Snake Nation: Thanks, Valdosta, Lowndes County

Published 9:00 am Saturday, January 23, 2016

Over 25 years ago, I got the wild idea of starting a literary press.

I say wild because somebody should have warned me not to, that there was too much work and very little money in that endeavor.

Instead, I had a lot of encouragement, Jerome Stern, head of the Creative Writing Department of Florida State University; Barbara Passmore of the Price Campbell Foundation; Janice Daugharty, renowned Southern writer; the entire English department at Valdosta State University; the Turner Center for the Arts — staff and board; and most of all Jean Arambula, writer and gifted computer engineer jumped on board.

And now, in spite of many ups and downs, Snake Nation Press still exists and is thriving.

I equate the Press with the Snake in the “B.C.” cartoon. The Fat Broad keeps beating it to death with a club, but in the next frame or two, there it is, in all its snakiness, making a joke.

I have to believe that the people in Valdosta are unique in their ability to help, encourage, forgive, and endure, since I and the Press have been the beneficiary of those tender mercies many times over.

Just recently, my friend and fellow writer, Morris Smith, now deceased, left a wonderful monetary gift to the Press. Along with Wilby and Gloria Coleman, Cynthia Schumacher of Sebring, Fla., James Najarian of Massachusetts, and Robin and Autumn Pennington of Washington, D.C.  Their gifts are the beginning seed money of a capital campaign for the restoration of the building on 110 W. Force St., where the Press and a radio station will be housed as another on-going center of the arts in Valdosta. 

There are quite a few of those art places here. I wouldn’t try to name them all because I’d leave someone out. But I would like to name some  people, who I know personally, who have tirelessly worked and supported art behind the scenes:

The Snake Handlers at the Turner Center, a group of writers that I could not live without, some gone to their reward and some still with us. The women and men at the Turner Arts Center, headed now by Cheryl Oliver, the director, a demanding job if there ever was one.

Also the Cultural Arts Guild, Lena Bosch and Margaret Mittiga, their names come to mind as unwavering in their support of the arts. Brenda Smith, a great writer, who just lately is spearheading a Literacy Festival to be held at the Rainwater Center in May.

Who did the Tour of Homes for years? Is the Wymodausis Women’s Club still in existence? Who are the women at the Crescent, the master gardeners of our blessed community?

The Valdosta Daily Times, what would Valdosta be without it and Dean Poling? All the artists, poets, and writers over the years who have sent their work to the Turner Arts Center and to Snake Nation Press, and to those behind-the-scenes people here in Valdosta who have made this such a great place to live.

At this time of year, starting a new one, I realize how much I owe to so many, as I imagine we all do. I know better than anyone how undeserving I am, but the people in Valdosta and Lowndes are the truest examples of the Golden Rule.

I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.     

Roberta George is the founding publisher of the Snake Nation Press.