Reinhardt University is taking over the literary journal, "The James Dickey Review," and is planning free literary events that are open to the public.
The free public readings and panel discussions begin this month with novelist and essayist Raymond Atkins and poet Jim May. Both will read from their new books and sign copies March 16 at 2 p.m. at Reinhardt's Hill Freeman Library and Spruill Learning Center.
A panel of writers will be formed for a March 23 event at Reinhardt's Funk Heritage Center. The Panel of Georgia Writers will be held at 7 p.m. Christopher Martin, Bill Walsh, Lynn Pedersen and Jeff Clemmons will share and discuss the poems and stories that Georgia life has inspired for them.
Clemmons, a Reinhardt alumnus, published "Rich's: A Southern Institution," a popular history of Rich's
Department Store. Now he is working on a book about Westview Cemetery in Atlanta.
These readings are a part of a series of public events scheduled for the launch of Reinhardt's new Master of Fine Arts in creative writing that is enrolling now for fall 2016, pending SACS-COC accreditation. The writers' panel event is co-sponsored with Reinhardt by the Allatoona Arts Center and Allatoona Book Festival.
Reinhardt took over the literary journal from Lynchburg College in Virginia, which had published it for several years. Dickey's family hailed from Cherry Log, Georgia, and his famous novel, "Deliverance," was based on the flooding of the Coosawattee River to make Carter's Lake.
