Morgantown Poets features Dwight Harshbarger Aug. 20
18/08/09 Filed in: Announcements
Morgantown resident Dwight Harshbarger to be featured author Aug. 20 at MAC
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. Author Dwight Harshbarger will be the featured speaker during Morgantown Poets 7 p.m. literary event Thursday, Aug. 20, at Monongalia Arts Center (MAC).
Harshbarger is perhaps best known for his work in psychology, including a seven-year tenure as the executive director of the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies.
His first fiction work, In the Heart in the Hills: A Novel in Stories, earned positive reviews.
Harshbargers most recent novel, Witness at Hawks Nest, historical fiction, describes the human tragedy that unfolded in the digging of the giant Hawks Nest tunnel in southern West Virginia during the 1930s; Americas largest, and perhaps least known, industrial tragedy.
Harshbarger is a native of Milton, a small town in Cabell County. He attended West Virginia University, earning both a bachelors and a masters degree. He continued his education at both the University of California-Berkley and the University of North Dakota, where he completed a doctorate.
He then spent time at Harvard University in post-graduate study before returning to West Virginia to join the faculty of West Virginia University, eventually becoming a tenured professor of psychology. He later served as a corporate consultant then as an executive at Sealy, Inc., and Reebok International.
Harshbarger is an elected Fellow of the American Psychological Association and the American Psychological Society. In 2006, he was honored by the Department of Psychology at the University of North Dakota with their Outstanding Alumni Award.
In 2007, Harshbarger came to the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences at WVU as a Distinguished Visitor to give a reading from In the Heart of the Hills. Harshbarger is among the West Virginia authors honored by the Annie Merner Pfeiffer Library at West Virginia Wesleyan College.
Following the public reading, Morgantown Poets co-organizer Tamara Woods will be conducting a raffle of books generously donated by West Virginia authors to help support the Morgantown Poets non-profit monthly literary arts event at the MAC. Raffle tickets will be $2 each. The following books will be raffled: Lake Effect by Laura Bentley, Bertha Butchers Coat by Mary Lucille DeBerry, After West by James Harms, Witness at Hawks Nest by Dwight Harshbarger, Jester-Knight by Joey Madia, Going by Kevin Oderman, Lately by Sara Pritchard, Captivity Narrative by Mary Ann Samyn, and Fathers Troubles by Carter Seaton.
The reading is free and open to anyone interested in the arts. The MAC is at 107 High St., Morgantown. The event will be in Studio II upstairs.
Public parking is available near the MAC in the parking garage at the corner of Pleasant and Chestnut streets and at the city lot behind 142 High Street (enter off Spruce). The MAC is accessible to individuals with mobility impairments; please schedule ahead at least two days prior to the event by calling 304-906-7268, or write to info@monartscenter.com for more information.
Morgantown Poets is an informal group in the community that meets from 7-9 p.m. on the third Thursday of each month at the MAC, providing literary enthusiasts the opportunity to express themselves, share their work, network and to connect up-and-coming writers with more established authors. New writers are welcome. Meetings usually begin with a spoken reading by a featured author that is followed by readings from attendees. Join Morgantown Poets mailing list by writing to morgantownpoets@mail.com or join the group on Facebook by entering Morgantown Poets in Facebooks search.