Fife Keynote Lecture at Utah State University

The Fife Folklore Workshop takes place on the campus of Utah State University, and the event’s keynote lecture is free and open to the public. Speaking this year is Christine Wicker, who provides the lecture Thursday, June 7, at 10 a.m. in Old Main 225 on the USU campus.

Wicker’s lecture, “A Visit to the Town that Talks to the Dead,” looks at Lily Dale, N.Y., a town run by mediums and spiritualists for five generations.

 

Wicker is the author of several books, including the highly acclaimed New York Times bestseller Lily Dale: The Town that Talks to the Dead. She is a former religion reporter for the Dallas Morning News and has won numerous awards for her journalism, including the Clarion Award, the Wilbur Award and the Sunday Magazine Editors first place for feature writing.

 

Copies of Wicker’s books will be available at the lecture.

 

Recently, Wicker published Not In Kansas Anymore: Dark Arts, Sex Spells, Money Magic and Other Things Your Neighbors Aren’t Telling You. This work documents her travels from voodoo temples in New Orleans to Salem, Mass., and finally to Zora Neale Hurston’s grave in Florida (to retrieve some magical Zora grave dirt).

 

Wicker was raised in Oklahoma, Texas and other parts of the South. Her mother’s grandfather was an itinerant Baptist preacher, and her dad’s father was a Kentucky coal miner. She is the first journalist in her family. Upon hearing of her profession, her grandmother once comforted her by saying, “That’s all right. Just tell people you’re a waitress.”

 

During her 17 years at The Dallas Morning News, she was a feature writer, columnist and religion reporter. Her work took her from demonstrations in Nairobi to peace communes in Belfast. She slept in Mexican chicken shacks, trailed homeless people through Dallas alleys and tracked down East Germans who had worked for the Communist secret police. She covered Lady Diana’s funeral in England and Pope John Paul II’s historic visit to Cuba.

 

For more information about the Fife Keynote Lecture, contact Jeannie B. Thomas, director of USU’s Folklore Program, at jthomas@english.usu.edu or call (435) 797-7520.

 

Contact: Jeannie B. Thomas (435) 797-2736