Author Mark Powell Featured in Appalachian Heritage Magazine


Appalachian Heritage Magazine will celebrate its Winter 2012 issue with featured author Mark Powell on Friday, April 13, at the Appalachian Center Gallery in the Bruce Trades Building on Berea College’s campus. The celebration will begin with a reception at 7:30 p.m. followed by a reading at 8 p.m. This event is co-sponsored by the Department of English, Theatre, and Speech Communication.

Mark Powell is the author of “Prodigals” and “Blood Kin,” novels published by the University of Tennessee Press. Distinguished author, Ron Rash, said of our featured author, “I believe that Mark Powell, who is in his thirties, is the best Appalachian novelist of his generation.” Powell has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Breadloaf Writers’ Conference.

Powell is a native of the South Carolina Blue Ridge and holds a bachelor’s degree from The Citadel, a master’s degree in English from the University of South Carolina, and a divinity master’s degree from Yale University. Currently, Powell is on the English faculty at Stetson University in Florida.

The featured photographer for this issue, Larry D. Thacker, who works for Lincoln Memorial University, will also be present.

Appalachian Heritage is a literary quarterly devoted to the literature of Southern Appalachian that features the work of one particular author in each issue but also includes poetry, stories and essays on a variety of subjects relevant to its region. It was founded in 1973 at Alice Lloyd College and has been published by Berea College since 1985.

Categories: News, People
Tags: Appalachian Heritage, Mark Powell

Berea College, the first interracial and coeducational college in the South, focuses on learning, labor and service. The College only admits academically promising students with limited financial resources—primarily from Kentucky and Appalachia—but welcomes students from 41 states and 76 countries. Every Berea student receives a Tuition Promise Scholarship, which means no Berea student pays for tuition. Berea is one of nine federally recognized Work Colleges, so students work 10 hours or more weekly to earn money for books, housing and meals. The College’s motto, “God has made of one blood all peoples of the earth,” speaks to its inclusive Christian character.