Happy New Year!

From The Member of the Wedding: 

Now hopping-john was F. Jasmine's very favorite food. She had always warned them to wave a plate of rice and peas before her nose when she was in her coffin, to make certain there was no mistake; for if a breath of life was left in her, she would sit up and eat, but if she smelled the hopping-john and did not stir, then they could just nail down the coffin and be certain she was truly dead.

January 24 to be "Carson McCullers Day" on TCM

Turner Classic Movies television network has declared January 24 "Carson McCullers Day," and the four major film adaptations are scheduled to air that day. For a complete schedule, go here.  Thanks, Ted!  :-)

McCullers Portrait Available for Purchase

This portrait of Carson McCullers was recently on exhibit at the Garrison Art Center in Garrison, New York. The portrait, by Richard Merkin, is available for purchase.  For more information, contact Calinda Swann, Executive Director, Garrison Art Center, Garrison, NY.  Her e-mail is director@garrisonartcenter.org

Carson McCullers 2005 by Richard Merkin

Image from the Garrison Art Center webpage.

McCullers Referenced in Article about Wikileaks

Carson McCullers is referenced in an article about Wikileaks. Read it here.

Here's the exact reference:

"Jake in The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers put it more succinctly: 'But the main thing he sees is that the whole system of the world is built on a lie.'"

Just thought you'd wanna know!

Cheers from the banks of the Chattahoochee on this chilly December morning,

Cathy

Suzanne Vega Performance in February

Go here to read about the production that Suzanne Vega will preview here in Columbus at our Carson McCullers Conference in mid-February.

NEXT EVENT -- JESSICA GARRATT READING

Jessica Garratt, the 2010 Marguerite and Lamar Smith Writing Fellow, will read from her work -- Wednesday, December 1, 7:00 PM, the Auditorium at the Columbus Public Library, 3000 Wynnton Road, Columbus, Georgia.  Everybody is cordially invited!

Brian Turner Events on This Friday

You'll not want to miss the Brian Turner events scheduled for this Friday, November 12. The first event will be at the McCullers House on Stark Avenue, at 4:00 PM. The evening event is scheduled for 7:30 at the Theatre on the Park, CSU's RiverPark Campus. These events, made possible through the McCullers Center's membership in the Georgia Poetry Circuit, are free and open to the public.

Thank you, Dr. Schwabe

Many thanks to Dr. Jonathan Clarke Schwabe for his very fine presentation, last evening, on the chamber opera he has composed -- "The Sojourner," inspired by Carson McCullers' short story of the same title.  Dr. Schwabe was kind enough to leave us a bound copy of the score, as well as a CD of a performance of the piece.  Both, in addition to a recording of Dr. Schwabe's presentation, are available for viewing and listening at the McCullers House.

"Sucker" Now Online

Carson McCullers' short story "Sucker," one of the first she wrote and one of the last published, is now available for reading online, at the Saturday Evening Post site.

Illustration by Elaine Morfogen

New Portrait of McCullers on Exhibit in New York

The artist Bo Bartlett, who's a native of Columbus, has painted a brand new portrait of Carson. The piece is included in "Paintings of Home," a collection of Bo's recent work on exhibit right now at PPOW Gallery in New York City.

Maybe I should keep my personal opinions outta here -- but I've just gotta say that I LOVE the painting. Use the PPOW link above and see what you think.

Midtown FUN!

The Carson McCullers Center was very happy to have served as a stop on yesterday's Midtown Bike-a-Round. Here are a couple of photos, snagged from them.

Thanks for including us, Midtown. We love collaboratin' with y'all!

TWO BIG EVENTS IN NOVEMBER!

November 9, 2010 -- Dr. Jonathan Clarke Schwabe, Professor of Music Theory and Composition at the University of Northern Iowa, will give a talk about his composition, a chamber opera, based on the Carson McCullers short story "The Sojourner."  This event, co-sponsored by the McCullers Center and the Schwob School of Music, will be held in the Orchestra Room, Rm. #1716, in the Schwob School of Music at the RiverCenter for the Performing Arts.  The program will begin at 7:00. This event is free, and the public is cordially invited.

November 12, 2010 -- Soldier-poet Brian Turner will give a public reading of his work, at 7:30 in the evening, in the Studio Theatre at CSU's RiverPark Campus in downtown Columbus. This Georgia Poetry Circuit event is free, and the public is cordially invited.

Welcome, Chattahoochee Writers Conference!

