Thornton Writing Program
Spring 2012 Thornton Writer-in-Residence
Laurie Lynn Drummond, Spring Thornton Writer-in-Residence, will read from her work Thursday, February 23, 2012 at 7:30 p.m., Hopwood Auditorium. Reception and book signing will follow. The event is free and open to the public. For more information, call 434.544.8820.
Laurie Lynn Drummond's collection of linked stories, Anything You Say Can and Will be Used Against You(HarperCollins 2004), was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award and won the Best Book Award from the Texas Institute of Letters and the Texas Violet Crown Award, and has been translated into Finnish, Japanese, and French. "Something About a Scar" won the Edgar Award for Best Short Story. Her fiction and creative nonfiction have appeared in The Southern Review, Story, New Virginia Review, Black Warrior Review, Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, Fourth Genre, Brevity, and River Teeth, among others. She is currently working on a book-length memoir, Losing My Gun. A former uniformed police officer in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Drummond taught creative writing at St. Edward's University in Austin before teaching fiction and creative nonfiction in the M.F.A. program at the University of Oregon, where she also directed the Kidd Tutorial Program, a yearlong multi-genre course for undergraduates.
The reading is sponsored by The Richard H. Thornton Endowment in English and the School of Humanities and Social Sciences.
Spring 2012 Guest Reader
Doug Van Gundy, Spring Thornton Reader, will read from his work Thursday, March 15, 2012 at 7:30 p.m., Hopwood Auditorium. Reception and book signing will follow. The event is free and open to the public. For more information, call 434.544.8820.
Doug Van Gundy's first book of poetry, A Life Above Water, was published in 2007 by Red Hen Press, and his poems have since appeared in The Oxford American, Ecotone, The Louisville Review, Waccamaw and other journals. Doug is also an award-winning traditional musician, playing fiddle, mandolin and guitar in the old-time duo Born Old. They recently played on National Public Radio's Mountain Stage, and their new CD, Vintage Keys, was released in October 2011.
Doug directs the Honors program at West Virginia Wesleyan College, where he also teaches in the graduate and undergraduate creative writing programs.
The reading is sponsored by The Richard H. Thornton Endowment in English and the School of Humanities and Social Sciences.
Fall 2011 Thornton Writer-in-Residence
Adam Davies, Fall Thornton Writer-in-Residence, read from his work September 29 in Hopwood Auditorium. He is the author of three novels: The Frog King, screenplay by Bret Easton Ellis; Goodbye Lemon, a tragicomic family drama whose film rights are now with Gerard Butler's company; and Mine All Mine, a screwball thriller that was named "One of the Top Ten Crime Books of the Year" by Booklist and was purchased for adaptation to film with the author to write the screenplay. Davies has made numerous radio and TV appearances, including NPR and the A&E Channel's "Breakfast with the Arts."
The reading was sponsored by The Richard H. Thornton Endowment in English and the School of Humanities and Social Sciences.
Fall 2011 Guest Reader
Sergei Lobanov-Rostovsky, Fall Thornton reader, read from his work Thursday, October 20, 2011. Sergei Lobanov-Rostovsky has taught at Kenyon College since 1993 with a focus on Shakespeare, Renaissance poetry, film, and fiction writing. His research centers on the politics of spectacle in early modern drama, and he has published a series of crime novels under the pseudonym Kenneth Abel. In 2001, he received Kenyon's Trustee Award for Teaching Excellence. Since 2005, he has served as associate editor of The Kenyon Review. A graduate of Louisiana State University, he received an M.A. in creative writing from Stanford Un2iversity and a Ph.D. in English from Harvard.
The reading was sponsored by The Richard H. Thornton Endowment in English and the School of Humanities and Social Sciences.
Past Thornton Writers-in-Residence
The Richard H. Thornton Endowment
Dr. Richard H. Thornton, 1907 alumnus of Lynchburg College, was a distinguished teacher, writer, and publisher. He became president of Henry Holt and Company publishers and established friendships with such writers as Carl Sandburg, Thomas Wolfe, and Vachel Lindsay. He was both editor and friend to Robert Frost.
Since 1975 the endowment established in his name has made it possible for the Department of English to bring some of the most exciting and successful poets, novelists, dramatists, and nonfiction writers of our time to the College. These writers have taught classes, given readings, and enriched the cultural life of the campus.
The Thornton Writer-in-Residence Workshop
Each spring semester a writer comes to the College to teach a semester-long class. To ensure individualized instruction, the class size is limited to sixteen students. Eligibility is determined through submission of sample writings. Any student, regardless of major, may apply.
Students often take more than one Thornton writing course during their four years, and academic credit earned can count toward an English major or toward elective hours, depending on the student's needs.
The visiting writer also gives public readings, conducts other classes at the request of professors, and is available for private conferences with student and faculty writers.
Thornton Writer Residency
A fourteen-week residency at Lynchburg College, including a stipend, is awarded annually to a fiction, a poet or creative nonfiction writer for the spring term. The residency also includes housing, some meals, and roundtrip travel expenses. The writer-in-residence will teach a weekly creative writing workshop, visit classes, and give a public reading. Submit a copy of a previously published book, a curriculum vitae, a cover letter outlining evidence of successful teaching experience, workshop course proposal with sample syllabus, and contact information for three references by October 15.
Lynchburg College, Thornton Writer Residency, c/o Julie Williams, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, 1501 Lakeside Drive, Lynchburg, VA 24501. 434.544.8820. Allison Wilkins, Contact.
There is no entry fee. If you would like your book(s) returned, please submit a SASE with sufficient postage.
Public Readings and Short Workshops
Thornton writers commonly visit campus for one or two days. The centerpiece of such visits is a public reading or lecture. Writers also frequently meet with classes or conduct workshops for students interested in creative writing.
The LC Writing Program
The Thornton program is part of the larger writing program at Lynchburg College. Other courses in creative writing include Introduction to Creative Writing, Fiction Writing, and Poetry Writing, all of which are taught by regular faculty of LC who are both teachers and writers. Among the faculty are published fiction writers, poets, playwrights, journalists, and essayists.
The small classroom setting and 16:1 student/faculty ratio assure accessible faculty and lively classes.
For further information, contact Allison Wilkins at wilkins.a@lynchburg.edu.
