NYT bestselling author Sharyn McCrumb to receive Patricia Winn Award for Southern Fiction at Clarksville Writers Conference banquet June 4th
May 22, 2015
Clarksville, TN – The Clarksville Arts and Heritage Development Council will honor novelist Sharyn McCrumb with their first-ever Patricia Winn Award for Southern Fiction at the June 4th Clarksville Writers Conference banquet.
McCrum, award-winning Southern writer best known for her Appalachian “Ballad” novels, including a number of New York Times bestsellers, will also give the keynote address at Thursday evening’s banquet at Club Level of Austin Peay State University’s newly renovated Governors Stadium, featuring a gorgeous view of this historic campus.
Clarksville Beginnings – Part 3: What Kind of Man Was Valentine Sevier?
November 17, 2014
Clarksville, TN – Our lives here in Middle Tennessee are built upon the foundation of those who lived before us. The names of these souls of long ago are sprinkled upon our consciousness as they are now reflected in the names of our counties, cities, and roads: John Montgomery, George Rogers Clark, James Robertson, etc.
They are people who lived the prime of their lives in the late 18th century on the cusp of a new nation, bordering a frontier with a plethora of possibilities. These men are revered and their lives have been boiled down to a thick consistency of stories that all reflect their heroism, bravery, and sometimes larger than life achievements.
There is a definite vibe that they are only to be portrayed as one dimensional hero type characters. Along with that I get the feeling that to declare anything else is pretty much blasphemy.
History lecture at APSU to examine state’s first governor, John Sevier
October 29, 2014
Clarksville, TN – In 1794, a man named Valentine Sevier sent an urgent letter from his home along the Cumberland River, in what is now Clarksville, to his brother John. In it, he described a recent attack by Native Americans on their small settlement.
The attackers, he wrote, “scalped my daughter Rebecca. I hope she still will recover.”
Clarksville Beginnings – Part 2: Revisiting the Massacre at Sevier Station; In Their Own Words
October 27, 2014
Clarksville, TN – I love history and find it fascinating – and you must enjoy it as well or you would not be reading this article! Yet, I could listen and listen to someone who is alive and well with me today go on ad nauseum about the dry facts from the past and get absolutely nothing from it.
But, to hear the very words of those who lived before us – those priceless journals, letters, and testimonies – that is gold to me! It is amazing to be able to peak into their minds and hearts for just a moment and experience with them the joys, the struggles, the hopes, and the pain of the experience of life.
That is what we have with the story of the lives of Valentine Sevier, his family, and community – their own words.
Clarksville Beginnings: The Early History of Sevier Station – Part 1
October 20, 2014
Clarksville, TN – Have you seen the old stone building on Walker Street in the New Providence area? If not, come by and take a look at it some time. This primitive looking building, labeled “Sevier Station”, is on the National Register of Historic Places and is touted as the oldest building in Montgomery County, Tennessee.
As you walk around and gaze at the roughhewn limestone quarried from the nearby bluffs, and ponder the old chimney placed oddly in the center of the building, and consider the apparent gun port built into the east side, may you contemplate the ground upon which you are standing.