Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute has announced the featured author and novel for the 36th annual Laurette LePrevost Writers Symposium. This year’s Symposium will feature author Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle and her debut novel, Even as We Breathe. Clapsaddle’s work holds the distinction of being the first published novel by an enrolled citizen of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.
CCC&TI students enrolled in English classes during the spring semester will be reading and discussing Clapsaddle’s novel, Even As We Breathe. The story is set in Asheville during the summer of 1942 and follows nineteen-year-old Cowney Sequoyah who has recently left home to work at the Grove Park Inn. In Asheville, Cowney deals with issues of cultural and racial identity, potential romance, conflicts with German diplomats and a murder mystery. Even As We Breathe tells an engaging fictional story grounded in the overlooked details of North Carolina and American history.
The following events are planned in conjunction with the Symposium and are free and open to all students and the community:
CCC&TI History Instructor Jasyn Klamborowski will present “History of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Region” on Wednesday, Feb. 26 at 12 noon on the Watauga Campus in Boone in the Student Commons (W460-135).
On Tuesday, March 11, there will be a book discussion on the Caldwell Campus in the Learning Resource Center classroom at 12 noon led by Nancy Risch, Director of Academic Advising and Post-Secondary Partnerships.
On Tuesday, March 18, there will be a book discussion on the Watauga Campus in the Library, (W460) at 12 noon led by English instructor Suzanne Shaut.
On Thursday, March 20 Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle will speak on the Caldwell Campus in Room E-120 at 1 p.m.
CCC&TI will also be offering additional opportunities to students to learn more about the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, western North Carolina history, the American homefront during World War II, and other related topics through their coursework and novel study.
Laurette LePrevost, former Dean of Arts and Sciences for CCC&TI, was instrumental in building the Writers Symposium into an annual event that has brought in such renowned writers as Maya Angelou, Ernest Gaines, Nikki Giovanni, Robert Morgan and Clyde Edgerton. Under her leadership and guidance, CCC&TI’s symposium has become the longest-running consecutively held Writers Symposium in western North Carolina and one of the longest in the Southeast. The Writers Symposium series was renamed in her honor when she retired in 2004.
Support for the Laurette LePrevost Writers Symposium is provided by the Foundation of Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute.
For more information, contact Katie Hoover, CCC&TI Instructor and Coordinator, Oral and Written Communication, at 828-726-2327 or kehoover@cccti.edu.