I very much enjoyed hosting participants in the Chattahoochee Writers Conference on Saturday night. In fact, I enjoyed myself so much that I forgot to take photos!  Not to worry, though, because one of the participants took a photo or two and wrote about the event:
http://wynne-huddleston.blogspot.com/2010/09/2010-chattahoochee-valley-writers.html

News from McCullersland

Variety magazine announces news of McCullers biopic:

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118024507.html?categoryId=2431&cs=1

Conference registration page up!

We realize that February seems like a long time away, but it'll be here before you know it. And you know you don't want to miss the Carson McCullers conference. Check it out at
http://conted.colstate.edu//CarsonMcCullersConference_.php

Welcome, Jessica Garratt!

The Carson McCullers Center extends the warmest of welcomes to Jessica Garratt, our 2010 Marguerite and Lamar Smith Writing Fellow. Having arrived yesterday, Jessica will spend the next three months in residence at the McCullers House.  Jessica's first book, Fire Pond, won the 2008 Agha Shahid Ali Prize in Poetry, selected by poet Medbh McGuckian, and was published by the University of Utah Press in April 2009. Currently Jessica is a doctoral candidate at the University of Missouri where she holds a creative writing fellowship. She also received fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and from the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas in Austin, where she earned her MFA.

Welcome, Mrs. Bush.

The Carson McCullers Center was honored to have as our guest today former First Lady Laura Bush, who is in town to deliver a presentation at a leadership conference.

"... the last Friday of August ..."

The first page of The Member of the Wedding:

It happened that green and crazy summer when Frankie was twelve years old. This was the summer when for a long time she had not been a member. She belonged to no club and was a member of nothing in the world. Frankie had become an unjoined person who hung around in doorways, and she was afraid. In June the trees were bright dizzy green, but later the leaves darkened, and the town turned black and shrunken under the glare of the sun. At first Frankie walked around doing one thing and another. The sidewalks of the town were gray in the early morning and at night, but the noon sun put a glaze on them, so that the cement burned and glittered like glass. The sidewalks finally became too hot for Frankie’s feet, and also she got herself in trouble. She was in so much secret trouble that she thought it was better to stay at home – and at home there was only Berenice Sadie Brown and John Henry West. The three of them sat at the kitchen table, saying the same things over and over, so that by August the words began to rhyme with each other and sound strange. The world seemed to die each afternoon and nothing moved any longer. At last the summer was like a green sick dream, or like a silent crazy jungle under glass. And then, on the last Friday of August, all this was changed: it was so sudden that Frankie puzzled the whole blank afternoon, and still she did not understand.

Southern Literary Trailfest 2011

The Southern Literary Trail has announced that it will begin its Trailfest 2011 on February 17 with guess what event? Yes! You guessed it -- The Carson McCullers Center's very own McCullers conference: "Carson McCullers: An Interdisciplinary Conference and 94th Birthday Celebration." For more on the Southern Literary Trail, including LOTS of other events scheduled for Trailfest, go to www.southernliterarytrail.org

The Carson McCullers Center is proud to be a part of the Southern Literary Trail, and we are especially happy to sponsor the inaugural event of Trailfest 2011.

In Nyack

Here we are in the front door of Carson's home in Nyack, New York.

Brooklyn Trip

Here we stand in the very spot where once stood the famous #7 Middagh Street House, also known as "February House." For a while in 1940, the house was occupied by Carson McCullers and a whole slew of other creative folks, including W.H. Auden, George Davis, Richard Wright, Benjamin Britten, Peter Pears, and Gypsy Rose Lee.

Pictured left to right are: Cathy Fussell, Leslie Lanning, Amanda Todd, Ty Deane, Rachel Thornell, Sammy Eugenio, Kim Crowell, Chris Beyer, Sarah Hulbert, Leslie Pinckard, Aaron Sanders (peeping around), Rebecca Holman, Orion Wertz, and, on the far right, two New York artists who joined us for the visit to the Middagh Street site -- Wendy and Alvin Eng. Alvin is a playwright who has been inspired by McCullers' work.

After we visited the Middagh Street site and the beautiful Brooklyn Heights neighborhood where so many, many writers have lived, we ventured over into DUMBO for a visit with Phenix Citizen-turned-New-York-artist MIKE HOWARD, pictured below outside his studio, talking with CSU students Leslie Lanning, Amanda Todd, Leslie Pinckard and Sammy Eugenio.

... joined by Rachel Thornell.

Thanks, Mike, for a great tour!

