Tribute to Louis D. Rubin Jr.

Some of the best writers in the country gathered at Hollins on November 6, 2009, to honor their former teacher and mentor Louis D. Rubin, Jr. and celebrate 50 years of the creative writing graduate program he founded at Hollins.

Creative writing alumni, Hollins trustees, the English and creative writing faculty, and friends were there to pay homage to Rubin and his successors, especially John Rees Moore, co-founder of The Hollins Critic with Rubin, and Richard Dillard.

Thanks to lead donors Ted and Carol Bayne Price '66 and other friends, a seminar room in Swannanoa Hall, home of the creative writing program, has been named in Rubin's honor and The Hollins Critic has a permanent endowment. In addition to naming the room and endowing the Critic, the gift also funded creation of a wall on the first floor of Swannanoa Hall which lists all the Hollins writers in residence, who since 2000 have been known as the Louis D. Rubin Jr. Writers in Residence.

(l to r) John Rees Moore, Cathy Hankla '80, M.A. '82 ( director of the M.F.A. Program in Creative Writing and professor of English ), Louis D. Rubin Jr., and Lee Smith '67.

(l to r) Richard Dillard, professor of English, Lucinda Hardwick MacKethan '67, and Moore.

(l to r) Wyndham Robertson '58, Ginny Mann May '68, and Rubin.