September 15, 2009
For Immediate Release

N.C. Novelist Lee Smith Will Teach Writing Workshop at RCCC

             CONCORD, N.C. — Lee Smith, author of 11 novels and three short story collections, will teach a creative writing workshop at Rowan-Cabarrus Community College on Oct. 23.

              The workshop is part of the "One Book One Community - Cabarrus Reads" program sponsored by the Cabarrus County Public Library, with events beginning Oct. 1 and running through Oct. 29.

              Smith will teach the Oct. 23 workshop from 3 to 4:30 p.m. at RCCC's South Campus, in Concord. The college will begin registering participants on Oct. 1. Contact Amelia Likin, RCCC reading instructor, for more information at 704-216-3548 or obocworkshop@rowancabarrus.edu.

              Smith will discuss how to develop colorful characters and guide participants through her "People-ing the Page" technique, while offering other helpful hints. Her novels include "Black Mountain Breakdown," "Oral History," "Family Linen," "Fair and Tender Ladies," "The Devil's Dream," "Saving Grace," "The Christmas Letters," and "The Last Girls." The One Book One Community - Cabarrus Reads program will focus on Smith's most recent novel, "On Agate Hill," published in 2006 (Algonquin Books).
"On Agate Hill" explores North Carolina during the Reconstruction era after the Civil War. Told through several voices with different perspectives, the story follows Molly Petree, self-described "ghost girl," as she finds her way through life while remaining true to herself.

              A resident of Hillsborough and Jefferson, N.C., Smith is a retired professor of English at North Carolina State University. She was born in 1944 in Grundy, Va., a small coal mining town in southwest Virginia, near the Kentucky border. By the age of nine, Smith was already writing stories - which she sold for a nickel a piece - about her neighbors and hometown in the Appalachian Mountains.
After spending her last two years of high school at St. Catherine's School in Richmond, Va., Smith enrolled at Hollins College in Roanoke, Va. She and fellow student Annie Dillard, later an essayist and novelist, became go-go dancers for an all-girl rock band, the Virginia Woolfs. In 1966, during her senior year at Hollins, Smith submitted an early draft of a coming-of-age novel to a Book-of-the-Month Club contest and was awarded one of 12 fellowships. Two years later, that novel, "The Last Day the DogbushesBloomed," (Harper & Row, 1968), became Smith's first published work of fiction.

              In 1999, Smith received an Academy Award in Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She has received numerous other distinguished writing awards. Her novel, "The Last Girls," (Algonquin Books, 2002) was a New York Times bestseller and a winner of the Southern Book Critics Circle Award.

              In addition to her creative writing workshop, Smith will attend a Concord reception and sign copies of her books at a meet-the-author event on Oct. 24.

              For a full listing of One Book One Community program events, go to any branch of the Cabarrus County Public Library, or see the library's website at www.cabarruscounty.us/library.

              RCCC offers several writing and literature courses through its English department. RCCC students who need help with their writing can take advantage of the college's Writing Center and its tutoring services.

               RCCC is a comprehensive, community-based institution of higher learning, serving the citizens of Rowan and Cabarrus counties in North Carolina. RCCC is one of 58 colleges in the state-supported North Carolina Community College System.

                RCCC offers fully-accredited associate-degree programs in more than 40 areas of study, including arts and sciences, business, information technology, health and public services, and engineering technologies. RCCC also offers accredited diploma and certificate programs focused on career training, continuing education and basic skills education. RCCC provides a strong foundation and transferable credits for students moving on to four-year colleges and universities and helps adults get the additional training they need to start new careers.

               RCCC annually provides more than 2,000 course offerings, serving an overall enrollment of approximately 20,000 students. In addition, RCCC provides the education and job-training programs needed to meet many of the workforce demands of the North Carolina Research Campus being developed in Kannapolis. For complete details, see the RCCC website at www.rowancabarrus.edu.