Laura Sloan Patterson, PhD, of Greensburg, Pa., an associate professor of English at Seton Hill University, has recently published her first book, “Stirring the Pot: The Kitchen and Domesticity in the Fiction of Southern Women.”

“Stirring the Pot,” published by McFarland & Company, is a work of literary criticism that examines a wide variety of southern domestic literature, focusing particularly on the role of the family kitchen as a driving force in the narratives of Ellen Glasgow, Eudora Welty, Lee Smith, and Toni Morrison. In the preface to “Stirring the Pot” Patterson writes: “In a romanticized version, played out in countless television commercials for food and cleaning products, the kitchen shines and sparkles, disinfected, somehow remaining emotionally warm and smelling buttery and sweet. But in many homes, the kitchen serves as a playground, dog pen, homework center, craft corner, computer work station, breakfast nook and more.”

“I come from a family of women and men who love to be in the kitchen together, and I’ve always thought of cooking as a social activity and as part of the ongoing story of a family,” said Patterson. “I think many families operate this way, and the powerful communal nature of the kitchen often stands out in southern literature.”

Laura Sloan Patterson grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina. She earned a bachelor of arts degree in English literature at Princeton University and a master of arts and doctoral degree in English at Vanderbilt University. While at Vanderbilt, Patterson received the Susan Ford Wiltshire Prize for Graduate Essay on a Women’s Studies Topic; Patterson describes this essay as “the earliest basis for my book.” Patterson has also published several articles in academic journals, including “From Courtship to Kitchen: Radical Domesticity in Twentieth-Century Southern Women’s Fiction,” and “Why Are All the Fat Brides Smiling? Body Image and the American Bridal Industry.” A resident of Greensburg, Pa., Patterson currently teaches writing and literature courses and serves as director of the undergraduate writing program at Seton Hill University.