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Maynard, Soniat, and Adams to speak at West Virginia Wesleyan College
released: 10/30/01
In the next two weeks, several writers will be coming to Wesleyan’s campus to speak in classes and read from their works. Lee Maynard, Katherine Soniat, and Gail Adams are the three writers who will attend. Maynard will speak Wednesday, October 31, at 9 a.m., in Room 300 in the Martin Religious Center. Soniat will speak Thursday, November 1, at 3 p.m., in Nellie Wilson Lounge and again, at 7 p.m., on the 2nd floor in Annie Merner Pfeiffer Library. Adams will be speaking on Monday, November 5, at 9 a.m., also in Room 300 in the Martin Religious Center. Everyone is encouraged to take advantage of the authors’ presence. All these sessions are free and open to the public.

Maynard will be speaking to Dr. McNamara’s Fiction Writing class about his recently republished book, Crum. The Washington Square Press originally published Maynard’s book in 1988, 16 years after it was written. Crum was out of print for years but was reissued by the West Virginia University Press last year and reprinted again earlier this month. Maynard’s novel contains fictionalized tales of his boyhood home and adventures. Maynard grew up in Wayne County, located in southern West Virginia. He graduated from WVU’s P.I. Reed School of Journalism and then worked as editor of the state-run West Virginia Conservation Magazine for six years while also serving on the state Commission for Manpower and Technology. In 1968, Maynard joined Outward Bound, which led him from Boston to Prescott, Arizona to Santa Fe,

New Mexico, and then he went on to becoming a national director of the organization. Maynard is now 65 and still living in Santa Fe, where he works as a writer of the “Drama in Real Life” features for Reader’s Digest. He also serves as a freelance business consultant for non-profit organizations.

Soniat will be visiting Dr. McKinney’s Introduction to Creative Writing class to read some of her poetry. Soniat’s poem, A Shared Life, won the Iowa Poetry Prize and also a Virginia Prize for Poetry. Notes of Departure was awarded the Camden Poetry Prize from the Walt Whitman Center for the Arts and Humanities. Soniat is a recipient of Virginia Commission for the Arts Fellowships, the William Faulkner Prize, and an Ann Stanford Prize. Her poems have appeared in such literary journals as The Nation, The New Republic, Southern Review, Virginia Quarterly, Gettysburg Review, Kenyon Review, and TriQuarterly. Soniat is an associate professor of English at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia.

Adams will be talking to Dr. McNamara’s Fiction class about some of her work. She is a fiction writer, winner of the Flannery O’Conner Award for her collection of short stories, The Purchase of Order. She teaches in the West Virginia University MFA Writing program. Adams has taught writing widely and has won awards for her outstanding teaching.