Programs

TELLING AN AFRICAN-AMERICAN SAGA ON MARYLAND'S EASTERN SHORE

Waters Edward Turpin, a novelist and playwright from Oxford, Maryland, saw America as a spawning ground for African-American pioneers. His courageous and determined characters equaled the western pioneers in the novels of Edna Ferber, Turpin's mentor. This presentation by Burney Hollis introduces the life and work of Turpin, the "Father of the African-American Family Saga." Adult and high school audiences.

Burney J. Hollis is Professor of English and Dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Morgan State University. He earned his Ph.D. in English with concentrations in Colonial and Nineteenth Century American Literature and African-American Literature from the University of Pennsylvania, his A.M. in English from the University of Pennsylvania, and his A.B. in English from Morgan State University.