Hatfield, Sharon 1956-

views updated

Hatfield, Sharon 1956-

PERSONAL:

Born 1956, in VA. Education: Graduated from Lincoln Memorial University.

ADDRESSES:

Home—OH. Office—Department of Arts and Sciences, Hocking College, 3301 Hocking Pkwy., Nelsonville, OH 45764. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Coalfield Progress, Norton, VA, former reporter; Hocking College, Nelsonville, OH, professor of writing; Lincoln Memorial University, Harrogate, TN, teacher with Mountain Heritage Literary Festival, 2007.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Weatherford Prize, and the Chaffin Award for Appalachian Literature, both for Never Seen the Moon: The Trials of Edith Maxwell.

WRITINGS:

(Editor, with Gurney Norman and Danny Miller) An American Vein: Critical Readings in Appalachian Literature, Ohio University Press (Athens, OH), 2005.

Never Seen the Moon: The Trials of Edith Maxwell, University of Illinois Press (Urbana, IL), 2005.

SIDELIGHTS:

Sharon Hatfield is a journalist and an educator. She has worked as a reporter for the Coalfield Progress, a semiweekly publication in Norton, Virginia. While covering the justice system in Wise County, Virginia, Hatfield spent time in the courtroom where Edith Maxwell was tried for murder. The experience inspired Hatfield to write Never Seen the Moon: The Trials of Edith Maxwell, which has garnered a number of awards, including the Chaffin Award for Appalachian Literature and the Weatherford Prize. The Maxwell trial was a major media event in Appalachia, as Edith Maxwell was tried twice for the murder of her father and convicted both times. Maxwell was considered a sensation because she was a young woman, and also because the case became an example of old fashioned ideas clashing with progress. Hatfield uses trial transcripts and original documents to provide a detailed account of the events. Richard F. Hamm, writing for the Journal of Southern History, remarked that "Hatfield draws sound conclusions about every aspect of the affair."