English professors Chidsey Dickson and Laura Long will read from their work at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 10 in Sydnor Performance Hall. A reception and book signing will follow. The reading is sponsored by the Richard H. Thornton Endowment in English and the School of Humanities and Social Sciences.
Laura Long is the author of the novel Out of Peel Tree and two poetry collections, The Eye of Caroline Herschel: A Life in Poems and Imagine a Door.Out of Peel Tree was recently reviewed an Editor’s Pick at Oprah.com, and poems from The Eye of Caroline Herschel are currently nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction appear in many literary magazines such as Shenandoah and Southern Review, and awards include a James Michener Fellowship. She teaches in the BA English and Westover Honors programs at University of Lynchburg, and as guest faculty in the Low-Residency MFA Program in Creative Writing at West Virginia Wesleyan.
Chidsey Dickson enjoys his cell phone and walking. Poetry keeps him occupied while not on Facebook or Twitter. He strongly recommends that people with oodles of disposable income donate to WordWorks, a local nonprofit that helps elementary school kids enjoy writing. He has published articles in various forms (book, print journal, on-line journal) and writes “occasional essays” on the values and practices of our complex social identities. He is at work on a book-length collection of essays on the uses of spiritual discomfort and aporia in a writer’s life.
