Events
Carson McCullers
Carson McCullers was born Lula Carson Smith in Columbus, Georgia, on Feb. 19, 1917. Most famous for her novels "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter," "Reflections in a Golden Eye," "The Member of the Wedding," "The Ballad of the Sad Cafe," and "Clock Without Hands." McCullers was also a playwright and a short story writer.
Her small but significant body of work includes five novels, two plays, 20 short stories, more than two dozen nonfiction pieces, a book of children's verse, a number of poems, and an unfinished autobiography.
McCullers' life was blighted by a series of cerebral strokes caused by a misdiagnosed and untreated childhood case of rheumatic fever. The first stroke occurred when she was only 24 years old, and within several years, she was completely paralyzed on her left side. McCullers suffered a final stroke in August 1967 and died at age 50 on Sept. 29, 1967.
Celebrity Connections
Actress Marilyn Monroe came to lunch at Carson's house in Nyack, along with her husband Arthur Miller and novelist Isak Dinesen
Known as one of the most significant American writers of the 20th century, Carson McCullers was a novelist, a short-story writer, playwright, essayist and poet who grew up in Columbus, Georgia.
When Oprah Winfrey selected Carson's book The Heart is a Lonely Hunter for her book club in 2004, the 76-year-old book became a No. 1 bestseller that May.
Truman Capote, trailblazing writer from the South, author of Breakfast at Tiffany's and In Cold Blood, was a close friend of McCullers.
Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tennessee Williams first connected with Carson by sending her a fan letter after reading The Member of the Wedding.
Karen Allen, costar in Raiders of the Lost Ark, debuted her short film adaptation of McCullers's short story "A Tree. A Rock. A Cloud." at Carson's 100th Birthday Celebration.
Interactive Map of Columbus
In 1944 when Carson's father died, her mother left Columbus and moved to Nyack, New York, where she bought this house. Carson lived with her mother and sister off and on in this house for years. Carson eventually bought the house from her mother and is where she died in 1967. In December 2006, the McCullers house in Nyack was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
Carson's physician and long time friend, Dr. Mary E. Mercer, bequeathed the home in Nyack to Columbus State University's Carson McCullers Center. After Mercer's passing in late April 2013, the Center inherited not only the house but also many Carson-related artifacts and documents that shed light on the last 10 years of Carson's life.
Due to the generosity of Mercer, CSU is one of the only universities to own two homes by a single author and now houses the world's most extensive research collection on Carson. An endowment in Mercer's name also has been created to continue these efforts in the curation and preservation of Carson's legacy.
A Tree. A Rock. A Cloud.
a film by Karen Allen that debuted Feb. 19, 2017 at CSU
Note from the Director
"I came across this story when I was in my early 20's. As a young actor I was drawn to Carson McCullers as a playwright and novelist at first, and then began to read everything she’d written that I could get my hands on. "A Tree, A Rock, A Cloud" always loomed large for me among her many short stories, It is a quiet, subtle, mysterious story. It sneaks up on you and has stayed indelibly etched in my imagination all these years. It is a delicate, Zen like passing of wisdom from a older man to a young boy on a rainy day in a roadside café when their two lives unexpectedly intersect. The story, as I see it, is flooded with the raw, tangible beauty of the natural world, set in contrast to the complex, intangible yearning for love in their interior worlds. I intend to stay very close to the story Carson McCullers wrote and to illuminate the characters she has so beautifully drawn in the pages of this story."
Karen Allen
Director and Screenwriter
Karen Allen (Director & Screenwriter)
Known for her work as an award-winning actor in more than 40 feature films ("Animal House," "A Small Circle of Friends," "The Wanderers," "Raiders of the Lost Ark," "Starman," "Scrooged," "The Glass Menagerie," "Malcolm X," "The Perfect Storm," "The Sandlot," "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," "White Irish Drinkers," "Bad Hurt," and the soon to release "Year By the Sea"). She has worked for 30 years on and off Broadway ("A Summer Day," "Speaking in Tongues," "The Glass Menagerie," "The Monday After the Miracle," "Extremities," "As You Like It," "The Country Girl"). Karen began directing theatre at Bard College at Simon’s Rock 10 years ago and continued her work as a director at the Berkshire Theatre Festival in Stockbridge, Massachusetts ("Moonchildren," "Extremities," "Frankie and Johnny in the Clair du Lune") and in New York City with the Obie winning production of Lucy Thurber’s Ashville at the Cherry Lane Theatre. She is a longtime member of the Actor's Studio, on the faculty of the Theatre Dept. at Bard College at Simon's Rock, and on the Board of the Berkshire International Film Festival and the Board of the Amazon Conversation Team. Based on the short story by Carson McCullers, "A Tree. A Rock. A Cloud." is the first film she has written and directed.
