Novelist Kent Haruf, this year’s Leila Lenore Heasley Prize winner, will soon visit Lyon College to share his thoughts and insights into the world of literature.

On Tuesday, March 20, Haruf will present a lecture in the Bevens Music Room at 11 a.m. And that evening at 7:30 p.m., he’ll give a reading of his work, also in the Bevens Music Room.

A self-proclaimed "ministry brat," Haruf was born in Pueblo, Colorado, the son of a Methodist minister. He grew up in eastern Colorado, where his novels are set.

He studied literature at Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln, where he would later teach. He took graduate courses at the University of Kansas and is a graduate of the Iowa Writers Workshop, where he studied with John Irving, Vance Bourjaily, Dan Wakefield and others.

For two years he taught English in Turkey as a member of the Peace Corps. He was 41 before his first piece of fiction was published, in Puerto del Sol. His most recent novels are "Eventide" and "Plainsong," winner of the Mountains & Plains Booksellers Award and a finalist for the National Book Award in 1999, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and The New Yorker Book Award.

His novel "The Tie That Binds" received a Whiting Foundation Award and a special citation from the PEN/Hemingway Foundation. He retired from his teaching position at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale and now lives with his wife, Cathy, outside Sedelia, Colo.

Of the great popularity of his work, Haruf says, "I've been around long enough to know that this is in part a matter of luck. I don't think it's turned my head. Fame is very seductive and can be very dangerous if you're trying to get your work done."

The Leila Lenore Heasley Prize is awarded annually to a distinguished representative of American or international letters, theater or cinema. Each spring, the Heasley Prize recipient gives a free public lecture, reading or performance at Lyon College.

Dr. Martha Heasley Cox, professor emeritae of English at San Jose State University in San Jose, Calif., established the prize in 1995 in memory of her sister, Leila Lenore, and in honor of other family members. Lyon College Writer-in-Residence Andrea Hollander Budy has chaired the Heasley Prize Selection Committee since its inception. She also coordinates the Visiting Writers Series and the Lyon College Visiting Fellowship in Creative Writing.

The lecture and reading are free and open to the public.

The North Central Arkansas Regional Science Fair is coming to the Lyon College campus on Friday, March 9, and will feature a broad spectrum of exhibits throughout the day.

Students will compete in 15 categories in all areas of science, including the broad categories of biology, physical science, behavioral science and engineering. Students have spent time conducting their various experiments, and they will present their findings in poster format.

Those poster presentations will feature their initial questions, hypothesis, experimental methods, results and conclusions.

Judging will run from 1:30–3:30 p.m. at Becknell Gym, and the exhibits will open for public viewing from 3:30 – 6 p.m. An awards ceremony follows at 7 p.m. in Brown Chapel.

For more information, contact Gus Williamson, Lyon’s instrumentation manager and the event’s regional director, at (870) 698-4374.

Arkansas’ association with the image of backwoods hillbillies may be considered insulting by some residents of the state, but most historical references to the image have been cast in a favorable light throughout the years, a Lyon College professor said Tuesday.

Dr. Brooks Blevins, Lyon’s assistant professor of history, presented his program, "Arkansaw: The Making of a Hillbilly State," Feb. 27 in the Mabee-Simpson Library.

The author of the books "Hill Folks: A History of Arkansas Ozarkers and Their Image," and "Lyon College, 1872 – 2002: The Perseverance and Promise of an Arkansas College," Blevins said some early references to the "hillbillies" in Arkansas were indeed insulting.

But the majority of those references actually give a favorable view of the rugged individualism and pioneering spirit of the settlers of the Ozarks region.

The first written reference to the term hillbilly came in 1900 in the New York Journal in a story about vote buying in Alabama.

Some sources cite the origin of the nickname as coming from Ulster. Scots-Irish settlers in the hills of Appalachia brought their traditional music with them, and many of their songs dealt with William, Prince of Orange.

Supporters of William were known as "Orangemen" and "Billy Boys," and their North American counterparts were soon referred to as "Hill Billy Boys." The name eventually morphed into hillbillies.

Though people classified as hillbillies have historically lived from regions throughout the U.S., the term is often tied most closely with rural Southern Appalachia and the Ozarks region.

The favorable, romantic view of the "Arkansawyer" stems from the pre-Civil War era, Blevins said.

