Dr. Rand Brandes (center), Martin Luther Stevens Professor of English, at Lenoir Rhyne University spoke to the club about the LR Visiting Writers Series which celebrates 25 years of fine writers tonight when Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jon Meacham opens the 2013-2014 series, at 7:30 PM, at P.E. Monroe auditorium. Accompanying Dr. Brandes was VWS steering committee member Carina Richardson (L) and VWS steering committee chairman Sally Fanjoy (R).
Dr. Brandes is the founder and Director of Lenoir-Rhyne’s Visiting Writers Series, which since 1988 has hosted over two-hundred writers such as, Alice Walker, Shelby Foote, John Updike, Frank McCourt, Julia Alvarez and WS Merwin, U.S. Poet Laureate 2010-2011. The Series has also launched two county-wide reading initiatives, The BIG Read for adults and The Little Read for elementary school children. In 2010 he was awarded a GlaxoSmithKline Faculty Fellowship from the Institute for Emerging Issues located at NCSU. Brandes is the Lenoir-Rhyne Writer-in-Residence, and poems from his chapbook Balefires have been translated into Romanian by Nicolae Dabija. His chapbook, What Winter, was published in 2010 by Goosepen Press.
The VWS mission statement states ‘The Visiting Writers Series of Lenoir-Rhyne University
believes that reading is an essential element in the creation of vibrant communities. We invite authors to read from their own works in a relaxed environment before university and community audiences. We believe the beauty and power of words help us make sense of the world. Children’s writers, mystery writers, essayists, poets, novelists — all participate in this celebration of the written and spoken word. We believe that a community of readers is a better community.”
The Lenoir Rhyne University Visiting Writers Series 2013-2014 season includes the following authors:
- Jon Meacham – Historian, Pulitzer Prize winner, and author of Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power
- Martin Marty – Religious historian and author of more than 40 books; recipient of the National Book Award for Philosophy and Religion
- James Dodson – North Carolina author of several books on great golfers, including Ben Hogan: An American Life
- Junot Diaz – Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and 2012, recipient of a MacArthur “Genius” grant
- A.S. Byatt – British author and winner of the Booker Prize for her novel Possession
- Lou Berney – Crime novelist and author of Whiplash River and Gunshot Straight
- Belle Boggs – Award-winning author of Mattaponi Queen: Stories
- Isabel Wilkerson – Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of The Warmth of Other Suns
- Joseph Bathanti – North Carolina Poet Laureate and author of This Metal
- Sherman Alexie – National Book Award winner for The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
- Mary Pope Osborne – Nationally acclaimed children’s writer and author of The Magic Tree House series
For more information, visit http://visitingwriters.lr.edu/home or contact Dr. Brandees at (828) 328-7077 or via e-mail at brandes@lr.edu. View the 2013-2014 Lenoir Rhyne Visiting Writers Series schedule here.
