Tuesday, October 19, 2004

Oct. 19, 2004

Wilmington, N.C. — Poet Lavonne J. Adams, who teaches in the Department of Creative Writing at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, will give a reading at 7 p.m., Friday, Nov. 5, at Bristol Books to celebrate the publication of her chapbook, In the Shadow of the Mountain. In July, the chapbook won the Randall Jarrell/Harperprints Chapbook competition sponsored by the North Carolina Writers’ Network.

In the Shadow of the Mountain tells a compelling story of people whose lives were affected by the 1902 eruption of Mt. Pelee in Martinique, from cobbler to priest to member of the rescue party.

“The book came about as a result of a brief piece I heard on NPR about the publication of a nonfiction book about the eruption of Krakatoa,” said Adams. “I was horrified to learn how many people had died and wondered how that could happen. The next day I went to the library to look it up, and in the process ran across information about the 1902 eruption of Mt. Pelee in Martinique. I couldn't believe I'd never even heard about it! From that point on, I was hooked--with the help of interlibrary loan, I read everything I could about the eruption, then started writing. What’s in the collection is based on photos and research,” she said.

Adams was the recipient of the 1999 Persephone Poetry Award for Everyday Still Life and read as an emerging artist at Vanderbilt University’s “Millennial Gathering of the Writers of the New South.” She coordinates the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree program for the Department of Creative Writing at UNCW.