Davis & Elkins College will host noted author Karen McElmurray as part of its Writers' Series on Wednesday and Thursday. McElmurray will visit with D&E classes as well as participate in three free public events.

On Wednesday from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m., McElmurray will lead a public memoir workshop. On Thursday at 7 p.m., she will share a public reading from two of her novels and her memoir, followed by a question-and-answer session and a book signing.

McElmurray's memoir, "Surrendered Child: A Birth Mother's Journey" (University of Georgia Press) is described by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution as "a moving meditation on loss and memory and the rendering of truth and story." The book received the 2003 Associated Writing Programs Award for Creative Nonfiction and was a National Book Critics Circle Notable Book.

"It (the memoir) is about the connection between mothers and their sons/children," said Writers' Series Coordinator and Professor of English Dr. Bill King. Knowing the author from his time at the University of Georgia, King said the memoir chronicles McElmurray's physical and emotional reaction to giving up her son for adoption.

McElmurray's debut novel, "Strange Birds in the Tree of Heaven" (University of Georgia Press), garnered the 2001 Thomas and Lillie D. Chaffin Award for Appalachian Writing. Her newest novel, "The Motel of the Stars," was published this year by Sarabande Press, a not-for-profit publisher. McElmurray holds a Ph.D. in creative writing from the University of Georgia. In addition, other works in both fiction and nonfiction have been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Kentucky Foundation for Women and the North Carolina Arts Council. She directs the Creative Writing program at Georgia College and State University and is the creative nonfiction editor for "Arts and Letters Daily."

The Mountaintop Removal presentation and panel discussion, scheduled for Thursday at 11 a.m., is organized by Matt Kupstas, an AmeriCorps/VISTA volunteer for the Augusta Heritage Center. Kupstas will introduce and facilitate a panel discussion on the impact of mountaintop removal.

Joining him will be McElmurray, a native of eastern Kentucky, who will speak to MTR's impact on communities. Her hometown was effected by mountaintop removal and she has authored multiple short stories about the results. Most recently, McElmurray's short story about her hometown was featured in the anthology "We All Live Downstream." Accompanying McElmurray on the discussion panel will be, Augusta Heritage Center Folk Arts Coordinator Gerry Milnes, who will speak to MTR's cultural impacts; Coordinator of the Environmental Science Program Russ McClain, who will speak to MTR's environmental impacts; and junior/sophomore English major Becky Hill, will speak on student activism and MTR.

"In every discipline writing is essential," King said. This is why the Writers' Series is continuing to work with other D&E departments to bring in authors throughout the year, he explained.

The two-day event this week will be accompanied by other similar events throughout the rest of the school year. King further said this is an evolution of the Spring Writers' Week the department has organized in the past. Instead of bringing in one author for a week's worth of events, King said the college is trying to bring in two or three throughout the year. He is also working closely with professors in other departments such as McClain and Chair of the Department of Fine and Performing Arts April Daras.

"We're trying to bring in more disciplines outside of the English department," King said.

All events are scheduled in the Booth Library Community Room. McElmurray's books are for sale in advance at the Davis & Elkins College bookstore in the Madden Center. Copies also may be purchased at the reading. McElmurray's visit is presented by the D&E English program.

For more information, call King at 304-637-1235.