Videos
David Diamond
Reading and Recital
Carson at 100:
The McCullers Centennial
Academic Opportunities
The Marguerite and Lamar Smith Fellowship for Writers
Purpose
Named in honor of Carson's parents, The Marguerite and Lamar Smith Fellowship for Writers was inspired by McCullers's experience at the Breadloaf Writer's Conference in Vermont, especially the Yaddo Arts Colony in Saratoga Springs, New York. To honor the contribution of these writers' residences to McCullers's work, the Carson McCullers Center for Writers and Musicians awards fellowships for writers to study in her childhood home in Columbus, Georgia. The fellowships are intended to afford the writers in residence uninterrupted time to focus on their work, free from the distractions of daily life and other professional responsibilities.
Description and details
The Marguerite and Lamar Fellowship for Writers is offered during fall semester. The fellowship begins the first of September and ends the first of December. During this time, the writing fellow will reside in a spacious private apartment inside Carson McCullers's childhood home, the Smith-McCullers House. The fellow is provided with a stipend of $5,000 to cover costs of transportation, food and other incidentals. Fellowship recipients are encouraged to take an active role in the community and to meet informally with students and local residents interested in writing. The fellow will work with the McCullers Center director to plan a presentation near the end of the residency.
The Smith-McCullers House is located on a quiet residential street in Columbus' historic area. The fellow will occupy one-half of the Smith-McCullers House. The remainder of the house serves as the Smith-McCullers house museum. Because the house operates as a museum and outreach center, events and tours frequently occur in the upper part of the home during the fellow's time here. However, the apartment is comprised of a large living/writing/sleeping space, a private bathroom, and a private entrance, allowing fellows to work without interruption or disturbance by the Center and Museum. The kitchen is shared by the fellow and the Center. The Center uses the kitchen for special events throughout the fall, in which the fellow is always invited to participate.
The apartment is adequately furnished. Fellows need bring only their personal belongings. The Carson McCullers Center provides utilities, general property maintenance, a computer and online service. Fellows are encouraged to bring a laptop. Since public transportation is limited, an automobile is recommended; however, there are grocery stores, post offices, and other services within walking distance. A spouse or companion is welcome, but children and pets are not allowed.
2023 Fellow: Lauren Irschick
Lauren Irschick is a PhD candidate in music theory at the University of Rochester. Her current research investigates the ways in which techniques of fiction may be applied to music analysis through the study of novels by Carson McCullers, Willa Cather, and Richard Powers, among others.
Lauren holds an MA from the University of Rochester and a BMus from McGill University. She has taught courses in popular music analysis, collegiate writing, and tonal and post-tonal music theory and aural skills at the University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music and the College of Arts and Sciences, and her teaching has been recognized by the TA Prize for Excellence in Teaching (Eastman School of Music), the Breadth Fellowship for Warner School and Eastman School Students (University of Rochester), and the Tomlinson Engagement Award for Mentoring (McGill University). While in residence at the Smith-McCullers House, she will complete work on her dissertation, entitled “The Fictionalization of Music Analysis”.
Past fellows:
- 2022
- Snowden Wright
- 2021
- Lauren Green | Press Release (PDF)
- 2020
- Christine Vines
- 2019
- Samuel Kọ́láwọlé
- 2018
- Aimee Bobruk
- 2017
- Jennifer Choi
- 2016
- Melissa Pritchard
- 2015
- Rebecca Gayle Howell
- 2014
- Caitlin Hayes
- 2013
- Anzhelina Polonskaya
- 2012
- Evan James
- 2011
- David Samuel Levinson
- 2010
- Jessica Garratt
- 2009
- Selena Anderson
- 2008
- Kelly Hayes-Raitt
- 2007
- Mylene Dressler
- 2006
- Melanie Fallon
Application Materials
I. Compile the following information for submission: Send via email to: mccullerscenter@columbusstate.edu
- a cover letter which explains why you would make a suitable fellow, as well as the nature and extent of the work you intend to complete during the 3-month residency
- your latest curriculum vitae, making sure to include fellowships, scholarships, prizes, or other honors you have received;
- a writing sample of no more than 20 pages;
II. Also, we require at least two letters of recommendation.
- All applications must be completed on or before April 1.
- All applications will be acknowledged, and finalists will be chosen and scheduled for telephone interviews with the selection committee by May 15.
- After each finalist completes a telephone interview, a Fellow will be chosen by the selection committee, to be announced June 1.
The Carson McCullers Center Fellowship Program
English Department
Columbus State University
4225 University Avenue
Columbus, GA 31907
Direct questions to:
The Carson McCullers Center for Writers and Musicians706-565-1200
mccullerscenter@columbusstate.edu
Announcement of Winner: June 1. All applicants will receive notification of the winner.
Virginia Spencer Carr Scholarship
Founded in April 2012, this scholarship honors the memory of former CSU English Department faculty member, Virginia Spencer Carr, and her valuable contributions to studies of Columbus author Carson McCuller in the biography "The Lonely Hunter."
