{"id":26747,"date":"2016-01-28T11:23:15","date_gmt":"2016-01-28T16:23:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=26747"},"modified":"2016-02-05T08:24:11","modified_gmt":"2016-02-05T13:24:11","slug":"npr-personality-author-and-raconteur-martha-woodroof-shares-humor-life-experiences-at-writers-read-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2016\/npr-personality-author-and-raconteur-martha-woodroof-shares-humor-life-experiences-at-writers-read-event\/","title":{"rendered":"NPR personality, author and raconteur Martha Woodroof shares humor, life experiences at Writer’s Read event"},"content":{"rendered":"

On her Facebook page<\/a>, Martha Woodroof offers the following whirlwind summary of her career journey: \u201cNPR freelancer, WMRA public radio person, restaurateur, essayist, country music jock, college dropout, TV talk show host, newspaper dogsbody, constant gardener, railroad crew hotelier, grad school dropout, failed car salesperson, and now \u2026 NOVELIST!\u201d<\/p>\n

That last one merited all caps from her keyboard because she admits the page was \u201cbegun in blatant celebration of St. Martin\u2019s Press for publishing my novel SMALL BLESSINGS on July 15th, 2014!\u201d Small Blessings<\/a><\/i> is her debut novel, published when she was in her mid-60s.<\/p>\n

Woodroof will read from her work and talk about writing, her calling to write, her creative process and other topics when she comes to Eastern Mennonite University\u2019s Common Grounds coffee house at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 4. A time for Q&A will follow. The event is part of EMU\u2019s Writers Read series<\/a>, sponsored by the language and literature department.<\/p>\n

Michael Medley<\/a>, professor of English and chair of the language and literature department, said he has enjoyed reading Small Blessings<\/i>. \u201cWhat I love about the novel is the light that Woodroof shines on the goodness in two of her main characters, both of whom have the ability to call forth the goodness in others,\u201d Medley said.\u00a0\u201cHer novel seems to me a rebuke to contemporary cynicism about human nature.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shenandoah Valley residents likely know Woodroof best for her work at WMRA<\/a>, the Harrisonburg station from which she recently retired. She has also written for National Public Radio and the Virginia Foundation for Humanities Radio Features bureau, published essays in several major newspapers, and wrote an earlier non-fiction book based on her recovery from substance abuse, How to Stop Screwing Up: 12 Steps to Real Life and a Pretty Good Time<\/a><\/i>. Woodroof says on her website<\/a> that she loves words because of \u201ctheir power to tell other people\u2019s stories.\u201d<\/p>\n

Woodroof was born in Greensboro, North Carolina, but eventually found her way to Virginia by way of New England and Texas. She attended the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, where she says she became \u201ca grad school dropout.” Now she and her husband call the Shenandoah Valley home, where their \u201cclosest neighbors are cows<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Small Blessings<\/i> is set in a Southern college town, but Woodroof told NPR\u2019s Scott Simon in an interview<\/a> that it isn\u2019t based on Charlottesville or any other specific town. Only the story\u2019s bookstore, drawn from a college bookstore where she once worked, comes from an actual place.<\/p>\n

The characters are what drew in Kirsten Beachy<\/a>, assistant professor of English at EMU.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of her characters are flawed and, somehow, lovable,\u201d Beachy said. \u201cI suppose it is because she, as the author, loves them. I was intrigued by how many parts of the plot and the lives of the characters were driven by addiction\u2014most obviously to alcohol, but also to the ways they think about themselves. The book as a whole is a great illustration of the ways addiction arises out of loneliness, and how community can create an opposite, positive pull.\u201d<\/p>\n

An Oprah.com review<\/a> of Small Blessings<\/i> said, \u201cThis book is a charmer: quirky, clear-hearted and effervescent.\u201d By all indications, the same could be said of Woodroof herself. Find out for yourself at this first-of-the-semester installment of Writers Read. The event is free (donations accepted) and open to the public.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On her Facebook page, Martha Woodroof offers the following whirlwind summary of her career journey: \u201cNPR freelancer, WMRA public radio person, restaurateur, essayist, country music jock, college dropout, TV talk ... read more about NPR personality, author and raconteur Martha Woodroof shares humor, life experiences at Writer’s Read event<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26752,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7931,14184,356],"tags":[9279,15396],"feature":[],"class_list":["post-26747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-campus-guests","category-language-and-literature","tag-kirsten-beachy","tag-michael-medley"],"yoast_head":"\nNPR personality, author and raconteur Martha Woodroof shares humor, life experiences at Writer's Read event - EMU News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2016\/npr-personality-author-and-raconteur-martha-woodroof-shares-humor-life-experiences-at-writers-read-event\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NPR personality, author and raconteur Martha Woodroof shares humor, life experiences at Writer's Read event - 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