NEW PHILADELPHIA – Chillicothe native Donald Ray Pollock will be visiting the New Philadelphia location of the Tuscarawas County Public Library System on Thursday, November 17th at 7PM to mark the fourth and final installment of the library’s 2011 Visiting Author Series.

Pollock was born in 1954 and grew up in a southern Ohio holler called Knockemstiff. A high school dropout at seventeen, he spent 32 years employed at the Mead Paper Mill in Chillicothe before deciding to pursue a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Ohio State University at age 50. 

 “I never really dreamed I’d get out of the mill when I started,” he told the Los Angeles Times in 2008. “I told my wife, ‘I’m gonna give this thing five years and try my hardest and see what happens. And then I thought, well, if I gave it five good years and nothing did happen, I can still say, when I’m laying in the nursing home or whatever, at least I gave it a shot.’” 

But something did happen.

 In 2008, one year before graduating from the MFA program, he made his literary debut with the critically acclaimed short-story collection, Knockemstiff, comprised of gritty tales set in the small Ohio town Pollock once called home. The book, which caught the attention of critics everywhere, won him the 2009/Robert Bingham Fellowship and firmly substantiated his mid-life career change. In July of this year, he released his first novel, The Devil All the Time, which has drawn comparisons to literary greats like John Steinbeck and Flannery O’Connor. The Wall Street Journal has called him “the next important voice in American fiction,” and Chuck Palahniuk has hailed his work “more engaging than any new fiction in years.”

Pollock will be available to sign copies of Knockemstiff and The Devil All the Time,

which will be available for purchase, after the program concludes.

                            ADMISSION TO THE PROGRAM IS FREE                                              To register to attend the program, please contact the reference desk at the New Philadelphia location of the Tuscarawas County Public Library at 330-364-4474 ext. 101.

 

Take care,

Teri

Tuscarawas County Literacy Coalition

P.O. Box 1173

New Philadelphia, Ohio 44663

Phone: 330-364-4474

www.tuscarawascountyliteracycoalition.org

 

November 2010

 

On behalf of the Tuscarawas County Literacy Coalition Board of Directors, I would like to invite you to our annual meeting to be held Wednesday, November 17th at 3:30 p.m. at the Tuscarawas County Public Library (lower level conference room). RSVP your attendance to me at 740-254-9224 or by email taylorer@oplin.org by November 16th. The meeting will conclude by 4:30 and you are welcome to attend the regularly scheduled Board of Directors meeting from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. In the event you cannot join us, please give your approval of the slate of officers to my attention at the phone number or email listed above. The agenda is as follows:

Financial review

Directors & Officers 2011 election

President: Tracy Stevens

Vice President & Membership chair: Erin Taylor

Secretary: Jim Gill

Treasurer & Finance chair: Dee Grossman

Immediate Past President: Rosemary Russell

PR committee: Shelly Cozart

Program committee: Linda Hren

Fundraising committee: JoEllen Sanders

Committee Priorities for 2011

One Book, One Community: Linda Hren

Presidents Report: Tracy Stevens

Old Business

New Business

Adjourn

 

The Coalition has been able to provide financial as well as personal support for a variety of area literacy activities, including the "One Book, One Community" program, New Philadelphia South Elementary School Family Literacy night, Tuscarawas County Public Library's Dia de los Ninos celebration, and the Even Start Family Reading Festival. We hope you will continue to support the initiatives put forth the Literacy Coalition. We look forward to an exciting year of service with our literacy partners.

 

Respectfully,

 

Erin Taylor, VP & Membership Chair