Charles Boyington was a charasmatic 19-year-old who in 1835 was executed in Mobile for the murder of his best friend. Before his death, he foretold that an oak tree would grow above his grave as a sign of his innocence, and the oak did indeed sprout and grow just as he predicted. The Boyington Oak […]
Read More Boyington Oak: Where the Rubber Meets the Road in Driving Literary Tourism to MobileThe 2nd Annual Boyington Oak Festival will be held in Mobile May 14-15 at the historic Oakleigh House. The festival will include a play about Charles Boyington, who was executed in 1835 for the murder of his friend but continued to proclaim his innocence to his dying breath. Boyington famously foretold that his innocence would […]
Read More 2nd Annual Boyington Oak Festival planned for May— and a criminal pardon may be in the works for the main character!Many ghost stories that live in legend also find their way into the pages of literature, but the unique story of Boyington Oak in Mobile can claim to reside in a living thing itself: an oak tree that continues to thrive after almost two-hundred years. Charles Boyington was executed in 1835 on a conviction of […]
Read More Boyington Oak: A Ghost Story That Lives Beyond Legend and LiteratureThis year’s winner of the Faulkner University Mobile Campus Tourism Poetry Contest was Anhkiet Nguyen Rodriguez, Sr. Ankiet received a $100 prize for his poem, which featured Mobile’s historic Three Georges Candy Shop. Confection Perfection by Anhkiet Nguyen Rodriguez, Sr Mmmm… Mmmm… Mmmm…Will you take me to Three Georges candy shop?I won’t stop till I […]
Read More Faulkner Tourism Poetry Contest Features Mobile Candy ShopU.S. Representative Martha Roby (R-AL) delivered the following speech on March 1 in Montgomery, Alabama, where she presented the 2018 SELTI Tourism Fiction Award to author Jeanie Parnell. Jeanie’s tourism short story “Tunnel Vision,” which featured many Civil Rights attractions in Montgomery, won the 2018 SELTI Writing Contest. The award also came with a $500 […]
Read More U.S. Representative Martha Roby presents 2018 SELTI Tourism Fiction AwardJeanie Parnell’s tourism short story “Tunnel Vision” won the 2018 SELTI Writing Contest, which focused on Montgomery, Alabama. This Southern city has a rich, dramatic history that helped shaped our national character in very powerful ways. Please visit the short tourism guide at the end of this story to learn how to visit the real […]
Read More “Tunnel Vision” Wins 2018 SELTI Writing ContestThe 2018 SELTI Writing Contest is officially underway. This year’s featured city is Montgomery, Alabama, a small city with a unique and varied past that has been entwined in our nation’s history in powerful ways, from the birth of the Confederacy to the birth of the Civil Rights Movement. Many other historical figures have entered […]
Read More 2018 SELTI Writing Contest: Montgomery-The Capital of DreamsThe nation’s first nonfiction guidebook on tourism writing is on the market through Universal Publishers release of Mary Palmer’s Tourism Writing: A New Literary Genre Unveiling the History, Mystery and Economy of Places and Events. Palmer wrote the book through a grant from Faulkner University, which has also conducted several tourism poetry contests. The book introduces […]
Read More First Nonfiction Guidebook on Tourism Writing PublishedSELTI was proud to sponsor the cash prizes for the Faulkner 2018 Alabama Tourism Poetry Contest, conducted by Faulkner University and judged by Alabama Poet Laureate Jennifer Horne. Faulkner University is taking the first steps in challenging its students to promote tourism destinations directly through literature. Whether through poems, short stories, or novels, literature offers […]
Read More “Blakeley State Park” Wins Faulkner 2018 Alabama Tourism Poetry ContestCharisa Hagel’s tourism short story “Behind the Mill” won the 2016 SELTI Writing Contest, which focused on the Selma and Dallas County area. Charisa’s fictional characters brought to life the real historical attraction in Selma of Kenan’s Mill, a small water-powered mill from the 1860s. Please read the short tourism guide at the end of […]
Read More “Behind the Mill” Wins 2016 SELTI Writing Contest
