By Marcy Hege

Georgann Eubanks

There are probably people who were a part of your college life but, for whatever the reasons, your paths rarely crossed after graduation. You might catch a snippet of information about them from a mutual friend or read about them in an alumni publication. Georgann Eubanks and I were Public Policy majors during the first years of that program at Duke, taking many of the same courses, even the same internship program. With less than 50 students in the program, you pretty much knew everyone in the major.

Although Georgann is extraordinarily involved in a myriad of activities, I’ve been able to somewhat keep track of her. When I saw she had received the 2007 Leadership in the Arts award from Arts North Carolina for her many years of service (three years as its president), it was time to find out just what she had been doing for the past three decades. She immediately returned my email letting me know she had slipped up to her mountain cabin to avoid the August heat and do some writing. She told me the cabin was built with the recycled logs from two Person County tobacco barns and a great retreat. We got together for lunch when she returned to the Triangle.

Now living and working in Carrboro, Georgann is one of the principals in Minnow Media, a full-service multimedia production company specializing in documentary projects that preserve the voices and stories of individuals, communities or events on the verge of dramatic change or silence and projects that will enrich discussion around issues of individual growth and social transformation. She and her partner, Donna Campbell, are or have worked on a myriad of projects ranging from the Divine Feminine to mental illness to education to homosexuality and religion to Billy and Ruth Graham. The firm has also produced videos on the arts and the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Duke (formerly Duke Institute for Learning in Retirement).

Eubanks says she often finds herself involved with a nonprofit organization just as the group is undertaking major changes in its organizational structure or facing some other challenge. If something involves the arts or creative writing in North Carolina, she’s probably been involved.

Eubanks, the literary tourist in action, looks for ancient graffiti on a rock in western NC.

One of the founders of the North Carolina Writer’s Network, Georgann serves as the director of Duke’s Writers’ Workshop program and teaches courses on making documentaries. Her published works are exhaustive and range from short stories and poems to reviews and profiles. She’s won a regional Emmy, received the Sam Ragan Fine Arts Award, served as chair of the North Carolina Humanities Council and is a North Carolina Arts Council Writers Fellowship recipient. Georgann worked with Vernon Pratt to create the Wall of Words at the State Department of Public Instruction building in Raleigh.

Literary Trails of the North Carolina Mountains is Eubanks’ latest book and a project of the N.C. Arts Council. In this publication, Georgann offers tourists a guide to where our state’s writers have lived and worked in the western part of the state. The book includes excerpts from the writers’ work and offers insights to North Carolina traditions, places and people who shaped those literary works. UNC Press will release the book on October 28 at Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh, with Georgann in attendance to sign copies and for readings. You can hear more about the book on UNC TV’s Bookwatch on October 12. Georgann plans to write similar guides for the central and coastal regions of the state.

You would think that someone who is so talented in the literary arts would have little or no time for other passions. An accomplished musician, Georgann plays the guitar and has written scores for some of Minnow Media’s video work. She has a love of baseball, even having her own glove. She also likes gardening but with her schedule, it’s difficult to keep up the maintenance.

When I asked her about retirement, Gerogann didn’t see it in her future. Her work is a part of her life. And, you know, I can’t imagine her slowing down too much either.

Perhaps Gerogann was best described by Joseph Bathanti in his tribute when she received the 2007 award from ArtsNC:

”In the twenty-some years I have known her, she has been all the places I’ve been, but gotten there first, often after setting up the venue or even inventing it. She has done all the things I’ve done, only years before and much better. And, on top of it, she’s been to all the places I’ve never been and accomplished all the things I haven’t. … Above all, she is modest, a grand friend and companion, blessed with outrageous wit and a blazing social conscience….”

Couldn’t agree more…Georgann Eubanks is Fifty & Fabulous.