Hickory – Lenoir-Rhyne University’s Visiting Writers Series (VWS) will present Poet Laureate of Alabama, Jennifer Horne, on Thursday, Jan. 18 from 7 to 8 pm in Belk Centrum. All Visiting Writer events are free and open to the public.
Horne is a writer, editor, and teacher, and was named the twelfth Poet Laureate of Alabama in July of 2017. She is serving as the University’s writer in residence, and is teaching a poetry workshop on campus during the spring 2018 semester. Horne is the author of two collections of poetry, Little Wanderer (2016) and Bottle Tree (2010), two poetry chapbooks, Miss Betty’s School of Dance and Tineretului, as well as a collection of short stories, Tell the World You’re a Wildflower. Her short story, “The Other Shoe” was published in The Shoe Burnin’: Stories of Southern Soul and her article, “Sara Mayfield: A Woman of Her Times” was published by the Alabama Heritage Magazine in the spring of 2016. She co-edited All Out of Faith: Southern Women on Spirituality, Circling Faith: Southern Women on Spirituality, and Belles’ Letters II (2017). She also edited Working the Dirt: An Anthology of Southern Poets.
“As the new Poet Laureate of Alabama, I’m looking forward to exploring the literary culture of North Carolina, and I hope to make some connections between writers in both states,” Horne said. “I’m also excited about the opportunity to work with creative writing students at Lenoir-Rhyne while serving as the visiting writer in residence. The reputation of Lenoir-Rhyne as a whole, and the strength of the Visiting Writers Series in particular were a strong draw for me.”
While Horne will spend time teaching at LRU during the spring semester, she will also be working on a project to revise the draft of a biography she wrote on Sara Mayfield, an Alabama woman who wrote a book about Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald, her childhood friend in Montgomery.
“Mayfield was at different times in her life a journalist, inventor, song-catcher, mental patient, and, perhaps, employed in military intelligence,” Horne said. “I think her life story will resonate with many readers, as she strove to live a full life within the bounds of cultural expectations for southern women of her time and place.”
The series will continue with the following authors:
March 21, 2018
Marie Heaney & Catherine Heaney
Belk Centrum, 7 – 8 p.m.
March 22, 2018
Zadie Smith and Nick Laird
Belk Centrum, 7 – 8 p.m.
April 14, 2018
Robert Beatty
P.E. Monroe Auditorium, 12 – 1 p.m.
April 19, 2018
Terry Gifford
Belk Centrum, 7 – 8 p.m.
Alabama Poet Laureate at LRU tonight
