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Award-winning author and Russellville native, Eli Cranor, hosted a special event debuting\u00a0 his latest novel, Ozark Dogs<\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0 Publisher Soho Crime describes Ozark Dogs<\/em> as a Southern thriller in which \u201ctwo families grapple with the aftermath of a murder in their small Arkansas town.”<\/p>\nHis first novel, Don’t Know Tough<\/em>, won the Peter Lovesey First Crime Novel contest and was nominated for the Edgar Award for Best Novel, the Lefty Award for best debut Mystery Novel, and was a finalist for the 2022 Dashiell Hammett Award.\u00a0 He writes to a monthly column in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette<\/em> called “Where I’m Writing From,” and his work has been featured in Missouri Review<\/em>, Oxford American<\/em>, Ellery Queen<\/em>, The Strand<\/em> and other notable journals.\u00a0 You can find his first thriller, Don’t Know Tough<\/em>, available in our book collection<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n A native of Menifee, Arkansas, Ronnie Williams recently retired as Vice President for Student Services and Institutional Diversity at the University of Central Arkansas.\u00a0 During his three decades of service, he served as assistant dean of students, director of Minority Affairs, Assistant to the President, and Chief Diversity Office.\u00a0 He is the former chair of the Arkansas Educational Television Commission, and the first person of color to chair the Conway Area Chamber of Commerce and the Conway Development Corporation Board.\u00a0 A small reception of light refreshments, provided by the Ross Pendergraft Library & Technology Center, will be available after the lecture.\u00a0 For more information about Ronnie Williams or his book, visit his webpage at: https:\/\/www.ronniewilliamsauthor.com\/<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The Human Library Event has been taking place at ATU for several years and is part of a larger, national organization<\/a><\/strong> to promote dialogue and understanding with groups in our society that are often subjected to prejudice, stigmatization or discrimination because of their lifestyle, diagnosis, belief, disability, social status, ethnic origin, etc.\u00a0 All are welcome to this event.<\/p>\n For more information about these and other events in the library, contact our Special Events Coordinator and Second Monday Author Series wrangler, Luke Heffley<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0 You can also follow us on Twitter<\/a><\/strong>, Facebook<\/a><\/strong>, and Instagram<\/a><\/strong> for up-to-date information on all the happenings happening at RPL.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Starting April 4th, the Ross Pendergraft Library & Technology Center kicks off several events and lectures celebrating books, culture, history, diversity, and understanding both close to home and from the other side of the world. Tuesday, April 4th at 6:00 P.M. in RPL 300AB Award-winning author and Russellville native, Eli Cranor, hosted a special event […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-library","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3lPyb-Ys","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.atu.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.atu.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.atu.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.atu.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.atu.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3748"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.atu.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3769,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.atu.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3748\/revisions\/3769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.atu.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.atu.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.atu.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Monday, April 10th at 7:00 P.M. in RPL 300B<\/h3>\n
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The Library will host John Kutko as part of its Second Monday Author Series to talk about his children’s book, The Tiger & the Painted Bunting<\/em><\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0 The book is about a Shanti, a tiger cub who is captured from the wild and sold by poachers to a rich man.\u00a0 When the tiger inevitably grows too big, she is sent to a zoo where she makes friends with a painted bunting named Al.\u00a0 Kutko, a retired school teacher from Clarksville School District, developed the story which his granddaughter, Abbriel Harrison, who wrote and illustrated the book.\u00a0 There will be a drawing for a free signed copy of his book at the event, along with additional copies available for purchase.<\/p>\nThursday, April 13th at 2:30 P.M. in RPL 300AB<\/h3>\n
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The Arkansas Tech University Black Faculty & Staff Organization will host Ronnie Williams as part of the Diversity Speaks Lecture Series.\u00a0 He is the author of Markham Street: The Haunting Truth Behind the Murder of My Brother Marvin Leonard Williams<\/span><\/em><\/a><\/strong>, which shares the story of his brother, his murder, subsequent fight for justice, and what life was like for Black families in the South during the 1960’s.<\/p>\nFriday, April 14th from 1:00 P.M. – 3:00 P.M. in RPL 300B<\/h3>\n
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The Human Library is back at the Ross Pendergraft Library and Technology Center featuring people volunteering to tell their own stories about in a non-judgemental, personal conversation-style setting.\u00a0 As part of a project in the Social Movements and Social Change class in the Behavioral Sciences department, students have been recruiting volunteers to act as “books” that can be read by an individual in a one-on-one setting.\u00a0 These “books” tell their personal stories of struggle and success in overcoming challenges in life like discrimination, poverty, disability, immigration, abuse, judgement, or oppression.\u00a0 You can ‘check-out’ a book just by listening to their story face-to-face to gain a broader perspective for the path they have walked.<\/p>\nMonday, April 17th at 6:00 P.M. in RPL 300B<\/h3>\n
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The final lecture of the spring semester from the popular “Manga Talk\u00a0 Series” from Dr. Hashimoto is titled: “Jujutsu Kaisen: History of Curse in Japan” will take place on April 17th.\u00a0 Dr. Hashimoto, visiting lecturer of Japanese, will discuss the popular manga and anime series and how it relates to Japanese culture, language, and history.\u00a0 Frequent attendees of the lecture series often report samples of Japanese candies and treats present at such events.\u00a0 You can get started on the English-language version of the manga series with v.0 “Blinding Darkness”<\/strong><\/a> currently located in the New Books collection of the ATU Library.<\/p>\n