Hollins University

2023: Children's Lit Visiting Author-Illustrator
2023-07-10 18:00 - 19:00 (America/New_York) | VA
Olivia Stephens is a graphic novelist, illustrator, and writer from the Pacific Northwest. She earned her B.F.A. in illustration from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2017. Stephens has created work for a number of sites and publications, including The New York Times, The Guardian, and FIYAH Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction. Stephens was a 2019-20 Literary Fellow for the Tulsa Artist Fellowship. Her debut graphic novel, Artie and the Wolf Moon, was released from Lerner Books in 2021. Stephens will give a public lecture and a workshop for students.

https://www.olivia-stephens.com/

Reception to follow.

All Children’s Literature and Book Illustration events will be held in person and simultaneously broadcast by Zoom webinar. They are free and open to the public. To receive webinar links to the series, please email kidlit@hollins.edu.

Monday Night Guest Speaker Series
2023-07-10 19:30 - 21:00 | Mill Mountain Theatre, 1 Market Square SE, Roanoke, VA, 24011, United States
July 10: Dominic Taylor
Each Monday night the Playwright’s Lab at Hollins and Mill Mountain Theatre present a talk by a prominent working professional theatre artist.

Wednesday Night Lab Readings
2023-07-12 19:00 - 21:00 | Hollins Theatre
July 12: Hamlet’s Ghost, by Emily Flieschhauer
These readings, which are early drafts of student-written plays, are presented as part of the Playwright’s Lab course. The reading is followed by a two-tier feedback session. The first tier is based on the Liz Lerman Critical Response, with the playwright taking notes on audience reactions to things that worked, questions they feel are still unanswered, things that didn’t work as well as the strengths we identified earlier, and questions that the playwright might have. The second tier of feedback is closed, and only students registered for the course and faculty attend. This session is less structured, and playwrights can engage with commenters directly. In this way, students are exposed to both kinds of feedback so that they have a nurturing environment as well as preparation for the more raw responses one could encounter in a review or blog comments.

Author Lesléa Newman
2023-07-14 19:30 - 20:30 | VA
Lesléa (pronounced “Lez-LEE-uh”) Newman has created 80 books for readers of all ages, including the teen novel-in-verse October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard. Recent picture books include The Babka Sisters, The Fairest in the Land, I Can Be….ME!, Sparkle Boy, and Gittel’s Journey: An Ellis Island Story. Her classic story Heather Has Two Mommies, the first children’s book to portray lesbian families in a positive way, was followed by more children’s books on lesbian and gay families: Felicia’s Favorite Story, Too Far Away to Touch, Saturday Is Pattyday, Mommy, Mama, and Me, and Daddy, Papa, and Me. Newman’s numerous literary accolades include the Sydney Taylor Body-of-Work Award. Her book Always Matt: A Tribute to Matthew Shepard will be published by Abrams ComicArts in the fall of 2023 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the creation of the Matthew Shepard Foundation. A popular guest lecturer, Newman has spoken on college campuses across the country and teaches in Spalding University’s low-residency M.F.A. program.

https://lesleanewman.com/

All Children’s Literature and Book Illustration events will be held in person and simultaneously broadcast by Zoom webinar. They are free and open to the public. To receive webinar links to the series, please email kidlit@hollins.edu.

No Shame Theatre
2023-07-14 23:00 - 23:59, 2023-07-28 23:00 - 2023-07-29 01:00 | Hollins Theatre
No Shame Theatre is an experiential performance lab where writers, performers, and audience are constantly changing roles. Anything can happen and usually does in this late-night venue for original work. We take the first 15 pieces to walk in the door and there are only three rules: pieces must be original (no copyright violations), short (five minutes or less), and not break anything (including the law). Inside those rules you can do pretty much anything you’re interested in trying in front of a live audience—plays, monologues, songs, dance, poetry, mime, juggling, comedy, tragedy, improvisation, dada, magic—we’ve even seen people do floral arrangements! Pieces are accepted starting at 10 p.m., doors open at 10:30 p.m., and the show starts at 11 p.m., running on average an hour and a half. Admission: free and open to the public.

Monday Night Guest Speaker Series
2023-07-17 19:30 - 21:00 | Mill Mountain Theatre, 1 Market Square SE, Roanoke, VA, 24011, United States
July 17: Keiko Carreiro
Each Monday night the Playwright’s Lab at Hollins and Mill Mountain Theatre present a talk by a prominent working professional theatre artist.

