Women authors' contributions continue to influence readers and students alike, SE faculty said last week at Great Women Authors.

"You can find yourself in their (women authors') works despite gender and despite race," Benita Reed, instructor of English, said.

Reed spoke of African American women authors, namely Toni Morrison and Alice Walker.

Morrison and Walker confronted the issues facing black culture such as accepting the values, mores and morals of the white culture and the injuries that a culture consequently receives from neglecting its own roots, Reed said.

Also speaking was Dr. Janet Huchingson, author and associate professor of English.

In 1995 Huchingson published With No Little Regrett (sic), a fictionalized account of The Journal of Madame Knight, written by Sarah Kemble Knight.

Huchingson said Knight served as a point of interest and inspiration during Huchingson's college years when she first read Knight's journal.

Terri Schrantz, assistant professor of sociology, discussed women mystics.

Hildegard of Bingen, author, poet and musician several hundred years ago, experienced powerful vision, which she believed came from God.

Nursing publications, relating to career opportunities, were discussed by Veronica Warrior, campus nurse.

Warrior discussed the field of nursing and its impact on past and current literature.