This Sunday, Jan. 25, the Heritage Studies program at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro will host the Mary Gay Shipley Writing Fellowship with Minnijean Brown Trickey as the first visiting writer. It will begin at 2 p.m. in the Grand Hall of the Fowler Center. 

       At the age of 16, Trickey was one of the nine African-American students who, in 1957, braved angry crowds, the National Guard, and the Arkansas Governor to attend an all-white school in Little Rock.

       This momentous event energized the early days of the American Civil Rights Movement.  Trickey overcame the trials of her youth and continued to fight for human rights, protesting to save the environment and working toward equality for all people.  

       In 1999, she and her fellow classmates known as the “Little Rock Nine” received the U.S. Congressional Gold Medal. 

       From 1999-2001, Trickey served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Workforce Diversity, Department of the Interior, in Washington, D.C.  Today, she lives in Little Rock.

        Guest Speakers will include: ASU President Dr. Les Wyatt, Dr.    Clyde A. Milner II, Dr. Tom Williams, Mary Gay Shipley, Dr. C. Calvin Smith and Minnijean Brown Trickey.

      The Writing Fellowship is named for Mary Gay Shipley, who opened her bookshop in Blytheville in 1976. At that time, she had no idea it would develop a reputation that has made it a unique American landmark with 2400 square feet and more than 25,000 titles in stock. Famous authors have been known to go out of their way to do signings at That Bookstore.  A regular visitor is John Grisham. Gay and her bookstore have been profiled in the New Yorker magazine and other prominent national publications. 

       Funding for the Writing Fellowship is provided by the ASU Foundation, Inc. Painted House Premiere Fund.

       For more information, please contact the Heritage Studies program at 870-910-8217.
 

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