Wednesday Night Lab Readings
2023-07-19 19:00 - 21:00 | Hollins Theatre
July 19: Mag the Gobo by Richie Cannaday
These readings, which are early drafts of student-written plays, are presented as part of the Playwright’s Lab course. The reading is followed by a two-tier feedback session. The first tier is based on the Liz Lerman Critical Response, with the playwright taking notes on audience reactions to things that worked, questions they feel are still unanswered, things that didn’t work as well as the strengths we identified earlier, and questions that the playwright might have. The second tier of feedback is closed, and only students registered for the course and faculty attend. This session is less structured, and playwrights can engage with commenters directly. In this way, students are exposed to both kinds of feedback so that they have a nurturing environment as well as preparation for the more raw responses one could encounter in a review or blog comments.

Hollins Playwrights Festival of New Works
2023-07-21 00:00 - 2023-07-23 23:59 | Mill Mountain Theatre, 1 Market Square SE, Roanoke, VA, 24011, United States
Each summer at the end of July, we present a three-day event showcasing readings of student work from the Playwright’s Lab. Normally, these eight readings are minimally staged at Mill Mountain Theatre’s Waldron Stage for the general public and close to a dozen guest professional responders from all over the globe. As part of the festival, there will be a panel discussion when our guest respondents will introduce themselves, talk briefly about their own background, and then give a moderated response to the festival as a whole. Get acquainted with these plays and playwrights before they are famous and engage in a conversation about theatre with our students, faculty, and some established theatre professionals.

Friday, July 21

8 p.m.: Chrysalis, by Gwyneth Strope

Saturday, July 22

11 a.m.: Mr. Body Electric Man, by Mac Mitchell
2 p.m.: Blood in the Wood, by Chris Kaminstein
4 p.m.: Buddies, by Ben Abbott
8 p.m.: Respair, by Rachel Graf Evans

Sunday, July 23

11 a.m.: Between the Shelves, by David Veatch
2 p.m.: Robots with Benefits, by Ami Trowell
4 p.m.: Text Me Tomorrow, by Shelby Love
8 p.m.: Festival Guest Respondent Round Table

No Shame Theatre
2023-07-21 23:00 - 23:59 | Ursula’s Cafe, 511 S Jefferson St., Roanoke, VA, 24011, United States

Francelia Butler Conference Keynote Speaker
2023-07-22 11:00 - 12:00 | VA
Julia L. Mickenberg, Ph.D., is professor of American studies at the University of Texas at Austin. She is the author of Learning from the Left: Children’s Literature, the Cold War, and Radical Politics in the United States, winner of the ChLA Book Award. She also coedited Tales for Little Rebels: A Collection of Radical Children’s Literature (2008) and The Oxford Handbook of Children’s Literature (2011), which won the Children’s Literature Association’s 2011 Edited Book Award. Mickenberg teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on American cultural history since 1865, children’s literature and culture, radicalism in the United States, the Cold War, the 1960s, Americans abroad, women radicals and reformers, and, most recently, the history and future of higher education.

All Children’s Literature and Book Illustration events will be held in person and simultaneously broadcast by Zoom webinar. They are free and open to the public. To receive webinar links to the series, please email kidlit@hollins.edu.

Author and Editor Frances Gilbert (with Rebekah Lowell)
2023-07-24 19:30 - 20:30 | VA
After earning her M.A. in English, Frances Gilbert’s first job in publishing was as a book club editor at Scholastic Canada in Toronto. She moved to New York in 2000 to set up a children’s editorial division at Sterling Publishing, where she stayed until 2012. Gilbert then moved to Random House Children’s Books, where she is vice president, editor-in-chief of Doubleday Books for Young Readers. Titles she has acquired and edited include The New York Times bestseller The Purloining of Prince Oleomargarine by Mark Twain, Philip Stead, and Erin Stead; I Don’t Want to Be a Frog by Dev Petty and Mike Boldt; the Happy Hair series by Mechal Renee Roe; and Catching Flight by Hollins alumna Rebekah Lowell (concurrently a guest speaker at Hollins). In addition to editing children’s books, Gilbert also writes them: She is the author of the picture books Can You Hug a Forest?, Go, Girls, Go!, Too Much Slime!, and I Will Always Be Your Bunny in addition to several Step Into Reading titles. You can follow Gilbert on Twitter at @GoGirlsGoBooks, where she posts about children’s writing and editing.

All Children’s Literature and Book Illustration events will be held in person and simultaneously broadcast by Zoom webinar. They are free and open to the public. To receive webinar links to the series, please email kidlit@hollins.edu.

