Award-winning novelist/essayist David Bradley to speak at APSU Asanbe Diversity Symposium

(Posted March 8, 2019)

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – The last time David Bradley, a PEN/Faulkner Award-winning novelist, visited Austin Peay State University, during the 2000-01 academic year, he helped initiate important conversations across campus through his class, “Civil Rights and Literature,” and his public lecture, “The Function of Lynching in Contemporary America: To Make Them Stand in Fear.”

On March 21, nearly two decades after his first visit, Bradley will return to campus to give the keynote address, “Is Diversity Still Supported?,” during the 2019 Asanbe Diversity Symposium. His talk will begin at 1 p.m. in Room 103B of the Morgan University Center. A panel discussion will take place at 2:30 p.m., also in Room 103B, on the topic, “What does it mean to have diversity, equity and inclusion on campus and in society?” Both events are free and open to the public.

The Asanbe Diversity Symposium, sponsored and organized by the APSU Department of Languages and Literature, was established 24 years ago in memory of Dr. Joseph Asanbe, the first professor of African and African-American literature at APSU.

Bradley is the author of the novels “South Street” and “The Chaneysville Incident,” which earned a PEN/Faulkner Award and an Academy Award from the American Institute of Arts and Letters. His short story “You Remember the Pin Mill” received a 2014 O. Henry Award, and his essays have appeared in several national journals, such as Narrative, Brevity and First Things. He is the recipient of the 2015 Notting Hill Essay Prize, and he has published introductions to works by Mark Twain, Richard Wright and William Melvin Kelley.

Bradley earned a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing from the University of Pennsylvania and a Master of Arts in United States Studies from the University of London. He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.

This year’s Asanbe Diversity Symposium is co-sponsored by the APSU Office of Academic Affairs, the Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts, the APSU Diversity Committee, the African-American Studies Program, the International Studies Program, the Latin American Studies Program, the Honors Program, the Women’s and Gender Studies Program, the Hispanic Alumni Club and Glover’s Lock Service.

For information on the event, contact the APSU Department of Languages and Literature at 221-7891.