However, some early writers such as Henry Rowe Schoolcraft and George Featherstonshaugh (pronounced fan-shaw) wrote some negative connotations because they considered the backwoodsmen and hunters of the region to be coarse, crude and often dirty.

But the folk tale of the "Arkansas Traveler" and the "Big Bear of Arkansas" by Thomas Bangs Thorpe, as well as the travel accounts of Albert Pike and the German writer Friedrich Gerstacker, were some of the earliest, and most favorable, accounts of Arkansas Ozarkers, Blevins said.

Whether the early writers found the hillbilly image to be good or bad depended entirely on the type of person the writer was, Blevins said.

The so-called "enlightened" writers sought culture and believed anyone without it was a rube, whereas the "romantics" reveled in the wildness of the region and its inhabitants. They sought, and found, the "sublime" in natural settings, Blevins said.

"The image of the hillbilly is more complex than what is generally thought," he told the audience. "My contention is that if you add up everything on both sides, the positives outweigh the negatives."

The lecture is available online on the Lyon College Web site.

For more information on upcoming events at the library, contact Camille Beary, assistant director of the library, at 698-4267.

An upcoming event at Old Independence Regional Museum will spotlight one of America’s earliest masters of Southern humor.

On March 25 at 4 p.m., George Lankford, emeritus professor of folklore at Lyon College, will read from and discuss, "Cavorting on the Devil’s Fork: The Pete Whetstone Letters of C. F. M. Noland."

Lankford wrote the introduction to the book and Leonard Williams served as editor.

Charles Fenton Mercer Noland was born in 1810 and died early in 1858. By the 1840s, American literature tradition had become fascinated with the frontier. The rural folk humor of the "Devil’s Fork" letters that a young Noland of central Arkansas began writing in 1837 was something the country wanted.

His pieces were published regularly in New York’s "Spirit of the Times," and he quickly achieved a reputation as one of the southwest’s best humorists. His tall tales told in dialect reflected the peculiar characteristics of the people of a backwoods region.

Noland’s semiautobiographical "letters" were built around the experiences of Pete Whetstone, who, along with his neighbors, devoted himself to hunting, fishing and an outdoors lifestyle. Through his first-person narration readers were able to experience an ideal southwest frontier existence. Here was a land of natural beauty, with clear rivers, forested mountains, and abundant game, a place where a person could live a free and rustic lifestyle.

Here, too, were horse races and bear fights, politics and balls. Unfortunately for Noland, an early death cut short a promising career. Had he lived longer and written more, he could have become one of America’s great 19th-century humorists.

The building that now houses the Old Independence Regional Museum was constructed by the WPA in 1936 and is on the National Register of Historic Places. The building has been restored, and was opened as a museum in September 1998.

The museum preserves and presents the history of the 12 present counties which were at one time all part of Independence County: Baxter, Cleburne, Fulton, Independence, Izard, Jackson, Marion, Poinsett, Sharp, Stone, White, and Woodruff.

Located at 380 S. Ninth Street in Batesville, the museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and Sundays from 1:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. It’s closed on Mondays, legal holidays and Easter.

The event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact the library at (870) 793-2121.

The Student Creative Arts and Research Forum, which provides students with the opportunity to present research or artistic endeavors to the Lyon College community, has announced April 5, at 1 p.m., as this year’s submission deadline.

A faculty panel will evaluate submissions and invite a number of students to present their project. Presentations will be 10-12 minutes, with an additional 3-5 minutes for questions.

Following the Forum, winners of the competition will be selected based upon the quality and content of the submission and presentation. All presenters will receive recognition of their participation and winners will receive an additional cash prize.

The types of projects accepted include papers; display boards; artistic works, dramatic presentations; results from off-campus research; and, individual and group projects.

Projects finished last spring can be reworked and submitted, and projects must have been completed while enrolled at Lyon. Each student needs a cover letter from a faculty member.

Those who qualify for the final round will be notified on April 12 via e-mail.

SCARF presentations and awards ceremony will be held Tuesday, April 17, at 7 p.m., in the Bevens Music Room.

Interested students must go to the SCARF page on Lyon College Web site for important information about what is necessary for a complete submission. For more information, contact Dr. Martha Beck, associate professor of philosophy, at 793-1774.

