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MILLIGAN COLLEGE, Tenn. (March 18, 2015) — Milligan College welcomes award-winning author Dr. Linda Hunt on Thursday, March 19, who will speak on overcoming personal adversity.
During the 11 a.m. chapel service in the Mary B. Martin Auditorium located in Seeger Chapel, Hunt will present “Pilgrimage through Loss: Navigating Life’s Shipwrecks,” addressing how to overcome adversity while sharing insights from her book “Pilgrimage through Loss” and her own remarkable life’s story.
At 7:30 p.m. in Derthick Lecture Hall, Hunt will be joined by her husband and author Dr. Jim Hunt, and together they will speak on the scholarly challenges and spiritual rewards of the research behind each of their books, “Bold Spirit,” by Dr. Linda Hunt, and “Restless Fires,” by Dr. Jim Hunt, who has written extensively on American historical figures. A reception will follow sponsored by Milligan’s Office of Undergraduate Research.
Both lectures are free and open to the public. Books will be available at the evening event and for purchase in the Milligan Bookstore.
The Hunts are both former professors at Whitworth University. Together, they co-founded the Krista Foundation for Global Citizenship to honor the memory of their beloved daughter Krista who died while volunteering in Bolivia at age 25.
Dr. Linda Hunt has authored or coauthored six books and has received the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award, the Washington State Book Award and the national Willa Cather Award for nonfiction.
“Given Milligan’s strong commitment to undergraduate research, I am delighted that students will have the opportunity to meet with the Hunts in a variety of venues to discuss the process of scholarly research, writing and publishing in the academy today,” said Dr. Kayla Walker Edin, assistant professor of English and humanities. “They continue to mentor young adults in a variety of ways and inspire people of every age to lives of service in local, national and international contexts.”
Each book by the Hunts unravels the mystery of a significant historical figure, one famous, one unknown. “Bold Spirit” addresses the little-known story of Helga Estby’s and her daughter Clara’s unescorted walk across America to New York in 1896 on a $10,000 wager to save a family farm. Their treacherous and inspirational journey challenged contemporary notions of femininity and captured the public imagination.
“Dr. Linda Hunt’s scholarship exemplifies the creativity and serendipity that lies at the heart of the research process,” said Edin. “The story behind her book ‘Bold Spirit’ is just remarkable. Hunt learned of Helga Estby by reading an eighth-grade essay written by Estby’s great-great grandson. In researching this story, she retraced Estby’s entire journey across America, recovering a story that had been lost for over a century along the way.”
“Restless Fires” is about John Muir’s 1000-mile walk in the South through Tennessee and how it forever shaped his environmental ethic and eventually influenced the formation of the country’s national parks.
To learn more about Milligan, visit www.milligan.edu.