The University of Georgia’s Willson Center for Humanities and Arts will host Pulitzer Prize-winning author Hua Hsu to UGA March 21-22 as the annual Delta Visiting Chair for Global Understanding. For the last several years, the Willson Center has partnered with members of the Clarke Central High School community to bring Delta Visiting Chairs to CCHS for talks with students. “Willson Center Director Nicholas Allen and his team have provided CCHS students with myriad opportunities to meet with the movers and shakers in the world of Humanities,” English department Co-Chair David Ragsdale said. “It’s a partnership that we value highly and one for which we are incredibly grateful.” Photo courtesy of the Willson Center for the Humanities
Clarke Central High School’s iliad Literary-Art Magazine editors will host a Q&A with a 2023 Pulitzer Prize winner.
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Hua Hsu was named the Delta Visiting Chair for Global Understanding by the University of Georgia Willson Center for Humanities and Arts earlier this year and will visit Athens on March 21-22.
Hsu is a staff writer at The New Yorker and the author of “A Floating Chinaman: Fantasy and Failure Across the Pacific” (2016) and the memoir “Stay True” (2022), which won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Memoir or Autobiography and the 2022 National Book Critics Circle award in autobiography.
The Willson Center established the Delta Visiting Chair for Global Understanding award in 1997 with the help of the Delta Air Lines Foundation. The award is conferred to involved scholars who exemplify innovation and are willing and able to share the wealth of their knowledge.
Northwestern University English professor Natasha Trethewey, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and two-time U.S. Poet Laureate sits in the Clarke Central High School Media Center while talking to students about her book “Memorial Drive: A Daughter’s Memoir,” on April 21, 2022. The event, which was organized by the iliad Literary-Art Magazine adviser and CCHS English department co-chair David Ragsdale in collaboration with the University of Georgia Willson Center for Humanities and Rights, allowed Trethewey to come to CCHS to engage in a moderated discussion led by iliad Literary-Art Magazine Co-Editor-In-Chief Luna Reichert and iliad Outreach Director Salai Diekumpuna. “In order to continue to inspire the creative works of the CCHS community and, further, to provide ELA students with direct contact with a poet, I proposed hosting 2022 Delta Chair Natasha Trethewey at CCHS,” Ragsdale said. “I’m grateful Dr. Swade Huff, our principal, believes in enrichment events and approved the proposal.” Photo by Lucas Donnelly
According to Willson Center Communications Director Dave Marr, the Willson Center engages in outreach with the Athens community.
“We’re the state’s flagship public research university,” Marr said. “Part of our mandate is to share our wealth of resources, but we feel a special obligation to the (Athens) community.”
To honor that mandate, the Willson Center has partnered with Clarke Central High School to bring Hsu to CCHS on March 21 for a moderated Q&A session facilitated by iliad Literary-Art Magazine editors Cate DeMaria and Victoria Garland. English department co-chair David Ragsdale and Media Specialists Angela Pendley and Naomi Craver organized the event.
“Willson Center Director Nicholas Allen and his team have provided CCHS students with myriad opportunities to meet with the movers and shakers in the world of Humanities,” Ragsdale said. “It’s a partnership that we value highly and one for which we are incredibly grateful.”
To prepare for the visit, English teachers and teacher candidates were given copies of Hsu’s memoir provided by the Willson Center. Teachers will then nominate students from across grade levels and academic tracks to attend the session.
Craver believes providing CCHS students with exposure to award-winning artists is important and the impact of those visits can be felt tangibly.
“It makes those people feel real and approachable. It allows students to see possibilities for their futures. Also author visits get students excited about reading and writing,” Craver said. “After an author visit we have a hard time keeping that author’s books on the shelves. This is especially important when we can show authors of diverse representation.”
