Hatfield featured presenter at UVa-Wise Nov. 10 and 11
Chancellor Emeritus Joe Smiddy to perform during Coffee Night Nov. 10

Scholar and writer Sharon Hatfield will discuss her work Nov. 10-11 during two public presentations at The University of Virginia’s College at Wise.

On Thursday, Nov. 10, Hatfield will read her works at Coffee Night. The event, which is free and open to the public, begins at 6:30 p.m. in the Chapel of All Faiths. Coffee Night will also feature storytelling by Hatfield’s husband, Wise native Jack Wright.

Also featured during Coffee Night will be Chancellor Emeritus Joseph C. “Papa Joe” Smiddy and his son, Dr. Joseph F. Smiddy, who will bring their music and storytelling to the event.

Coffee Night also features “Fall Highland Voices: Writers and Performers of the College and Community,” including Billie Jean Scott, Jeanie Brehl, Neva Hamilton, Stephen Mullins, Bethany Hall, Sarah Gilliam, John Reeves, Olivia Scott, Erin Dalton, Casey Zaczek, Swadu Natasha Beckley, Stephen Perez, Magdalene Waithaka, and others.

Hatfield will be a guest in classes Friday morning, Nov. 11 before giving a public lecture on her research and writing at 1 p.m. in the Chapel of All Faiths. The event is free and open to the public.

Hatfield’s visit to UVa-Wise is at the invitation of the College’s Lecture Committee, the Department of Language and Literature UVa-Wise, and the Jimson Weed, the College’s literary magazine.

Hatfield is the author of Never Seen the Moon: The Trials of Edith Maxwell (University of Illinois Press, 2005), a work of creative nonfiction that recreates Edith Maxwell’s court trials and sheds new light on the media representation of the Appalachian culture through its legal system. A native of Lee County, she earned bachelor’s degrees in English and biology from Lincoln Memorial University in 1977. After college she moved to Wise County and worked as a staff writer for the Coalfield Progress until 1983, covering local government, education and the courts. Hatfield left Virginia in 1985 to attend graduate school.

She received a master’s degree in journalism from Ohio University and a master of fine arts in creative nonfiction from Goucher College. With the assistance of a creative writing fellowship from the Ohio Arts Council, she was able to travel from coast to coast while researching Never Seen the Moon. Hatfield teaches writing at Hocking College and recently co-edited An American Vein: Critical Readings in Appalachian Literature (Ohio University Press, 2005), a scholarly attempt to bring the study of Appalachian literature to the mainstream culture of the twenty-first century.

Hatfield lives in Athens, Ohio, with her husband Jack Wright, a Wise native, a 1972 graduate of UVa-Wise and an assistant professor at the Ohio University School of Film.

For more information, contact the Office of College Relations at (276) 328-0130.