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ANNUAL BIRTHDAY BASH CELEBRATING CARSON MCCULLERS
With The NEA Big Read Praises Writers, Promotes Understanding
By Frank Etheridge
Carson McCullers, the late, great tormented genius of Southern Gothic literature, would be pleased to know her hometown holds a big birthday party in her honor every year.
This year brings even bigger talent to town, as we will be excited to see Georgia native and best-selling An American Marriage author Tayari Jones, travel to town to educate young students and expand adult minds as part of the National Endowment for the Arts Big Read event. This literary combo will inspire meaningful conversations, celebrate local creativity and elevate a wide variety of perspectives.
“Carson enjoyed celebrating her birthday; she loved receiving presents on her birthday,” explains Nick Norwood, poet, professor, and Director of Columbus
State University’s Carson McCullers Center for Writers and Musicians. “So having someone like Tayari Jones headline a festival held around her birthday and in her name would thrill her to death.”
Merging as it does many years the CSU’s annual Carson McCullers Literary Awards, bestowed on the best writers across genres from Alabama and Georgia high schools each February, with the broader scope of NEA Big Read offerings by Chattahoochee Valley Libraries, this year’s Carson Fest holds a variety of exciting programs, free and open to the public, along the theme of “Where We Live” with the ultimate aim of a greater understanding among us of each other achieved by the power of the written word.
Born Lula Carson Smith on February 19, 1917, McCullers was known to be fiercely against racism and for pushing boundaries far ahead of her time. These qualities (which made her a bit of an outcast in Columbus) combined with a mind-blowing literary prowess for savage stories told in brilliant prose help explain the continued love and study of McCullers’ work, This was evident over the last year, which saw publication of a much-praised, widely-read biography, as well as premiere of Wunderkind, one of the first documentary films based on the writer.
“Things that were major themes in Carson’s work –LGBTQ rights, tolerance of different races and of people who are outside the mainstream — are things that are very much important parts of our current cultural conversations,” says Norwood “So she’s as relevant today as she ever was.”
There is no doubt about New York Times best-selling author Tayari Jones’ relevance as a superstar in the literary
world. In addition to her third novel, Silver Sparrow, about growing up in an affluent African-American neighborhood in Atlanta in the 1980s, becoming a NEA BIg Read selection, Jones’ most recent work, An American Marriage, earned critical acclaim and enjoyed huge sales with inclusion in Oprah’s Book Club and Barack Obama’s summer reading list.
“We’ve been wanting to bring Ms. Jones to Columbus for a number of years,” says Henry McCoy, Programming & Media Content Coordinator for Chattahoochee Valley Libraries.
The library’s partnership with the McCullers Center to combine the NEA Big Read with the Carson McCullers
Literary Festival is “one of those partnerships where the whole becomes much greater than the sum of its parts,” McCoy says. “Together we’ve brought some truly great writers like, U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo, Tim O’Brien, the incredibly talented Thi Bui, to town, something that the grant funds from the NEA Big Read allow. This year’s author Tayari Jones is no exception.”
Funding from the NEA Big Read not only provides the library the opportunity to host “writers at the top of their craft,” McCoy says, but also allows the organization “to add an educational component, with school visits to MCSD and CSU classes, where the authors can serve as top-flight inspiration for our next generation of scribes and artists.”
Both McCoy and Norwood are excited about a new twist to the weekend this year, with appearances by five fellows from the McCullers Center, all of whom have produced acclaimed work in the last few years after spending time in Columbus as residents in the program, which is based out of McCullers’ childhood home at 1519 Stark Avenue. The four featured writers – poet Lauren Green, Nigeria-born Samuel Kọ láwọlé, Mississippi author Snowden Wright, and Columbus resident Melissa Pritchard, fresh from the smashing success of her 2024 novel about Florence Nightingale — are featured, along with musician Aimee Bobruk, who will rock the festivities on Friday night.
“This is the first time we’ve had a big group of writing fellows come for the festival so that’s really exciting,” Norwood says. “We’re going to have a panel discussion with all five plus readings, book signings and also a concert. I hope folks come out and take advantage of this opportunity. It’s going to be fun.”
CARSON MCCULLERS LITERARY FESTIVAL
NEA BIG READ EVENTS (Free & Open to Public)
Evans, Agee, and a New Form of Social Documentary
6:30 p.m. Thurs. Feb. 6- Columbus Public Library CSU photography professor Rylan Steele discusses how Walker Evans and James Agee elevated their crafts to create Let Us Now Praise Famous Men.
Time and Place: Tayari Jones, Carson McCullers and the Literature of the American South
6:30 p.m. Tues. Feb. 11 - Columbus Public Library
Nick Norwood and Courtney George discuss Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones and its themes of time and place.
Fri. Feb. 21
4:30 p.m. Samuel Kọ́láwọlé and Melissa Pritchard reading, Riverside Theatre
5:30 p.m. Reception and book signing Riverside Theatre
6:30 p.m. Tayari Jones appearance and book signing, Riverside Theatre
8:30 p.m. Concert by Aimee Bobruk followed by an open mic, Bo Bartlett Center
Sat. Feb. 22
9:30 a.m. Coffee reception, Riverside Theatre
10 a.m. Authors panel Q&A, Riverside Theatre
11 a.m. Lauren Green and Snowden Wright reading, Riverside Theatre
12:30 p.m. Carson McCullers Literary Awards ceremony, Riverside Theatre
Where I Live: Bo Bartlett
6:30 p.m. Tues. Feb. 25
Bo Bartlett Center
Columbus native and artist Bo Bartlett discusses how our city and region influence his paintings.
For more info, call (706) 565-1200, email mccullerscenter@columbusstate.edu, or visit cvlga.org/NEABigRead2025
