SPECIAL TO THE REPORTER

English instructor and Writing Center director Alan Brown will present &uot;Hoodoo, Haints and Horror: Alabama’s Historically Haunted Places&uot; on Oct. 18 at 6:30 p.m. at the North Shelby Library.

Brown teaches at the University of West Alabama and is a member of the Alabama Humanities Foundation Resource Center program.

Alabama’s reputation as a repository of haunted places was firmly established in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s through the work of Kathryn Tucker Windham.

Brown’s presentation will not only update the stories featured in Windham’s books; but it will also show that houses are not the only haunted sites in Alabama.

The places featured by Brown will include cemeteries, bed and breakfasts, highways, college campuses, schools, bridges, libraries, factories and government buildings.

Many of the stories such as the haunting of radio station WZPQ in Jasper and Lucas Tavern in Montgomery are not very well known outside their communities.

Brown’s lecture will illustrate Alabama’s rich tradition of oral ghost narratives and encompasses more than just spooky stories.

Brown has a doctorate in English from Illinois State University.

He has directed summer teaching seminars funded by the AHF on the history and literature of racism; the gothic writing of Carson McCullers, Flannery O’Connor and Eudora Welty; and most recently, on Alabama folklore.

His publications include &uot;The Face in the Window and Other Alabama Ghostlore (1996)&uot; and &uot;Shadows and Cypress: Southern Ghost Stories (2000).&uot;