(Photo: Vaz Dando)

Alumna Author-Illustrator Rebekah Lowell (with Frances Gilbert)
2023-07-24 19:30 - 20:30 | VA
Rebekah Lowell is an author-illustrator and surface pattern designer with a passion for the natural world. As a survivor of domestic abuse, she’s found the natural world to be a peaceful healing ground. Her debut novel in verse, The Road to After, offers a story of healing from trauma, and her debut picture book, Catching Flight, provides hope on the wings of birds. It was released in March 2023 and edited by Frances Gilbert (concurrently a guest speaker at Hollins). When not in her studio, you can find Lowell outside—gardening, nature journaling, birding, and raising butterflies— often with her daughters, who she homeschools. Lowell has a B.F.A. in illustration from the Rhode Island School of Design and an M.F.A. in children’s book writing and illustrating from Hollins. She is represented by Paige Terlip at the Andrea Brown Literary Agency.

https://rebekahlowell.com/

All Children’s Literature and Book Illustration events will be held in person and simultaneously broadcast by Zoom webinar. They are free and open to the public. To receive webinar links to the series, please email kidlit@hollins.edu.

Monday Night Guest Speaker Series
2023-07-24 19:30 - 21:00 | Mill Mountain Theatre, 1 Market Square SE, Roanoke, VA, 24011, United States
July 24: Scott Bradley
Each Monday night the Playwright’s Lab at Hollins and Mill Mountain Theatre present a talk by a prominent working professional theatre artist.

Wednesday Night Lab Readings
2023-07-26 19:00 - 21:00 | Talmadge Recital Hall, Bradley
July 26: I Am a Black Woman by Allana Pommier
New location: Talmadge Recital Hall, Bradley

These readings, which are early drafts of student-written plays, are presented as part of the Playwright’s Lab course. The reading is followed by a two-tier feedback session. The first tier is based on the Liz Lerman Critical Response, with the playwright taking notes on audience reactions to things that worked, questions they feel are still unanswered, things that didn’t work as well as the strengths we identified earlier, and questions that the playwright might have. The second tier of feedback is closed, and only students registered for the course and faculty attend. This session is less structured, and playwrights can engage with commenters directly. In this way, students are exposed to both kinds of feedback so that they have a nurturing environment as well as preparation for the more raw responses one could encounter in a review or blog comments.

Agent Chad W. Beckerman
2023-07-28 09:00 - 10:00 | VA
Chad W. Beckerman brings over 20 years of illustration and design experience to the CAT Agency. After studying illustration as an undergrad at RISD, Beckerman went on to be a designer at Scholastic, a senior designer at Greenwillow Books, and then became the creative director at ABRAMS Kids and Comic Arts, where he spent 13 years overseeing the design of 250 books a year—from picture books to novels, to graphic novels, to art and entertainment books. Beckerman is behind the aesthetic for over 40 The New York Times bestselling and award-winning books including the blockbuster Diary of a Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinney, the Caldecott honor, and Coretta Scott King Award Winning Trombone Story, illustrated by Brian Collier, and the Newbery Medal honor book El Deafo by Roanoke resident Cece Bell. Beckerman’s greatest joy is working with illustrators, and as an agent he is busy curating and cultivating a unique group of artists who are inspiring and innovating in children’s literature. He represents illustrators and author-illustrators from all over the globe, who create artworks for all ages and genres. In addition to representing illustrators, Beckerman offers packaging of picture books, graphic novels, and middle-grade series books through his design studio CWB Art & Design.

www.chadwbeckerman.com

All Children’s Literature and Book Illustration events will be held in person (Wetherill Visual Arts Center, Room 119) and simultaneously broadcast by Zoom webinar. They are free and open to the public. To receive webinar links to the series, please email kidlit@hollins.edu.

Artist Talk: Maggie Perrin-Key
2023-08-31 18:00 - 19:00 | Eleanor D. Wilson Museum, Richard Wetherill Visual Arts Center
Maggie Perrin-Key: Foreseeable Past
Exhibit through September 3, 2023
Artist talk: Thursday, August 31, 6 pm with reception to follow

Maggie Perrin-Key is an artist and muralist based in Roanoke, VA. She earned her B.A. in studio art from Hollins University in 2017 and has shown her work regionally since then. This site-specific installation features 12 colorful and exuberant large-scale acrylic paintings with additional elements painted directly on the museum walls. Perrin-Key explains, “As vulnerable as it is to create artwork in my studio, I have found painting murals in public spaces to be exponentially more so. And I find so much joy in the experience of truly activating a space through shape, color, and form with my paint.”

