W&L’s Laura Brodie to Give Glasgow Endowment Reading Brodie’s April 1 reading will also celebrate her 25 years at W&L, ahead of her retirement in May.

Office of Communications and Public Affairs
March 26, 2026

Washington and Lee University presents a public reading with Laura Brodie, visiting associate professor of English, at 7 p.m. on April 1 in Northen Auditorium inside Leyburn Library.

Brodie’s reading is free and open to the public and is sponsored by the Glasgow Endowment. The event will also serve as a celebration of Brodie’s work and time at W&L, ahead of her retirement at the end of May.

In her talk, Brodie will share a blend of memoir and history related to her recent work on Southern California’s ties to Confederate culture. The work emerged from Brodie’s experiences in Virginia in 2017, and, in March 2026, Brodie joined three historians in Los Angeles for a roundtable discussion of “Confederate California” as part of the programming for the current “Monuments” exhibit on view at The Brick and in the Geffen Contemporary space of the Museum of Contemporary Art. The exhibit, featured in The New York Times and The Washington Post, juxtaposes decommissioned Confederate statues with works by contemporary Black artists. Brodie notes how, in the same decades when Confederate monuments were being raised in the South, Los Angeles was branding itself as the new Southland, with Dixie-themed businesses and real estate developments.

Brodie’s nonfiction and novels have featured in media outlets ranging from CNN and NPR to The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. Her first nonfiction book, “Breaking Out: VMI and the Coming of Women” (2000), covered the introduction of women into the Virginia Military Institute. Her first novel, “The Widow’s Season” (2009), was published in five languages, became a bestseller in Europe and was optioned for film. Brodie’s short fiction has been anthologized in The Bedford Introduction to Literature, and her articles on Southern history have appeared in various magazines and newspapers, including TIME, Slate and The American Scholar.

“Laura has been a valued colleague for my entire career at W&L,” said Holly Pickett, head of the Department of English. “Her breadth in the classroom is matched by her versatility as a writer, and she has made great contributions to the Lexington community over the years as well. I wish her all the best in her next chapter as a writer.”

Brodie earned her bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and her Ph.D. from the University of Virginia. After teaching at W&L for 25 years, she will be retiring at the end of May 2026. In her time at the university, Brodie has designed more than 20 new courses and taught more than 100 course sections to over 1,600 students.