The three-day event, hosted by Lee’s Department of English and Modern Foreign Languages, will begin the evening of Jan. 20 with “A Night of Poetry,” presented by Mike Carson, Sarah Kennedy, and Chelsea Rathburn, in the Edna Minor Conn Theater at 7.
Novelist Alexandria LaFaye will follow on Friday evening at 7 in the same location.
On Jan. 22 the event will conclude with the Sigma Tau Delta Symposium at 9 a.m. in the Humanities Center, followed by a screening of “Endings,” a film by Chris Hansen, at 2 p.m. in the Edna Minor Conn Theater.
Mike Carson was the first holder of the Melvin M. Peterson Chair in English Literature at the University of Evansville in Indiana, where he taught medieval and Renaissance English, specializing in Shakespeare and Milton, and from which he recently retired.
His poems have appeared in many journals, including the “Southern Review,” “Five Points” and the “New Virginia Review.” His collection, “The Keeper’s Voice,” was published by LSU Press. Carson earned his doctorate from Ohio State University, his master of arts from Miami University (Ohio) and his bachelor of arts from the University of Evansville.
Chelsea Rathburn won the 2005 Richard Wilbur Award for her first full-length collection, “The Shifting Line,” published by the University of Evansville Press.
Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in “Poetry,” “The Atlantic Monthly,” the “New Republic,” the “Hudson Review,” the “New England Review” and “Ploughshares,” among other journals and anthologies. In 2009, Rathburn received a poetry fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Sarah Kennedy is the author of six books of poetry, including “Home Remedies” (LSU Press), “A Witch’s Dictionary” (Elixer Press), “Consider the Lilies” (David Robert Books) and “Double Exposure” (Cleveland State University Press). Individual poems, essays and reviews have appeared widely in literary journals, including “Prairie Schooner,” “Shenandoah,” “Arts & Letters,” “VQR,” and “The Southern Review.”
Among her writing awards are The Strousse Award, the Paterson Prize, a Virginia Commission for the Arts grant, and a National Endowment for the Arts award. She is currently an associate professor of English at Mary Baldwin College in Staunton, Va.
Alexandria LaFaye, an assistant professor of English at Lee University, has established herself in the field of writing for young readers with 11 novels to her credit, including the Scott O’Dell Award-winning novel “Worth.”
In her commitment to always learn new things, she’s branching out into picture books “Walking Home to Rosie Lee,” (Cinco Puntos Press, 2011) and a novel in poetry for adult readers (“Pretty Omens,” in progress).
Chris Hansen is an award-winning screenwriter and director. His films include “The Proper Care & Feeding of an American Messiah” (best feature at several film festivals and screened at the AFI’s Dallas International Film Festival and the Virginia Film Festival), and “Endings” (Best Dramatic Feature at Southern Winds Film Festival and Best Director at Atlanta Underground Film Festival).
Hansen has also written about narratives in video gaming for Craig Detweiler’s book “Halos and Avatars: Playing Video Games with God,” and he edited the book “Ruminations, Peregrinations, and Regenerations: A Critical Approach to ‘Doctor Who.’” He is associate professor and director of the Film and digital media program at Baylor University in Waco, Texas.
These sessions are free.
