Wanda Duncan to visit campus for book launch event

Wanda Duncan

Former Wake Forest staff member Wanda Suttle Duncan will visit campus May 1 to promote her newly-published memoir, “Cracker Gothic: A Florida Woman’s Memoir.”

The book tells the story of her return to her small, rural hometown in Florida from North Carolina to care for her aging mother.  A description for the book states that her “essays of her Cracker heritage and of rural Florida in the 21st century provide a glimpse of an old and authentic Florida that most tourists miss.  Her stories of caring for an aging parent while dealing with personal grief speak to how place can heal a heart.”

Duncan’s book launch event will take place at 5:30 p.m. at Kulynych Auditorium in the Byrum Welcome Center.  There will be a reception followed by a book reading, a Q&A and a book signing.  The book, published by Library Partners Press, will be available for purchase at the event.  It can be purchased, also, on Amazon.

The public is invited.  RSVPs are requested.  RSVPs may be sent to crackergothic@gmail.com.

For her book, Duncan is the first recipient of the David Coates Non-Fiction Award.  It grew out of her master’s thesis written at Wake Forest for her MALS degree. She completed her degree in 2013.

At Wake Forest, Duncan was a staff member with the MALS program and the Lifelong Learning Program.  She served as assistant director for the programs.