George Dawes Green
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JOHNSON CITY (Sept. 2, 2015) – “The Rise of the Miniature Novel” is the focus of a free public lecture and performance by novelist, poet and storyteller George Dawes Green at East Tennessee State University on Thursday, Sept. 17, at 7:30 p.m. in the D.P. Culp University Center’s Martha Street Culp Auditorium.
His appearance is co-sponsored by ETSU’s Storytelling Program, Department of Communication and Performance and Student Government Association BUC Fund.
Green, who lives in Savannah, Georgia, is the author of three acclaimed novels: “The Caveman’s Valentine” (1994), which won an Edgar Award for Best First Mystery and was made into a motion picture starring Samuel L. Jackson; “The Juror” (1995), which sold nearly three million copies worldwide and was the basis for a film starring Alec Baldwin and Demi Moore; and “Ravens,” which was featured on many Best Novel of the Year lists for 2009, including Publishers Weekly, the UK Daily Mirror and Entertainment Weekly.
In 1997, Green founded the personal storytelling series called The Moth, which has since become an international phenomenon with live events in cities across the country and overseas, as well as a radio show and podcast that have attracted millions of fans.
Recently, Green started two new storytelling enterprises.
For the Unchained Tour, he bought a 1972 Bluebird school bus; filled it with such raconteurs and musicians as Neil Gaiman, Peter Aguero and Edgar Oliver; and went tooling around the American South, performing in towns where there are still independent bookstores.
Sudden Owl is his new Web platform for ultra-short, Moth-style video stories, which are no more than 90 seconds in length. He says this brevity “tests the limits of story form and challenges our understanding of the storytelling art.” The website has been in beta testing since 2013 and will be formally launched this winter.
During his Sept. 17 lecture and performance, Green will present live and videotaped examples of this ultra-short form of storytelling. ETSU Storytelling Program Coordinator Dr. Joseph Sobol says these examples “distill the essence of story into deliciously concentrated chunks, becoming miniature vessels of wisdom and delight.”
Green will also lead student workshops on this new storytelling format during a three-day residency at ETSU in conjunction with his public performance.
For more information, contact Sobol at 423-439-7863 or sobol@etsu.edu . For disability accommodations, call the ETSU Office of Disability Services at 423-439-8346.