CSU Students and Faculty at Bowery Poetry Club

On Wednesday evening, May 26, several CSU students and faculty members read at The Bowery Poetry Club in New York City. Here are some photos:

Chris Beyer

Kim Crowell


Aaron Sanders
Sabrina is a former student who moved to New York a few months ago. She heard that we were reading and asked to join us. Of course, we were happy to have her with us. Other readers were Rebecca Holman, Scott Wilkerson, and Amanda Todd. I'm afraid that my photos of them were failed -- but you know the light in the room was too tricky for my limited photography skills.

Watching our students read on a stage in New York was indeed a proud moment for me, and I sincerely thank my colleague Aaron Sanders for arranging this terrific opportunity.

Live from New York,
-- Cathy

More New York

This is a photo I took this morning of 321 West 11th Street, in Greenwich Village, Carson and Reeves' first apartment in New York. They moved into this building in 1940, immediately following the success of the publication of The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter.

Here's a photo of the CSU group, all dressed up for an opening at Heidi Cho Gallery in Chelsea, on Thursday night. Thanks to Mike Howard for the invite.

That black-and-white was entirely an accident, but I like it so much that I kept it. I thought the group looked smashin' in color, too, so ...

CSU in New York

Inspired by Carson's own youthful defection from Columbus to New York, back in the mid-1930s, ten Columbus State University students and three faculty members left ye olde Richards Hall parking lot last Saturday afternoon, bound for the Big Apple where we'll spend three weeks immersing ourselves in all that is New York. Here's a photo of a few members of the group, in front of the Museum of the American Indian, which is housed in the old U.S. Customs House, an incredible space in and of itself:
Carson herself traveled by train from Columbus to Savannah, where she boarded a ship (as in BOAT) that took her to New York. We didn't quite re-enact that jaunt, but we did ride the CSU Cougar bus to Atlanta where we took an eight-hour AMTRAK ride to New York's Penn Station, and then cabs to our dorms at NYU.

Stay tuned for more photos and reports.

Yet Another Celebrity McCullers Fan ...

The young British actor Robert Pattinson (Twilight and Harry Potter) recently announced on Oprah that Carson McCullers is his favorite writer, and that McCullers is "the greatest American writer." He cited The Ballad of the Sad Cafe as his favorite book, and he brought onto the set a vintage copy.

Here's a clip.

A Carson Feast

On May 3, the last day of this semester's classes at CSU, I and the members of my McCullers course celebrated the end of the semester with a covered dish supper featuring foods referenced in the works of McCullers. The menu included baked ham, sweet potato souffle, black-eyed peas, Country Captain (not named by McCullers, but thoroughly described -- twice in her works), two different cakes (one of which, most appropriately, was baked on Monday and failed*), macaroni and cheese, homemade cookies, fried chicken, baked cornbread, lots of other wonderful dishes, and, the contribution that turned out to be the piece-de-resistance of the entire supper, Jonathan Lapp's ASPARAGUS -- a dish which converted even those who had previously thought themselves averse to the aforenamed spears. (One consumer noted, "It didn't hurt that they were pan-fried in about two pounds of butter.") Here's a photo of Jonathan, in the kitchen at 1519 Stark, Carson's mama's kitchen, workin' his magic:
I tried to take more photos, but my photo-takin' abilities failed even more miserably than the cake did.

Students also turned in their academic McCullers projects, which included:
* interviews with local folks who knew Carson;
* transcription and analysis of the very important (and very long) Carson McCullers/Tennessee Williams session at the 92nd Street Y in New York, in 1954;
* in-depth analysis of vintage film footage of McCullers;
* primary research of a 1950 television show which featured McCullers;
* an academic paper on the subject of "Carson McCullers and Black Mammy Stereotypes";
* a paper on "References to Visual Art in the Work of Carson McCullers";
* a podcast introduction to Carson McCullers; and
* a podcast driving tour of "Carson McCullers' Columbus" (derived from the brochure produced in 2002 by Historic Columbus Foundation).

These projects, along with some from previous years, are available for perusal at the Smith-McCullers House.

Thank y'all, students o' mine, for a wonderful semester of McCullers immersion.

-- Ms. Fussell

* from The Member of the Wedding: "The afternoon was like the center of the cake that Berenice had baked last Monday, a cake which failed. The old Frankie had been glad the cake had failed, not out of spite, but because she loved these fallen cakes best. She enjoyed the damp, gooey richness near the center, and did not understand why grown people thought such cakes a failure. It was a loaf cake, that last Monday, with the edges risen light and high and the middle moist and altogether fallen -- after the bright, high morning the afternoon was dense and solid as the center of that cake."

