Chris Gavaler and Lesley Wheeler Host ‘A Celebration of New Books’ The English professors will discuss their most recent books and the intersections between their scholarly and creative projects.

By Emily Innes Stanley
September 15, 2026

Washington and Lee University presents a public reading with Chris Gavaler, professor of English, and Lesley Wheeler, the Henry S. Fox Professor of English, at 11:50 a.m. on Sept. 23 in Northen Auditorium in Leyburn Library.

The event, titled “A Celebration of New Books,” is free and open to the public and is sponsored by the Department of English and the University Library.

Gavaler and Wheeler will discuss their most recent books, emphasizing the intersections among their scholarly and creative projects. Between their individual presentations, the professors — who are also married — will share one of their image-text collaborations based on the major arcana of the tarot deck.

Gavaler will draw on his eighth scholarly book, “The Color of Paper” (2026), to talk about the ways color has been used in comics to represent racial and ethnic categories, often contradicting actual skin colors. “I’m especially interested in how whiteness, the literal color of paper, relates to ‘whiteness’ as a racial concept,” he said.

The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education recognized “The Color of Paper” as a book of interest, and JSTOR awarded it a Path to Open grant. Sika A. Dagbovie-Mullins, professor of English at Florida Atlantic University and of the external reviewers, praised the “groundbreaking work” for its exploration of how formal comics elements can shape racial assumptions and expectations.

“Chris Gavaler delves into the complexities of racial representation with the same discerning care and insight that distinguishes his acclaimed scholarship on form,” said Qiana Whitted, professor of English and African American studies at the University of South Carolina. “Readers will come away with a deep understanding of the shifting conditions that shape race on the comics page.”

Wheeler will also discuss her most recent book and sixth poetry collection, “Mycocosmic” (2025), which interweaves personal material with an unexpected side obsession in mycelium, the root-like part of fungal life.

The book focuses on the idea of fungi and bacteria and their roles in sustaining life on Earth, and the themes are channeled through various poetic forms including free verse, litany, sonnets, the bref double, the golden shovel and the villanelle. In her presentation, Wheeler will focus on the underpoem in “Mycocosmic,” a book-length essay in verse that runs along the bottom of each page and responds to the poems above it.

Wheeler’s interest in mycelium, which began almost a decade ago, continues to grow, and this past year she was invited to read from “Mycocosmic” at the Olympic Peninsula Fungi Festival and the Telluride Mushroom Festival. “It’s been enormous fun to keep learning from mycologists and other mushroom aficionados, [and] the obsession is still going strong,” Wheeler said.

Gavaler, who has served as a member of the W&L faculty since 2010, has authored or co-authored nine books and several one-act plays, including five winners of the Pittsburgh New Works Festival. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in English and a Master of Arts in English education from Rutgers University and an MFA from the University of Virginia.

Wheeler has been a member of the W&L faculty since 1994, teaching poetry from the 19th through the 21st centuries and creative writing. She earned a Bachelor of Arts from Rutgers University and a Ph.D. from Princeton University. Wheeler also serves as poetry editor of Shenandoah.