for their survival. A prolific and outspoken environmental activist, Bass has championed the re-introduction of wolves into Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, and New Mexico, and has spoken in defense of the last remaining grizzly bears in the northwestern states.

Early in his career, Bass worked as petroleum geologist, work he celebrates in his book Oil Notes. But after his move to Montana, Bass' work became increasingly concerned with articulating an approach to environmental activism that would embrace "wildness" as a necessary attribute of our own human consciousness. His tireless commitment to Thoreau's precept that "in wildness is the preservation of the world" has informed all of his writing, including his short stories and novels, in such works as Where the Sea Used to Be and The Sky, the Stars, the Wilderness, and The Hermit's Story.

For more information about this event, contact Dr. Nick Bozanic, Assistant head of School for Academic Affairs at Ashley Hall.