This presentation from Richelle Putnam investigates and highlights Welty’s imagination, creativity, discovery, and expression through her life events. Designed for elementary/middle grades (3-6), students draw from Eudora’s experiences and relate them to their lives, illustrating how a thoughtful exploration of a lived experience—our own or others’—helps us understand the people and the world around us more fully. This presentation examines: 1. imagination, curiosity (internal) and 2. discovery, expression (external). Presenter Richelle Putnam uses examples from the book, The Inspiring Life of Eudora Welty (The History Press), 2014 Moonbeam Children’s Book award, Silver Medal recipient.
Richelle Putnam is listed on the Mississippi Arts Commission Artist and Teaching Artist Roster. She is a recipient of a 2014 and 2021 Mississippi Arts Commission Literary Fellowship. A graduate of Gotham Writers of New York’s Memoir Certificate program and Fiction Certificate program, she holds diplomas from The Institute of Children’s Literature, Open College for the Arts Advanced Writing Program, Writers Digest, and other accredited writing institutions, such as the University of Iowa. She has taught Creative Writing at Meridian Community College and through libraries, schools, and online. Her writing awards include Writers Digest, Writers Journal, Worldwide Writers, New Millennium, and more. Richelle’s songs and lyrics have been awarded by American Songwriter Magazine, Mike Pinder’s Songwars, UK Songwriting Competition, Billboard World Song Contest, and Song of the Year.
