Folklife Center

The Frank and Jane Gabor West Virginia Folklife Center will host a special event in April honoring the work of acclaimed poet Maggie Anderson and the legacy of former West Virginia Poet Laureate Louise McNeill.

Three West Virginia writers will read from their new books at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 5, at the Frank and Jane Gabor West Virginia Folklife Center on the Fairmont State University main campus. The writers include Michael W. Cox, Jessie Van Eerden and John Van Kirk.

Playwright, author and screenwriter Tom DeTitta has been named the 2014 Artist-in-Residence for Fairmont State University. With a specialty in historical drama, he has written two plays with content closely connected to this area, “Monongah,” which is about an immigrant family affected by the 1907 mine disaster, and “Street of Gold,” which is about a coal mining family in Western Pennsylvania.

A team of Fairmont State University students traveled to Washington, D.C., in December 2013 to present their tourism research as part of the 2013 ARC Appalachian Teaching Project. Their project focused on “Coal and Its Story: Development of a 21^st Century Coal Community.”

Kestrel: A Journal of Literature and Art, the Fairmont State University Department of Language and Literature and the Frank and Jane Gabor West Virginia Folklife Center will host a two-day Celebration of Issue 30 in October.

Eight contributors to Kestrel, including six whose work appears in Issue 30, will be on campus to participate in a panel discussion and offer individual consultations for writers, as well as give readings from their own work.

The Frank and Jane Gabor West Virginia Folklife Center on the main campus of Fairmont State University and Pierpont Community & Technical College is sponsoring a study and travel abroad program in the summer of 2013 called Roads to Appalachia through the Mezzogiorno, the land of “the midday sun” between the Tyrrhenian and Ionian seas.

Dedicated to the spirit of childhood, the new book “Mountain Mother Goose: Child Lore of West Virginia” is a collection of jingles, jangles, rhymes, riddles, games and lesson stories chanted and sung by children of Central Appalachia on the playground; recited in one room school settings; and echoed in backyards and churchyards throughout the small villages and farms that dotted the hills and valleys of West Virginia. Stretching from the early 20th century practically to its end, this collect

Tucked away in the grass by the Frank and Jane Gabor West Virginia Folklife Center lies the newest campus housing, but look closely or you might miss it. These tiny homes were designed for fairies.