An upcoming panel discussion, titled “Real-life Reflections of the River” will be held at West Kentucky Community and Technical College as part of the WKCTC 2015-16 One Book Read of Saints at the River, by New York Times best-selling author Ron Rash.
The discussion, which is free and open to the public, will be held Tuesday, February 2 from 6:30-7:30 p.m. in the college’s Matheson Library. Free refreshments will be served.
The panelists will include Kat Russell, police and court reporter for The Paducah Sun; Hawkins Teague, reporter from The Mayfield Messenger and BM1 DeWayne Visser and MST2 Eli Stewart from Paducah’s Coast Guard office.
The panel discussion will be based around two of the main characters, Maggie Glenn, a newspaper reporter who grew up in the town where a 12-year-old girl drowned in a river eddy, and Allen Hemphill, Maggie’s co-worker who is a Pulitzer award-winning journalist. The battle ensues, as the family of the young girl desperately wants to recover her body, and the environmentalists in the town want to protect the pristine and federally protected river at all costs. Maggie and Allen have been sent to document the controversial incident.
“We wanted to have a discussion with real-life experiences from our local media to share about the importance of being objective when covering an emotional or controversial story, and how they deal with those situations in their daily work,” said Amy Sullivan, WKCTC One Book Read committee chair.
The members of the Coast Guard will be representing two areas that also coincide with themes in the book. One panelist is from the Response Team and will discuss search and rescue, and one panelist is from the Prevention Department and will cover the environmental aspect, said Sullivan. “We have a well-rounded, diverse panel that will provide the audience with insight into their worlds and the world of Maggie Glenn and Allen Hemphill,” she said.
As the finale to the One Book Read, Rash will visit the WKCTC campus March 8-9, 2016. For more information about Rash’s visit, Saints at the River and the One Book Read, visit http://westkentucky.kctcs.libguides.com/onebookread.
The discussion, which is free and open to the public, will be held Tuesday, February 2 from 6:30-7:30 p.m. in the college’s Matheson Library. Free refreshments will be served.
The panelists will include Kat Russell, police and court reporter for The Paducah Sun; Hawkins Teague, reporter from The Mayfield Messenger and BM1 DeWayne Visser and MST2 Eli Stewart from Paducah’s Coast Guard office.
The panel discussion will be based around two of the main characters, Maggie Glenn, a newspaper reporter who grew up in the town where a 12-year-old girl drowned in a river eddy, and Allen Hemphill, Maggie’s co-worker who is a Pulitzer award-winning journalist. The battle ensues, as the family of the young girl desperately wants to recover her body, and the environmentalists in the town want to protect the pristine and federally protected river at all costs. Maggie and Allen have been sent to document the controversial incident.
“We wanted to have a discussion with real-life experiences from our local media to share about the importance of being objective when covering an emotional or controversial story, and how they deal with those situations in their daily work,” said Amy Sullivan, WKCTC One Book Read committee chair.
The members of the Coast Guard will be representing two areas that also coincide with themes in the book. One panelist is from the Response Team and will discuss search and rescue, and one panelist is from the Prevention Department and will cover the environmental aspect, said Sullivan. “We have a well-rounded, diverse panel that will provide the audience with insight into their worlds and the world of Maggie Glenn and Allen Hemphill,” she said.
As the finale to the One Book Read, Rash will visit the WKCTC campus March 8-9, 2016. For more information about Rash’s visit, Saints at the River and the One Book Read, visit http://westkentucky.kctcs.libguides.com/onebookread.