Spring Visitors

The Smith-McCullers House has been privileged to have hosted a number of groups during late April and early May. Pictured here are members of the Columbus Men's Garden Club, who visited on April 20:


I really had a terrific time talking with these very learned gentlemen about all things Carson, all things Columbus, and, well, other subjects, too! Please come back soon, Columbus Men's Garden Club. You're welcome any time. Special thanks to Mr. Joe Posey and Dr. Jack Lawler for arranging the event.

A few days after the men's visit, the ladies showed up! :-) On April 27 the Adelphia Study Club met at the Smith-McCullers House. I'm afraid that I failed to take a photo! And that's a cryin' shame, 'cause the ladies looked so nice! We had ourselves a good conversation or two, you can be sure. Truly, Adelphia, thanks much for your support; we would love to have you back any time. Special thanks to Mrs. Fran Merritt and Mrs. Frances McCluskey for organizing the event.

-- Cathy

Wisteria and Waterfalls

Thanks much to Carson McCullers fan Erik Powell who, having seen my photos of the wisteria, pointed out to me the line about wisteria in McCullers' short story "The Haunted Boy":

"The afternoon was golden and the wisteria vine on the porch was in full, unshattered bloom. The wisteria was like lavender waterfalls. The fresh breeze smelled of sun-warmed flowers. The sunlit sky was blue and cloudless. It was the first warm day of spring."

Thanks, Erik.

On location with TREE ROCK CLOUD in Brooklyn!

Our great friend Lauren Rosen is at it again! This time she's directing a film adaptation of Carson McCullers' short story "A Tree. A Rock. A Cloud." Garreth Sanders, son of Holly and Aaron Sanders of Columbus, plays the role of the boy. Here's a photo of Garreth and Lauren, on set ...





A boy's gotta eat!


Location is Sunny's Bar in Brooklyn, NY.

For even more photos, go to "CSU's Carson McCullers Center" on FACEBOOK.
Break a leg or two, Lauren, Garreth, and the whole rest of the cast and crew!

Visitor from Korea

Today the McCullers Center was honored to receive a guest all the way from Korea! And we were equally as honored to receive the relatives who accompanied her -- all the way from Nashville, Tennessee.

Micha Han (far right in the photo), from Korea, is a big fan of McCullers, citing The Ballad of the Sad Cafe as her favorite book. She reported, too, that she read Ballad in school, and that the book is very popular in Korea.

When Micha's sister, Kyong Robinson (center), of Nashville, learned that Micha was coming to the States for a visit, she offered to take Micha anywhere in the U.S. she wanted to go. Micha opted for Oxford, Mississippi, to see William Faulkner's home, and Columbus, Georgia, to see Carson McCullers' home. Micha's niece (and Kyong's daughter), Sandra Robinson (left) of Nashville, arranged for the trip.

Publication Party

On Friday, April 2, the Smith-McCullers front parlor was the scene for a lovely party to celebrate the recent publication of three books by CSU English Department faculty members. Honorees were Carmen Skaggs (Overtones of Opera in American Literature from Whitman to Wharton, LSU Press), Joseph McCallus (The MacArthur highway and Other Relics of American Empire in the Philippines, Potomac Books), and Scott Wilkerson (Ars Minotaurica, New Plains Press).

The cake was so quickly devoured that I wasn't able to get a photo of it, but it looked something like this:

Okay -- I admit it. I got so caught up in the festivities that I forgot to take photos on the day of the event.

-- Cathy

Springtime!

The backyard at the Smith-McCullers House on Stark Avenue in Columbus is right now outdoin' itself by sportin' two iconic examples of Southern flora -- wisteria and magnolia --

The wisteria has crawled over onto other shrubs, too ...


And I love this little patch of neon green moss near the kitchen door ...

Dorianne Laux to read on Wednesday, March 31.

The award-winning poet Dorianne Laux will visit the McCullers Center on Wednesday, Marc h 31, as a part of the Georgia Poetry Circuit. At 4:00 in the afternoon, at the McCullers House, Ms. Laux will lead an informal discussion. Then, at 7:30 in the evening, at International House on main campus, Ms. Laux will give a formal reading. Everybody is cordially invited to both these free events, which are sponsored in part by a grant from the Grassroots Arts Project, Georgia Council for the Arts. CSU's Capital Campaign also kicks in in a major way, as with all McCullers Center projects. (Thank you, CSU Capital Campaign!)

