Lower housing affordability indicates improving market, housing experts say
Anniston Star – May 23
Calhoun County home affordability decreased in the first three months of the year as prices and demand rose, indicating a strengthening housing market. According to the Alabama Center for Real Estate’s latest affordability index, homes in the county were 3.16 percent less affordable in the first quarter of the year compared to the fourth quarter last year. Affordability decreased due to a jump in sales prices during the same period. The price increases, brought on by rising demand and a drop in cheap foreclosures, signal the market is recovering and returning to a more stable, pre-recession level, some housing industry experts say. Leonard Zumpano, professor of finance at the University of Alabama and the chair of real estate economics for the Alabama Association of Realtors, said those economic signs represent a healthier housing market. “It is true that housing in general, if affordability decreases, then the ability for buyers to purchase homes decreases,” Zumpano said earlier this week. “But coming from a deep recession, the fact that prices are rising and interest rates are remaining stable is probably a sign of a recovering market.”
UA civil engineering professor talks about making homes safer during tornadoes
WGOW-FM (Chattanooga, Tenn.) – May 23
UA civil engineering professor talks about making homes safer during tornadoes (live interview).
University of Alabama students prepare Alabama-specific show for Gulf Shores performance
Tuscaloosa News – May 24
For the 10th year of SummerTide, the professional show performed in Gulf Shores, the University of Alabama’s Department of Theatre and Dance wanted something a little new and different. Over the past decade, the department has figured a few things about its June-long run in the George C. Meyer Performing Arts Center, a space even more intimate than its own Allen Bales Theatre: A cast of about eight, generally four men and four women, is the right fit. Musicals, especially musical comedies and revues, seem the best bet. The lineup began in 2004 with “Pump Boys and Dinettes,” and continued with “Anything Goes,” “Grease,” “Little Shop of Horrors,” “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown,” “Godspell,” “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” “Dames at Sea” and last year’s “Smokey Joe’s Cafe.” “I think over the last 10 years we’ve gotten a sort of audience base that’s always there, who come every year,” said Ed Williams, the retiring founder of the department, who’s directing the 2013 show. “I think there are people who enjoy SummerTide even if they don’t know the show.”
Alabama to host creative writing camp for high schoolers
Tuscaloosa News – May 24
The University of Alabama will hold a creative writing camp for local high school students in June. The camp is open to rising freshmen through graduating seniors. No previous creative writing experience is required. The instructors will be published writers who are graduate students in UA’s master of fine arts program. They will lead a two-week exploration of creative writing under the direction of English professor Robin Behn. Students will experiment with different forms of writing, including fiction, nonfiction and poetry, give a public reading and create their own publication. Tuition and parking will be free for students. The camp will meet from 1-4 p.m. Monday through Friday, June 3 to June 14, in 301 Morgan Hall on UA’s campus. To register, send an email with the student’s name, address, phone number, email address, school and grade level to Ashley Chambers, camp director, at uacreativewriting.club@gmail.com. For information, visit www.bama.ua.edu/~cwc/.
Writers @ Work conference at Alta Lodge
Salt Lake Tribune – May 24
Michael Martone said one of the most useful pieces of advice he received about writing was “to lower my standards.” “Wanting only to write what is good or great or perfect leads to not writing,” said the award-winning author and University of Alabama professor. “I am all for quantity, not quality. And the act of writing, the practice of writing is the end in itself, not the means to an end.” Practical writing advice will be plentiful June 5-9 during the 2013 Writers @ Work conference, an annual event designed to promote and support a creative writing community. Writers @ Work was founded in 1984 when Dolly Makoff, the owner of Dolly’s Bookstore in Park City, approached writer/editor James Thomas about the possibility of a writers conference, according to the conference website, writersatwork.org/wp/.
LOCAL Q&A: Brian Oliu
Tuscaloosa News – May 24
Brian Oliu is a University of Alabama instructor, author of four books and the editor of “Tuscaloosa Runs This: A Collection of Tuscaloosa Writers” and the recent “Liver of Dixie: Stories From Egan’s.”