{"id":789,"date":"2021-02-18T12:39:47","date_gmt":"2021-02-18T17:39:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.spcollege.edu\/communications-educational-information\/?p=789"},"modified":"2024-01-30T15:31:25","modified_gmt":"2024-01-30T20:31:25","slug":"dita-e-veres-inspired-by-professors-time-abroad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.spcollege.edu\/communications-educational-information\/dita-e-veres-inspired-by-professors-time-abroad\/","title":{"rendered":"Dita e Ver\u00ebs inspired by Professor&#8217;s Time Abroad"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Prolific and acclaimed writer and <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.spcollege.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\">St. Petersburg College<\/a> Professor Dr. Gregory Byrd recently published a short story, Dita e Ver\u00ebs, in the <a href=\"https:\/\/baltimorereview.org\/index.php\/winter_2021\/contributor\/gregory-byrd\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Winter 2021 issue of Baltimore Review<\/a> that was inspired in part by the time he spent in Albania.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Byrd, who has taught creative writing, English composition, and literature at SPC since 1990, earned his bachelor\u2019s degree from Eckerd College, master\u2019s degree in Creative Writing from Florida State University and his doctoral degree in American Literature from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"134\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.spcollege.edu\/communications-educational-information\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2021\/02\/gregheadshotlowres.jpg\" alt=\"Dr. Gregory Byrd looks directly into camera\" class=\"wp-image-790\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Byrd spent time as a Fulbright Fellow in Albania in 2011, teaching creative writing. His story, Dita e Ver\u00ebs, is a tale of unimaginable grief juxtaposed with a festive setting at the annual Albanian celebration of spring by the same name. Byrd said he received tragic news while in Albania during Dita e Ver\u00ebs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhile I was there, my mother sent news that my cousin had been murdered in rural Nevada, her body buried in a shallow grave,\u201d Byrd said. \u201cAbout that time, we attended the Summer Day festival and it seemed ironic in a sort of T.S. Eliot way, that there would be a celebration of life while I was thinking of my cousin\u2019s murder.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Byrd has published many scholarly essays, articles and poetry, and he was nominated for a prestigious Pushcart Prize. His novels, both set in World War I, include <em>Where Shadow Meets Water<\/em>, about a pilot from Florida, and&nbsp;<em>Long Train Home to Scarborough<\/em>, about a reporter and a nurse. His poetry chapbook,<em>&nbsp;<\/em><em>The Name for the God Who Speaks<\/em>, won the Robert Phillips Prize from Texas Review Press. &nbsp;He has also published two other poetry chapbooks, Florida Straits and At Penuel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To read more about Byrd\u2019s time in Albania, <a href=\"https:\/\/gregorybyrd.wordpress.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">follow him on his blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To learn more about SPC\u2019s humanities and writing courses, check out our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spcollege.edu\/future-students\/degrees-training\/communications\/communications-classes-and-degrees\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Communications<\/a> offerings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SPC Professor Gregory Byrd&#8217;s short story, Dita e Ver\u00ebs, was inspired by his time teaching in Albania as a Fulbright Scholar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":743,"featured_media":795,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,41],"tags":[],"coauthors":[30],"class_list":["post-789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-communications","category-featured"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\r\n<title>Dita e Ver\u00ebs inspired by Professor&#039;s Time Abroad - Communications<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"SPC Professor Gregory Byrd&#039;s short story, Dita e Ver\u00ebs, was inspired by his time teaching in Albania as a Fulbright Scholar.\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, 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