Happy Birthday, 10!

The Carson McCullers Center today recognizes the birthday of Carson's good buddy Tennessee Williams, who was born on this date in 1911, in "that other" Columbus -- You know, the one in Mississippi. It was Tennessee who suggested to Carson that she write the stage version of The Member of the Wedding. The two were friends from the time they met in 1946 until Carson died in 1967.

I thoroughly enjoyed ...

... teaching "Carson McCullers" to eighth graders at Veterans Memorial Middle School in Columbus -- all day long today. Having read "Correspondence" and "Sucker," this terrific group of young Columbusites produced TONS of thoughtful questions and comments about both Carson and her work. Thanks, students at VMMS, for a great day -- and special thanks to student teacher Holly Bishop for giving me this opportunity.

-- Cathy (aka "Ms. Fussell")

Photos from last night's reading ...

Featured readers at last night's Faculty-Student Reading Series event were Dr. Joseph Francavilla ...

and Wyolene Solomon ...Thanks, Joe and Wyolene, for very nice readings. And thanks to everyone who came out for the event.

Welcome, Henry Real Bird!

The Japanese magnolia in the front yard bloomed just in time for the arrival of Montana's poet laureate, Henry Real Bird, who will give a reading tomorrow night, Thursday, March 18, 6:30 PM at the Columbus Public Library. The reading will be followed by a reception at the McCullers House. Everybody is cordially invited to this free event.

Events of the past few days ...

On Monday night the "Three B's Book Club" met at the McCullers House and enjoyed an evening of lively discussion and refreshments. The members had read Clock Without Hands and had lots to say about the similarities between fictional "Milan" and our real town of Columbus. They had lots to say about other subjects, too. ;-)

Thanks to Laura Walker for arranging the visit.
Wednesday afternoon's event was a reading and discussion by poet Heather Cousins, from Athens. I got so busy listening to Heather that I forgot to take the photo I'd intended to take there in the McCullers House, with folks in attendance and all that -- so I took a photo when we went out to supper afterwards. Here's Heather, on the left, with her good friend and my colleague at CSU, Angela Greene, at the front door of Deorio's.

Thanks, Heather, for a fine reading -- and to Angela, for hookin' us up with Heather.
Thanks to everybody who attended, too, and to my colleague Nick Norwood for coordinating the visit.

-- Cathy

Recent Gifts

I've fallen in love with this little cup which Thornton Jordan recently brought in. It's from a restaurant that used to be in downtown Columbus, one that some folks thought might be part of Carson's inspiration for the New York Cafe in The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter. When I look at this cup I can't help but picture Mr. Singer's sipping coffee from it.

***

Richard Tucker and Wyolene Solomon are at it again! Those two, who have contributed more than 400 volumes to the reading library at the McCullers House, and for whom the reading library is now named, showed up last week with a whole trove of "new" materials, including these ORIGINAL posters:


Click on the photo to enlarge it and you can see the phrase "leave the children at home" right to the left of Marlon Brando's face. There's also the applied "RESTRICTED to persons 18 years of age or over" sticker right below that. I do hereby confess that, coincidentally, I myself had JUST turned 18 when the movie was released, and I remember sneaking off from home to catch my first glimpse of "adult literature" on the screen. Fun!

My McCullers class at CSU has just finished reading REFLECTIONS, and seeing the film, so we particularly enjoyed the poster.

This poster for The Member of the Wedding proves that the phrase "sex sells" ain't nothin' new. Would you EVER have designed that poster for MEMBER?

Sincere thanks to Thornton, and to Richard, and to Wyolene -- for these very important additions to the Carson McCullers collection.

-- Cathy

A New Portrait of Carson

Copyright Sharon Watts.

Several days ago this new image of Carson popped up on the internet, and I liked it, so I tracked down its source and learned that the artist is Sharon Watts, who gave me permission to post it here. Thought y'all might enjoy seeing it, too.

HAPPY 93rd BIRTHDAY, CARSON!

From sister Rita Smith's introduction to The Mortgaged Heart --

[Carson] loved any occasion, any kind of to-do, such as a party or Christmas, and she loved to plan for them. She was planning a party when she died. Other women might dread birthdays, but they were big events in her life. With her hair freshly washed, she would put on one of her best robes and wait for the telegrams, flowers, and -- most important -- the presents. In the South, if one had no intention of giving a birthday present or a Christmas present, a card was sent. Carson hated cards because it meant that the sender was not going to give her a present.