Author Florence Gonsalves and Poet Robert Wood Lynn to Give Glasgow Endowment Reading at W&L The public reading will take place Oct. 3 at 6 p.m. in Northen Auditorium inside Leyburn Library.

By Emily Innes
September 21, 2023

Washington and Lee University presents a public reading with author Florence Gonsalves and award-winning poet Robert Wood Lynn on Oct. 3 at 6 p.m. in the Northen Auditorium inside Leyburn Library. The event is sponsored by the Glasgow Endowment.

Gonsalves and Lynn both reside in Virginia and are contributors to W&L’s Shenandoah literary magazine. The writers will also visit classes while on campus to discuss their craft with students.

“We thought it would be fun for students — and the community at large — to meet some writers and contributors to Shenandoah who are in our own backyard,” said Beth Staples, assistant professor of English and editor of Shenandoah.

Gonsalves is the author of two books of young adult fiction, “Love and Other Carnivorous Plants” and “Dear Universe.” Her research interests center on anti-racist assessment practices and an alternative to the traditional writing workshop method called Portrait of the Artist. In 2020, Gonsalves founded the Dandy Line Poetry Troop, a community arts endeavor based in southwestern Virginia that aims to demystify “highbrow” art through the spontaneous production of free, typewritten poems. She received her bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Dartmouth College and her MFA in creative writing from Virginia Tech. Her writing has been featured in LitHub, Shenandoah, Pulp Mag and Hobart.

Lynn’s debut collection of poetry, “Mothman Apologia,” was the winner of the Yale Younger Poets Prize and the Kate Tufts Discovery Award and was listed among the best poetry books of 2022 by The New York Times.

“Lynn’s powerhouse of a first book centers on the beauty and troubles of this part of Virginia,” said Lesley Wheeler, Henry S. Fox Professor of English. “As he writes, ‘Appalachia doesn’t rhyme with euthanasia,’ and the landscape and people here deserve a poet’s loving attention.”

A 2023 National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellow, Lynn splits his time between Rockbridge County and New York City. He holds an MFA in poetry from New York University and his writing has appeared in Shenandoah, American Poetry Review, Poetry Daily, Poetry Magazine and The Southern Review. His most recent work, “How to Maintain Eye Contact,” was published earlier this year.