Virginia Spencer Carr (1929-2012)
Virginia Spencer Carr, a professor of English at Columbus College (Columbus State University) from 1969-1985, is best known for the detailed biography The Lonely Hunter, about the life of famed Columbus writer, Carson McCullers. Dr. Carr's interest in Carson McCullers bloomed early in her studies, when she was teaching in Savannah in the early 1960s and a student asked to write a paper about McCullers. After writing her dissertation on McCullers at Florida State University, Dr. Carr came to Columbus College as a faculty member and began her extensive research and writing on the McCullers biography, which was published in 1975. After leaving Columbus College in 1985, Dr. Carr served as a Professor of English at Georgia State University and went on to write biographies on writers John Dos Passos and Paul Bowles. She also wrote extensively on Katharine Anne Porter and Tennessee Williams. Virginia Spencer Carr's dedication to studies of Carson McCullers is truly invaluable, and The Lonely Hunter is easily considered the most significant biographical work on McCullers.
The Virginia Spencer Carr Scholarship
Founded in April 2012, this scholarship honors the memory of former CSU English Department faculty member, Virginia Spencer Carr, and her valuable contributions to studies of Columbus author, Carson McCullers, in the biography The Lonely Hunter. An incredibly well-researched and comprehensive work, The Lonely Hunter charts the course of Carson's life here in Columbus and follows Carson on her journey to New York to become a successful, world-renowned author. As Dr. Carr's work shows in such detail, Carson immersed herself in the artistic communities of her hometown and her adopted home in New York City. Therefore, it is fitting that the scholarship in Dr. Carr's name supports students studying in New York, following in both Carson's footsteps and in Dr. Carr's work on Carson. The scholarship benefits English majors who participate in CSU's New York Arts Program, which takes students to study in New York City for three weeks to one month each May/June.
To Give to the Scholarship:
Please mail donations to:
The Carson McCullers Center
c/o CSU Department of English
4225 University Ave.
Columbus, GA 31907
Faulkner Studies Scholarship
Created in honor of Columbus resident Susan M. Cochran and her dedication to study of the great American author William Faulkner, the Scholarship for Faulkner Studies provides funding for gifted students majoring in English at Columbus State University to pursue their education in literary studies.
The Susan M. Cochran Memorial Endowment for Faulkner Studies
The Susan M. Cochran Memorial Endowment for Faulkner Studies provides funding for gifted students majoring in English at Columbus State University to pursue their education in literary studies, to spend one semester of intense, one-on- one directed study of Faulkner with a CSU faculty member, and to travel one summer during their undergraduate career to attend the University of Mississippi’s annual Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference in Oxford.
Scholarship Details
- one new incoming student to be awarded a scholarship each year
- student must declare major in English and remain an English major to continue receiving the scholarship
- scholarship student receives $1,000 per year for four years
- student must maintain a 3.0 grade point average to continue receiving the scholarship
- student must enroll in a directed study course on Faulkner with CSU faculty member by or during third year of study
- student must attend Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference in Oxford by or during the third year of study
- student will receive an additional $1,000 to attend the Faulkner Conference
Eligibility & Selection Criteria
In order to be considered for the scholarships, applicants must:
- Be an incoming student at Columbus State University
- Declare a major in English
- Sign a letter of intent to meet all requirements of the scholarship
The Carson McCullers Literary Awards
Columbus State University's Department of English and Carson McCullers Center for Writers and Musicians proudly present The Carson McCullers Literary Awards.
The Carson McCullers Literary Awards
Prizes: The Carson McCullers Literary Awards offer prizes for Georgia and Alabama high school students in fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, expository essay, playwriting and screenwriting: with $300 for first place in each of those categories, $200 for second place, $100 for third place.
Prizes are awarded to CSU students, including the Sara Ayres Jordan Awards in fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction, as well as prizes in expository essay, playwriting and screenwriting, with $300 first place, $200 second place, $100 third place.
Submission Deadline: Friday, January 19, 2024
Please visit the following site to learn more about the writing awards and to submit entries for the competition: CSU Department of English
Donations
Please consider a contribution to the Carson McCullers Center. Your gift will help to ensure future programming and to maintain this important historical site. All contributions to the Carson McCullers Center are tax deductible to the full extent of the law. For more information on making gifts, contact:
Nick Norwood, Director
The Carson McCullers Center
1519 Stark Avenue
Columbus, GA 31906
Or mail contributions to:
The Carson McCullers Center
1519 Stark Avenue
Columbus, GA 31906
Phone: 706-565-1200
Email: norwood_nick@columbusstate.edu
To Schedule Carson McCullers House Tours:
Due to renovation tours of the Smith-McCullers House are currently unavailable.
The sources of creation are very mysterious, and I don't think one can find them by just looking for them. I think they have to come from within you. Don't you feel so?
~Carson McCullers
For questions concerning copyright and permissions to use the works of Carson McCullers, please contact Andrew Nurnberg Associates at www.andrewnurnberg.com.
Contact
Nick Norwood, Director
The Carson McCullers Center for Writers and Musicians
1519 Stark Avenue
Columbus, GA 31906
706-565-1200
mccullerscenter@columbusstate.edu
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