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Editor and Poet William Wright to Give a Reading at Washington and Lee University

Washington and Lee University’s Glasgow Endowment and “Shenandoah: The Washington and Lee University Review” will present a reading by editor and poet William Wright of Marietta, Georgia, on Nov. 2 at 4:30 p.m. in the Multipurpose Room of the Hillel House on the W&L campus.

The reading is free and open to the public. It will be followed by a Q&A and a book signing.

Wright, whose Ph.D. is from the University of Southern Mississippi’s Writing Center, is the author of several volumes of poetry, including “Tree Heresies,” “Night Field Anecdotes” and “Dark Orchard.” He is an assistant editor for “Shenandoah” and also edits “Town Creek Poetry.”

His long-term projects include the multi-volume series “The Southern Poetry Anthology” with Texas Review Press. He is also co-editing “Hard Lines: Rough South Poetry,” University of South Carolina (forthcoming, 2016).

Wright, whose subject matter includes both the gothic, rural South and the new, changing and diverse South, has also been a college writing teacher and a peach packer. He will serve as the guest writer-in-residence at the University of Tennessee in the spring of 2016.

His work – including poems, interviews, essays and copious reviews – has appeared in “Kenyon Review,” “Oxford American,”Southern Poetry Review,”Crab Orchard Review,” “Southern Quarterly” and “Texas Review.” This summer he is providing Poems of the Week, along with brief commentary, for “Shenandoah” (shenandoahliterary.org). While on campus in November, he will work with current and former “Shenandoah” interns. More information on Wright can be found on www.williamwright.net.

Of Wright’s work, “Shenandoah” editor R. T. Smith said, “Will’s poems are deft and dark but always seeking the luminous image, the radiant phrase. He’s found a way to be both careful and wild, and has become a vital force in poetry and an important curator of American literature.”

For further information, contact “Shenandoah” at (540) 458-8908.