Poetry Reading Features Authors Hoppenthaler and Smith

By Julie Cline
December 8, 2016

The 8th Annual Washington and Lee University Writer in Residence Poetry Reading, featuring John Hoppenthaler and R.T. Smith, will be Jan. 12, 2017, at 4:30 p.m. in the Hillel House Multipurpose Room.

The reading is free and open to the public. Hoppenthaler’s reading is sponsored by the Glasgow Endowment, and Smith’s reading is sponsored by the office of W&L’s Writer in Residence. Books will be for sale and a book signing will follow the readings.

Hoppenthaler’s books of poetry are “Domestic Garden” (2015), winner of the 2015 Brockman-Campbell Award for best volume of poetry written by a North Carolinian; “Anticipate the Coming Reservoir” (2008); and “Lives of Water” (2003). He has co-edited a volume of essays on the poetry of Jean Valentine, “This-World Company,” (2012).

He currently serves as advisory editor to the cultural journal Connotation Press: An Online Artifact, where he edits “A Poetry Congeries.” He is a professor of creative writing and literature at East Carolina University.

Smith has edited Shenandoah: The Washington and Lee University Review since 1995. His 14 books of poetry include “In the Night Orchard” (2014) and “Outlaw Style” (2007), which received the Library of Virginia Poetry Prize.

Another volume, “Summoning Shades,” will be released in late 2017, and new poems are scheduled for Southern Review, Five Points and Carolina Quarterly. Smith’s sixth collection of stories, “Doves in Flight,” will appear in spring 2017. He is Washington and Lee’s writer in residence.