Join us for the second panel of Revival: Lost Southern Voices (RLSV) 2026!

Lost Cherokee Voices

Featuring Vivian Mary Carroll & Donna Coffey Little

Mod­er­at­ed by Jeff Bishop

RLSV is free and open to the public, but we do request registration. This event takes place in the Decatur Library Auditorium, during normal library hours. Due to our security protocols, this means you will need to enter the library through the upper level, rear doors, and take the elevators to G.

We hope you'll view the full conference schedule and register for the other panels as well!

About the Speakers:

Donna Coffey Little is the Founder of Reinhardt University’s Etowah Valley Low-Residency MFA Program. Her historical novel Wofford's Blood was published by Mercer University Press in 2024. A transplant from Virginia, Donna holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Virginia, an MA in Comparative Literature from UNC Chapel Hill, and an MFA in Creative Writing from the Solstice Low-Residency MFA Program. Her most recent essays have appeared in Five Points, StorySouth, Georgia Backroads, The James Dickey Review, and Tiferet. Recent poems have appeared in The Atlanta Review, The Florida Review, and Leaping Clear. Her chapbook Fire Street was published by Finishing Line Press in 2012.

Vivian Mary Carroll, of the Cherokee Nation, holds an MFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts. Ms. Carroll’s poetry collection Talking Leaves Scrapbook was published in 2023 by Casa Urraca Press. Her poetry has appeared in New Limestone Review, Yellow Medicine Review, and Nonwhite and Woman: 131 Micro Essays on Being in the World. Additionally, you can experience Ms. Carroll’s work in the New Mexico Poetry Anthology 2023, as well as in Taos Poet Laureate Joshua Concha’s film Taos Poetry in Motion. 

About the Conversation Partner:

W. Jeff Bishop is the director of the Funk Heritage Center and Bennett History Museum at Reinhardt University. He teaches classes on Native American history and museum studies at Reinhardt and has lectured on topics of Southern and indigenous history throughout the region. He served for nearly a decade as state chapter president for the Trail of Tears Association and worked with the National Park Service to research and interpret the Cedar Town Cherokee Removal camp site, the Chief John Ross home site, the Running Waters Council Ground, Fort Means, and many other sites related to the Cherokee Removal. Bishop has written a number of books on Southern towns and the Cherokee Removal and is a graduate of the University of Georgia and the University of West Georgia. He recently was appointed by the governor to serve a third term on the Georgia Historical Records Advisory Council.

About the Festival

Revival: Lost South­ern Voic­es, a fes­ti­val for read­ers, cel­e­brates his­tor­i­cal­ly exclud­ed, erased, or mar­gin­al­ized South­ern voic­es. Dur­ing this annu­al con­fer­ence, invit­ed pre­sen­ters dis­cuss South­ern authors or artists whose works are out-of-print or oth­er­wise do not receive the atten­tion they deserve. We invite the pub­lic, schol­ars, stu­dents, writ­ers, and inquis­i­tive read­ers to join the con­ver­sa­tion as we con­tin­ue to dis­cov­er and revive these Lost South­ern Voices.