A Lyon College trustee has authored what critics call "the definitive history of the Little Rock Central High crisis," and on April 19, she will visit the campus to give a presentation on the work.

Dr. Elizabeth Jacoway will read from the book in Holloway Theatre at 7 p.m., and a reception and book signing will follow in the Lyon Bookstore.

As a doctoral student, Jacoway began the a 30-year quest for truth that has culminated in the release of her book, "Turn Away Thy Son."

Published by the Free Press, a division of Simon & Schuster, the book hit stores in January, marking the 50th anniversary of the Little Rock crisis.

Born and raised in Little Rock, Dr. Jacoway earned a bachelor’s degree in history at the University of Arkansas.

She earned both master’s and doctorate degrees in history from the University of North Carolina, and while searching for a topic for her doctoral dissertation, the idea of writing about the crisis first came to her.

The National Endowment for the Humanities eventually supported the project with a grant, and her work began in earnest.

She’s written five other books, primarily intended for academic audiences. "Turn Away Thy Son" was different in that she wrote it for a mass, general readership.

"This is a true American story for everyone," Jacoway said at the time of the book’s release. "Everyone should find it interesting. It’s written more like a novel than a standard history text, and it centers on 17 main 'larger than life' characters."

It’s taken her 30 years to fully complete the work, partially due to the fact that the controversial subject matter requires that she be meticulous in her research and documentation.

On Feb. 24, Lyon College hosted an event celebrating 40 years of the APPLE project’s academic success, and some of the students that benefited from the program in the past came out to take part in an alumni reunion.

The APPLE Project – Accelerated Program of Personalized Learning and Enrichment – works with eligible high school students who have the academic potential and desire to succeed in postsecondary education.

The Project is a TRIO program. Sponsored by the Council for Opportunity in Education, Trio programs are committed to "providing educational opportunity for all Americans regardless of race, ethnic background or economic circumstance."

APPLE Project students make a long-term commitment from their 9th grade summer through their summer of graduation from high school to weekly school-year attendance for tutoring, counseling, and enrichment and to the six-week summer program of college-preparatory and college-credit classes.

Dr. Bruce Johnston, vice president for student life; former APPLE student Misty Funk; APPLE Project Director Kim Boehm and Bob Pest, president of the Ozark Foothills FilmFest, at the 40th anniversary celebration of APPLE’s success.

Misty Funk, a former APPLE student and Lyon’s 2006 Trio Achiever nominee, attended the reunion and spoke about her memories of APPLE and the challenges she has faced in continuing her education. She provided current students with some sound advice about achieving their goals.

She graduated from the project in 1998, before attending McNeese State University in Louisiana where she earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry.

She’s currently attending in Texas Chiropractic College in Pasadena, Texas, where she will complete her Doctor of Chiropractic degree in April of this year.

Bob Pest, president of the Ozark Foothills FilmFest and the T Tauri Film Festival organizations, spoke at the reunion about a partnership between APPLE Project and his organization. That partnership is the result of a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation for the purpose of providing disadvantaged students with the opportunity to explore digital technology as it relates to filmmaking.

For the past two summers, APPLE Project students have served as judges for the T Tauri Film Festival youth competition as part of an Introduction to Film class offered in the summer session curriculum. With the new funding, the T Tauri organization will expand that programming to include a class/workshop throughout the school year with students from APPLE Project and the Arkansas Sheriffs Youth Ranch. The participants will meet on Saturdays and will create a film from start to finish.

Since 1967, Lyon College has offered an Upward Bound program serving high school students in north central Arkansas.

Lyon President Dr. Walter Roettger said many wonderful success stories attest to the program’s benefits.

"This College considers the Upward Bound Project a worthwhile and needed program in this area," he said. "Moreover, we have very skilled leadership that assures its vitality."

Through a 24-week Academic Session, a six-week Residential Summer Session, as well as a Bridge Component for its most recent high school graduates, the APPLE Project offers college-credit and college preparatory courses.

The program also offers academic tutoring; learning skills development such as computer, study, and library skills; career counseling; academic advisement; personal counseling; cultural, social, and recreational enrichment; and an academic climate strengthening the students’ sense of well-being and security within a postsecondary environment.

APPLE Project director Kim Boehm graduated from Harding University in 2002 with a master’s degree in Education. She graduated from Lyon College in 1992 with a bachelor’s degree in English. Before coming to work with the APPLE Project she taught English, Spanish and speech at a local high school.

