MAGNOLIA – Jenny Wingfield, a 1969 graduate of Southern Arkansas University (then Southern State College), will sign copies of her debut novel during the University’s homecoming festivities this weekend.
Wingfield will present a workshop titled “So you want to be a writer? Writing screenplays and novels and how to get them published” at 7 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 14, in Wilson Hall Room 334. On Saturday, Oct. 15, she will speak at the Golden Mulerider Breakfast at 9 a.m. in the Grand Hall of the Donald W. Reynolds Campus and Community Center. A book signing will follow from 10-11 a.m. She will also be available to sign books during Mulegating at the SAU Welcome Center.
Wingfield’s book, “The Homecoming of Samuel Lake,” will be available beginning Friday at the SAU Bookstore in the Reynolds Center. Set in 1956 Columbia County, Arkansas, the novel is the story of the charming, unconventional Moses/Lake family and their outspoken 12 year old daughter, who, in her determination to rescue a young friend from his father’s terrible abuse, puts them in the center of a dilemma which has far-reaching, dangerous consequences.
Raised in Louisiana, Wingfield attended SSC after graduating high school. She earned a bachelor of arts in English before teaching English and language arts in the Hope and Ashdown school districts.
Wingfield broke into freelancing by writing celebrity articles for Scene Magazine, Music City News, and The Saturday Evening Post. Several years later, she shifted lanes, tackling screenwriting. Her film credits include The Man In The Moon (Reese Witherspoon’s debut movie), The Outsider (starring Naomi Watts), and Hallmark Hall of Fame’s A Dog Named Christmas (winner of the 2010 Genesis Award), plus a number of Disney animation projects.
