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Tuesday, November 9, 2010 |
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Named 2008-2010 Big Bend Poet Laureate, Mary Jane is also the 2006 winner of the Second Annual Yellow Jacket Press Chapbook Contest for Florida Poets. Her short story collection, A Messy Job I Never Did See a Girl Do, is available from Livingston Press, and her nonfiction book, Getting into the Intercultural Groove: Intercultural Communication for Everyone, was released in 2006 from Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company. Mary Jane comes from a long line of lovers of literature and attributes her interest and talent as a creative writer, to her grandmother, Eunice Stogner Brewton, who graduated from Winthrop College in 1924 with an A.B. in Education. Mary Jane adds that had her grandmother not attended Winthrop, she would probably not be here today. “The education and the friendships that she made at Winthrop opened up a world of opportunity for her both career-wise as a young woman in the 1920s and as a person.” Ryals’ grandmother taught English, first in North Carolina, and was later persuaded by her Winthrop College roommate Sarah McHugh Coleman, to relocate to Florida where she met her future husband. “If she had not moved to Daytona Beach, she would not have met my grandfather and I would not be here today.” But, there’s another Winthrop family connection. Ryals’ brother, Robert Ryals, was a reference librarian at Dacus Library. |
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