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Author booked for reading event
01-26-2009
“Read Alabama: The Tradition Continues!” will return to Bevill State Community College Tuesday with author Jim Noles discussing his book “A Pocketful of History: Four Hundred Years of America — One State Quarter at a Time.”
“The book uses each of the 50 state quarters (as issued between 1999 and 2008) and uses whatever is depicted on each quarter as a creative opportunity to segue into a discussion of that particular aspect of American history and culture,” Noles said. “The chapter on Alabama, for example, discusses Helen Keller, who is depicted on Alabama's quarter. The chapter on North Carolina discusses the Wright Brothers' first flight at Kitty Hawk, which is depicted on North Carolina's quarter. You get the idea. It's sort of a back-door sneaky way to get people reading about and thinking about American history.”
The program is put together by the Chamber of Commerce of Walker County, Auburn University Center for the Arts and Humanities, Waldenbooks, Bevill State and the Arts Alliance of Walker County to bring culture and knowledge of Alabama writers to Walker County.
“As far as arts and humanities, it just gives the community an opportunity to come out and experience Alabama authors in person and it provides them with exposure to their latest books. It’s just a really good cultural and social event for our community,” said Penne Mott, associate dean for the Jasper campus, who helped coordinate the program with former associate dean Marthanne Brown.
Refreshments will be served at 3:30 p.m. and the program will begin at 4 p.m. There is no cost for admission to the event.
Mott said Noles was chosen to kick off the program because of the response he received after speaking in 2004 on his book “Hearts of Dixie: Fifty Alabamians and the State They Called Home.”
“He is a really good speaker and past audiences have really enjoyed him,” she said.
Noles said he is excited to come back to speak at Read Alabama and thinks highly of the program.
“Read Alabama has a great reputation throughout the state. People recognize that it is really directed at people who are interested in reading — not just would-be authors or screenwriters,” he said. “I think that people like that make a great crowd and I'm looking forward to talking to them again. I hope they enjoy hearing from me. I know that they'll enjoy spending some time with Joe Hilley, Gin Phillips and Sara DuBose, who will be following me in the weeks to come. That’s a great slate of authors and I'm humbled to be joining them.”
Noles is an attorney with Balch and Bingham, LLP in Birmingham and works in environmental law, regulation and litigation in Alabama. He has served in several areas of the military with teaching and active service as an officer and aviator at Fort Rucker and Fort Bragg. He has also taught history and cultural resources as an adjunct professor at UAB.
In addition to these accomplishments, he has also served on the Board of Directors to the Alabama Humanities Association, assisted with the coordination of the Birmingham Bar Association’s Young Lawyer Section Veterans Oral History Project and was one of the founding trustees of the Birmingham-Jefferson County History Museum.
In 2005, the Birmingham Business Journal named him as one of Birmingham’s “Top 40 Under 40.”
Noles has written six books and said he began writing because he loved reading and learning.
“By writing books, I feel like I'm ‘paying it forward,’ so to speak,” he said.
Joe Hilley will be the next author to speak on Tuesday, Feb. 10.
Elizabeth Higgins
republished by permission of Daily Mountain Eagle |
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