Listening in The Dark on Haunted Hill event flyer

Donna O’Kelley Butler • Jacqueline Elsner

David Oates • Joy Ovington • Eddie Whitlock

Athens-Clarke County Library

2025 Baxter Street • Athens, Georgia • 706 613 3650 x343

Monday, October 29, 7:00 pm

Listening in the Dark rises once again from the grave to celebrate its fifth birthday at the library on Monday, October 29 at 7:00 pm!

Listening in the Dark on Haunted Hill: An Evening of Spooky Stories for Grownups will take place on Monday, October 29 at 7 p.m. in the Appleton Auditorium. Join us… if you dare! A quartet of librarians will chill your blood with original and traditional horror stories: Bogart Librarian Donna Butler will be on hand, Athens-Clarke County Library volunteer Coordinator Eddie Whitlock will read an original short story, ACCL Operations Manager Joy Ovington returns, and retired librarian Jackie Elsner will have you on the edge of your seat. Library friend David Oates regales us this year, and others may join the throng.

Donna O’Kelley Butler has been telling stories of one sort or another her whole life. Currently, she serves as the Branch Supervisor of the Bogart Library, where she entertains and enlightens hundreds of patrons, school children and teachers with her renditions of folktales, legends, myths and historical tales. One or two of them MIGHT just be true!

Jacqueline Elsner enjoyed over forty years of library storytelling before her retirement from the Athens Regional Library System in 2014. Occasionally she now tells Appalachian and Cherokee stories  and sings ballads to guests at the Len Foote Hike Inn in Amicalola Falls State Park, GA. Her CD Ballad of The Bones: Byron Herbert Reece Poems Sung as Ballads helps preserve and promote the legacy of Georgia’s mountain poet.

David Oates has 30 years experience teaching writing, has had three books published, and his work has appeared in many magazines He is the host and producer of “Wordland” on WUGA FM. Oates received his master’s in creative writing from the University of Illinois—Chicago.

Joy Ovington has enjoyed a lifetime of working in all aspects of performing and holds an MFA from the Florida State University/Asolo Conservatory for Professional Actor Training. Favorite roles include Witch #3 in MacBeth and Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. While not working in Library Administration, she enjoys choir singing and working with theatre companies around town.

Eddie Whitlock manages the Library Store and coordinates volunteers for the Athens-Clarke County Library. He is the author of two books: Evil is Always Human (2012) and POTUS of the Living Dead (2014). He is currently working on a sequel to his first novel.

The event is free and open to the public.

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