Take a Look — It’s in a Book

访问作家系列庆祝35年的灵感，创造力和艺术

Take a piece of paper and scribble on it.

Now pass it to your neighbor and turn that scribble into a monster.

这些是琳达·巴里在访问北京期间给学生、教师和工作人员的指示

Lenoir-Rhyne’s campus this September as part of the 访问ing Writers Series (大众). A comic artist, 作家, 老师, and MacArthur Genius Grant recipient, Barry kicked off the 35th season of VWS with flair and imagination.

WHERE IT ALL BEGAN

When Rand Brandes, Ph.D., faculty emeritus and Martin Luther Stevens Professor of English, came to LR in 1988, he invited Northern Irish poet Paul Muldoon to campus to give a reading.

“I said to him, ‘Paul, come to Hickory, North Carolina. We’ll give you $500, beer and pizza, and you can sleep on a couch.’  We started out small, 但LR重视作家系列不仅对全球网赌十大网站的学生团体，而且对Hickory社区的贡献,” shared Brandes.

在剧集《全球赌博十大网站》开始的几年里，布兰德斯拜访了朋友们, friends of friends, colleagues, and professional peers to help bring authors to the Hickory campus. During those first five years, notable visitors included novelist Lee Smith; North Carolina 诗人 Betty Adcock, Gerald Barrax, Susan Ludvigson, James Applewhite; and Reynolds Price.

Brandes很早就得到了现已退休的勒诺瓦-雷恩学院院长的支持, Robert Spuller, Ph.D. 他们都认为这个系列节目是哈佛大学长期以来融入社区传统的重要组成部分. “很少有大学像勒努瓦-莱恩学院那样与社区有着深厚的关系, 多年来，访问作家系列为这种关系做出了巨大贡献,” said Brandes.

在该系列出版的第10年，全球网赌十大网站与山胡桃公共图书馆建立了合作伙伴关系，这种关系继续得到促进和发展. Gaines and J. California Cooper, as well as noted Civil War historian Shelby Foote, to the area for readings and book signings.

与社区的孩子们建立联系，帮助他们养成对书籍的热爱, 作为该系列的一部分，一项名为“小阅读”的阅读倡议于2007年启动. 这是罗恩和桑德拉·迪尔为纪念他们的女儿莎拉·凯瑟琳·迪尔·邓波儿而做的礼物, a reading specialist at Oakwood Elementary School in Hickory, helped to start the program. 

In its first year, 来自Hickory五所小学的600名四年级和五年级学生参加了阅读《全球赌博十大网站》的活动, 《全球网赌十大网站》和2000年纽伯瑞奖得主克里斯托弗·保罗·柯蒂斯的《全球网赌十大网站》.

随着“小阅读”带来了布鲁斯·兰斯基等作家，大众汽车一直在激励下一代阅读, Mary Pope Osborne, Naomi Shihab Nye, and Jarrett and Jerome Pumphrey.

“小阅读是一个特别的项目，自成立以来，它对参加的学生产生了如此大的影响,” Brandes said. “去年全球网赌十大网站有一名LR学生获得了全球网赌十大网站英语课程颁发的最高文学奖, 在她的获奖感言中，她分享了她对写作的兴趣，因为她来到Little Read并赢得了三年级的写作比赛. And here she is, 15 years later.”

308 AUTHORS LATER

在牛津大学工作了34年之后，布兰德斯担任了VWS的负责人，于2023年5月底退休. “这个项目发展得很好，现在我觉得是时候尝试一些新的机会了,” said Brandes. “I’ll really miss the students. 看到他们兴高采烈，看到他们有机会和别人握手, or have that conversation. 但我知道，他们将继续蓬勃发展，并与LR的优秀教师一起学习.”

With his retirement, the VWS torch was passed to Laura Crawley, Ph.D., vice president for mission, engagement and innovation, who shares a passion for the series' past as well as its future.

“During the last 35 years, VWS和The Little Read为该地区数十所公立学校的LR学生和小学生提供了丰富的教育经验. It’s about more than schoolwork, though. The VWS enriches our entire community,” said Crawley. 这些著名作家与全球网赌十大网站探讨了人类存在的重大问题:全球网赌十大网站应该是谁? What are we here to do? What kind of world do we want to live in together?”

Crawley continues, “These authors and the series have given us opportunities to pause, take a few deep breaths, 并真正参与到人类经历的所有美妙和具有挑战性的多样性中. 这就是讲故事给人类提供的——一个想象自己与他人关系的机会, in community.”

在Crawley的带领下，《全球赌博十大网站》第35季将于9月14日在P.E. Monroe Auditorium with Barry’s talk and hands-on drawing activities. “This season we focused on getting a mix of illustrators, novelists, 诗人, and 作家s from varying genres and backgrounds,” said Crawley. The series is also going on the road this year to LR’s extended campuses. “不仅在山胡桃社区，而且在阿什维尔和哥伦比亚校区，全球网赌十大网站对这些活动的嗡嗡声感到兴奋. 这是第一季全球网赌十大网站邀请了作者在山科里校区以及阿什维尔校区(Barry)和哥伦比亚大学(Kaitlin Curtice)做演讲.”

As the series is underway, 克劳利对未来感到兴奋，甚至有更多的机会将社区团结在一起. “这个系列为大学和全球网赌十大网站生活和学习的社区提供了一个平台和桥梁, 因此，全球网赌十大网站可以通过共同的归属感和文化理解联系起来. 这一遗产还在继续，每一次新的事件都在挑战和鼓舞着全球网赌十大网站.”

In looking to the future and the 36th season, we had to ask Crawley, 你会邀请谁成为来访作家系列的一员——活着的还是死去的?’

“It would have to be Kurt Vonnegut. 他是一个文学天才，一个富有同情心和幽默感的人，即使在他亲身经历了人类彼此之间的恐怖之后，他仍然坚持他在人性中发现的美,” said Crawley. “He was refreshingly direct. 他在《全球网赌十大网站》(Breakfast of Champions)中写道:“只有当全球网赌十大网站的思想是人道的时候，全球网赌十大网站才是健康的。.’ He also said, ‘If you are an American, you must allow all ideas to circulate freely in your community, not merely your own.’”

“这就是来访作家系列的意义所在——在全球网赌十大网站的社区传播思想, 让全球网赌十大网站有机会参与其中，接受挑战，从彼此身上学到新东西, and perhaps even from ourselves.”