For more info on TRIO programs, go to: www.trioprograms.org. For more information on the APPLE project, contact Boehm at: kboehm@lyon.edu, or at (870) 698-4263.

By Amy Hancock

The members of the Lyon College Concert Chorale have been working hard on their music and have raised nearly $300 apiece in order to make their California Tour possible.

The idea to tour in California started when Concert Chorale Director, Joel Plaag, decided to take the choir to a place none of them have ever been to before. Only Plaag and one of the other choir members have set foot in California, so Plaag decided that this may be the best place for them to go.

Plaag says this tour is one of several steps the choir must take before they will be able to have an international tour in Europe.

This tour was made possible through not only the hard work of the choir and donations, but also through the contacts of Plaag and Dr. Russell Stinson, professor of music, at the Grace Cathedral in San Francisco and the Leland High School Choir in San Jose.

While in California, Plaag plans to take the choir members to places such as Alcatraz, Embarcedaro Marina Park, The Golden Gate Bridge, and to listen to the San Francisco Symphony.

The choir itself is made up of all sorts of students. Most of the members are non-music majors, some are freshmen, and some are in choir for the first time.

Choir members include: Matthew Bishop; Sydney Brown; Jason Bugeja; Meagan Bullock; Lauran-Marie Dipierdomenico; Ashley Dorsey; James Cory Emerson-Schram; Seth Flood; Timoteo Guajardo, Jr; Ashley Harris; Holly Jones; Courtney Kovacs; Joshua Looney; Natalie Marlin; Bridget Nutt; Kasey Parara; Nathaniel Reinhardt; Jacob Severs; Harriet Smith; Kazuya Watanabe; Katherine Wheeler; Ronica Williamson; and Miho Yonaga.

The tour dates, times, and places are: The Lyon College Concert Chorale with the Leland High School Choir on Wednesday, March 28, at 7:30 p.m. at Gunderson High School Auditorium in San Jose, Calif.; the Concert Chorale on Thursday, March 29, at 2:30 p.m. at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, Calif.; and on Thursday, March 29, at 7:30 p.m. at the Windsor Presbyterian Church in Windsor, Calif.

In addition to the concerts in California, the choir will also perform at different locations in Arkansas to raise the community's awareness of the choir and to give back to the churches that have supported them.

Locations, date and times for such events are: Friday, March 16, at 7:30 p.m. at the First Presbyterian Church in Texarkana, Ark.; at the Bach Bash on Sunday, March 18, at 4 p.m. at the Christian Science Center in Batesville; at the Presbyterian Kirk of the Hills in Fairfield Bay, Ark., at 7 p.m. on March 19; and on Thursday, April 26, at 7:30 p.m. at the First Presbyterian Church in Batesville, Ark.

Once again, Lyon College students made an outstanding impression at the annual Arkansas Independent Colleges and Universities Opportunity Day held in Little Rock on Feb. 26. Fourteen seniors attended this year’s event where representatives from 20 companies in Arkansas, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Texas and Mississippi met in one location to interview graduating students as prospective employees for each of their companies.

Seniors who participated were: Daniel Angel, Chad Cole, Cody Cox, Cheryl Lucier, Alicia Mize, Erin Sandlin, Paul Stapleton, Nadine Sullinger, Eleanore Tebbetts, Jennifer Wagoner, Stephanie Willis, Alissa Wiley, Emily Wilson, and Rosalie Worsham.

This year, student interviews resulted in eight immediate job offers, and in addition, 25 second company interviews were secured that promise to generate additional employment opportunities for these Lyon candidates.

The Lyon College Career Center works in conjunction with the AICU to promote this annual event.

Senior art exhibitions to be featured in Kresge Gallery

Chris Valle, Lyon's assistant professor of art, has announced the dates for a series of senior art exhibitions to be featured in Kresge Gallery.

Jance Floyd's “Eine abstrakte Ansicht vom deutschen Expressionismus” opens March 12 at 6 p.m.

Jennifer Cross will present “Recent Paintings” with an opening reception slated for April 5, at 6 p.m.

And Eric Bork's “Characters at Play” opens with a reception on April 19, at 6 p.m.

For more information, contact Valle at 698-4336.

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