November 6, 2008 – Janis F. Kearney, author of the award-wining memoir Cotton Field of Dreams, will give a lecture at Bishop State Community College on Thursday, Nov. 13.The event will take place in the theatre of the O.H. Delchamps Student Life Conference Complex on the Main Campus located at 351 N. Broad St. The lecture begins at 9:45 a.m. Admission is free.
Kearny will discuss her novel, her memoirs and her journey from the cotton fields of southeast Arkansas to the White House. A book signing will follow.
A native of the southeast Arkansas delta, Kearney purchased in 1988 the Arkansas State Press Newspaper – an award winning newspaper formerly owned by civil rights legends Daisy and L.C. Bates. At 36, she became one of the country's youngest female newspaper publishers.
At the White House, Kearney served as personal diarist to President Bill Clinton during Clinton's term in office. In 2006, she published Conversations:William Jefferson Clinton from Hope to Harlem, a presidential oral biography. Kearney debuts her second memoir,Something to Write Home About: Memories from a Presidential Diarist, in which she chronicles her years in the Clinton white house. She also debuts her first novel,Once Upon a Time There Was a Girl: A Murder at Mobile Bay, a fictionalized account of a race murder in a most unlikely Alabama city. Kearney's novel is set in the Mobile Bay area of Alabama, and she introduces the fictional character – Daphne Police Chief Tom Mallory – to her readers.
For more information, Contact the Division of Humanities at (251) 405-7090. For more information about Janis F. Kearney's writings, or to subscribe to the author's newsletter Writing our World, visit: www.writingourworldpress.com.