The School of English and Philosophy hosted a book reading for Mary Elizabeth Pope’s debut novel “The Gods of Green County” in the Bradbury Art Museum on March 10. Pope is professor of English at Emmanuel College in Boston. She read excerpts from her novel as part of a tour. After the reading ended, there was a book signing. 

Before Pope began, two Arkansas State University students read excerpts of their own works. Aly Nichols, a senior political science major and published fantasy author, read the beginning of her newest work. She was followed by Cameron Simmermon, a junior writing studies major from Gonzales, Louisiana. He read two poems and a short horror story. This is the first time he has presented his work.

“(It was) nerve-racking. But it was quite liberating to do. I definitely plan on trying to do it again,” Simmermon said.

Dr. Khem Aryal, an assistant professor of creative writing, coordinated the event. He said it was great to have Pope back due to her connections with A-State and the northeast Arkansas area.

Pope had some of her poems published in A-State’s “Arkansas Review” in 2011 and they acted as the foundation for “The Gods of Green County”. In addition, Pope drew from two legal cases within her family as the basis for the plot, one being the case where the local sheriff shot and killed her great-uncle and the other being her grandmother’s sanity hearing.

“The Gods of Green County” takes place in 1926 rural Arkansas and tells the story of Coralee Harper, an undiagnosed paranoid schizophrenic whose older brother Buddy is shot and killed by Sheriff Wiley Scolum. The story follows the investigations from the perspectives of Coralee, her husband Big Earl and the lawyer-turned-judge Leroy Harrison.

In addition to the legal cases, Pope used a newspaper article covering the case and got ahold of her grandmother’s medical records when she stayed at Missouri State Hospital #4. She researched the Penecostal practice of snake-handling, as it ties into the religious practices in her novel.

Pope signed the contract for the novel in 2012 but didn’t begin writing until 2014. Due to her being a professor, she would only work on the book during the summer months. She said having distance from her work allowed her to go back and edit her work without any attachment to her writing. 

“When you’ve had distance from it, it really is like somebody else wrote it. (I could) set it down and let it go for another eight months and then finally come back to it again,” Pope said.  “I could see all the problems. I saw it as sort of like two steps forward one step back.”

Aryal said the event acted as an opportunity for students to listen to and interact with writers and for them to gain insight on what goes into publishing a book.

“Writing on your own, enjoying it, that’s one part. But a lot goes into writing and actually producing something that’s worth publishing,” Aryal said. “This opportunity to hear from real writers themselves, to ask them questions and to interact with them, that’s really great.”

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