Joy Jordan-Lake, a national Christy Award recipient for first novel, Blue Hole Back Home: A Novel, (David C. Cook, 2008), will read from her works during the second event in the “Writers Read Dinner and Author series,” Thursday, Nov. 1, at 5:30 p.m., in the west dining room in Northlawn at Eastern Mennonite University.
Reserve tickets online at emu.edu/langlit/writers-read/ or by calling the language & literature department at 540-432-4168 by Oct. 26.
Inspired by actual events from her teenage years, Blue Hole Back Home explores the tensions and eventual violence that erupt in a small, all-white Appalachian town when a Sri Lankan family moves in. Ultimately, Blue Hole Back Home is a story not only of the devastating effects of racial hatred and cowardice, but more centrally, a celebration of courage, confrontation and healing, according to Jordan-Lake’s website.
Jordan-Lake has also authored Grit and Grace: Portraits of a Woman’s Life (Wheaton Library Series, 2000), Whitewashing Uncle Tom’s Cabin: Nineteenth-Century Women Novelists Respond to Stowe (Vanderbilt University Press, 2005), and Why Jesus Makes Me Nervous: Ten Alarming Words of Faith (Paraclete Press, 2007).
After earning a bachelor’s degree from Furman University and a master’s from a theological seminary, Jordan-Lake earned a master’s and a PhD in English literature from Tufts University, specializing in the role of race and religion in 19th century American fiction.
More information
Several of the author’s books will be available for purchase. A book signing and short question-and-answer session with the author will follow her reading. Sign-language interpretation is available upon request.
- General admission, $15
- EMU students with meal plan, $5
- All other students, $7