Two years ago, after what she describes as a “careful and conscious” search to find a good writing conference, writer and teacher Dr. Sandra Smith Hutchins finally decided to apply to the Taos Summer Writer’s Conference in New Mexico. She felt that Taos would provide not only a diverse environmental and literary terrain, but also a “stimulating, welcoming, and encouraging” environment in which to work on her latest novel. This year, not only will Sandra be attending the conference, but as the recipient of the 2010 Leo Love Merit Scholarship, she will receive the merit award at a featured reading. She will also be awarded full tuition for her weeklong workshop, “Telling Truth Through Fiction,” taught by author and journalist, Jane Ciabattari, President of the National Book Critics Circle.
Her novel-in-progress, Already Kindled, is told from the perspective of a young girl raised in Mississippi, and it is the authenticity of the narrative voice that the judges most admired in this work. The setting is rich in cultural and sensory detail, and the characters, both major and minor, are convincing enough to walk off the page. Sentence by sentence, the prose continuously builds a relationship between reader and character in a way that feels both effortless and highly crafted. The Leo Love award is granted to one poet and one prose writer each year.

Director of Undergraduate Admissions Anne Edmunds recently completed her doctor of education degree in higher education administration from The University of Alabama.

Dr. Oglesby-Pitts (Education) recently published To Teach Like Mary: Getting it Right at First with Dorrance Book Publishing. The book is the first in a series of four small conversations. Oglesby-Pitts wrote the book based on interviews she conducted with Mary Craighead, a highly respected school teacher and administrator from the Nashville area. Oglesby-Pitts was first impacted by the teachings of Craighead as she was her first grade teacher at Head Elementary School. Mary Craighead, along with Sister Sandra Smithson, founded Smithson Craighead Academy, Metro Nashville’s first charter school, in 2003. Craighead died in the summer of 2008, but Oglesby-Pitts feels fortunate to have been able to glean wisdom from Craighead to share with others through these books.

Dr. Daniel Biles, associate professor in the math and computer science department, recently gave a presentation at the Fourth International Conference on Neural, Parallel and Scientific Computations, at Morehouse College in Atlanta. General topics of the conference were analytical and computational methods on all aspects of Neural, Parallel and Scientific Computing. Dr. Biles’ presentation was titled “Analytic Solutions for a Class of Functional Differential Equations.”

Tammy Rogers King, an alumna and adjunct commercial violin instructor, appears with her band The SteelDrivers in the upcoming Robert Duvall motion picture Get Low. The film, which also stars Sissy Spacek and Bill Murray, also features four SteelDrivers’ songs on the soundtrack. Get Low opens in Nashville Aug. 27.