Editor, writer to address GCHS
The Garland County Historical Society will present guest speaker Rex Nelson at its meeting at noon Tuesday at the Garland County Library. Nelson’s program is called “The Two States of Arkansas.” The meeting is open to the public.
Nelson is one of the most high-profile writers and speakers in the state. As senior editor of the Arkansas Democrat- Gazette, he writes three columns a week and essays for the cover of the newspaper’s Sunday Perspective section. He’s the author of three books — the first full-length biography of Hillary Rodham Clinton, a biography of Arkansas educator Ben Elrod and his most recent, a collection of his essays on Arkansas called “Southern Fried: Going Whole Hog in a State of Wonder.” He is author of a blog known as “Rex Nelson’s Southern Fried” and makes regular television and radio appearances.
Nelson has said, “Arkansas is a hard place to explain to outsiders. We’re mostly Southern but also a bit Midwestern and a tad Southwestern. The Ozarks are different from the pine woods of the Gulf Coastal Plain, and the Delta is different from the Ouachitas. Invariably, though, those who take the time to get off the main roads and get to know the real Arkansas are entranced by the place.”
Nelson served for almost a decade as the policy and communications director for Gov. Mike Huckabee and then served for four years in the administration of President George W. Bush as one of the president’s two appointees to the Delta Regional Authority. He has been inducted into the Arkansas Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame. In 2016, Gov. Asa Hutchinson and the Arkansas Rural Development Commission named Nelson as its Rural Advocate of the Year for the state of Arkansas.