Perrin-Key has been included in group exhibitions at Olin Hall Galleries at Roanoke College; Artspace Gallery in Richmond, Virginia; and Charlotte Russell Contemporary in Raleigh, North Carolina. Perrin-Key was also the recipient of the City of Roanoke’s 2022 Art in Place grant for public art installation.

The exhibition Maggie Perrin-Key: Foreseeable Past and its related programs are sponsored in part by the city of Roanoke through the Roanoke Arts Commission

Art Exhibition Opening: "Gina Louthian-Stanley"
2023-08-31 18:00 - 19:00 | VA
August 31 – December 10, 2023

Gina Louthian-Stanley ’00 is a multimedia artist, writer, and workshop instructor born and living in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. Louthian-Stanley has worked primarily as a printmaker since the late 1970s. In 2006, she began experimenting with encaustic techniques in which she juxtaposes transparent and opaque layers coupled with unique textures. Louthian-Stanley’s works represent physical and emotional sensations which carry the viewer into a narrative inspired by the natural world. She writes, “I pursued my childhood dream of becoming an artist, continuing as a student to earn my B.A. in studio art from Hollins University and my masters from Radford University. While I love learning, I also want to help others reach their goals to find their creative voice.” This exhibition and its related programs are sponsored in part by the City of Roanoke through the Roanoke Arts Commission.

Hours are Tuesday-Sunday, 12-5 pm; Thursday, 12-8 pm

Reading by Authors Kelley Shinn ’04, M.F.A. ’06 and Jennifer A Sutherland M.F.A. ’20
2023-09-07 19:30 - 20:30 | Green Drawing Room, Main
Kelley Shinn’s new book, The Wounds That Bind Us (West Virginia University Press, 2023), tells her own true story: an orphan at birth who loses her legs at the age of 16 to a rare bacterial pathogen. She becomes an avid off-road racer and, as a single mother, attempts to drive around the globe in a Land Rover with her three-year-old daughter in tow to bring light to the plight of land mine survivors. The Southern Review of Books calls The Wounds That Bind Us “simultaneously empowering and disconcerting. . . . Ultimately, one comes away from this book with an appreciation for the beauty of broken things. We are, so many of us, like cracked pottery, repaired with gold. Our wounds may be terrible, but they are also precious.” Shinn’s writing has appeared in The New York Times, Fourth Genre, Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine, and elsewhere. She completed her bachelor’s degree and her M.F.A. in creative writing at Hollins. She lives in Ocracoke, NC.

Jennifer A Sutherland is a poet, essayist, and attorney in Baltimore. Her debut book, Bullet Points: A Lyric (River River Books, 2023), is part prose poem, part lyric essay. It considers an American courthouse shooting, its aftermath, and its echoes in law, history, and capitalism. “Bullet Points is relentless, harrowing, and tremendously smart,” said Natalie Shapero, author of Popular Longing. “With uncommon acuity and force, Sutherland chronicles experiences of both public and intimate violence, writing back from trauma and toward something new and necessary. This book is an absolute accomplishment.” Sutherland’s work has appeared or will appear in Hopkins Review, Best New Poets, Denver Quarterly, I-70 Review, Cagibi, Appalachian Review, Northern Virginia Review, and elsewhere. She won first place in Streetlight’s 2018 Poetry Contest for her poem, “An Elegant Variation.” Sutherland completed her M.F.A. in creative writing at Hollins and is an alumna of workshops at Bread Loaf, Tin House, and Kenyon Review.

Sponsored by the department of English and creative writing and the Dee Hull Everist Visiting Speaker Fund.

Lecture by Roosevelt Montás
2023-09-07 19:30 - 20:30 | Talmadge Recital Hall, Bradley
Roosevelt Montás is senior lecturer in American Studies and English at Columbia University. He holds an A.B. (1995), an M.A. (1996), and a Ph.D. (2004) in English and comparative literature from Columbia University. He was director of the Center for the Core Curriculum at Columbia College from 2008 to 2018. Montás specializes in Antebellum American literature and culture, with a particular interest in American citizenship. His dissertation, Rethinking America: Abolitionism and the Antebellum Transformation of the Discourse of National Identity, won Columbia University’s 2004 Bancroft Award. In 2000, he received the Presidential Award for Outstanding Teaching by a Graduate Student. Montás teaches “Introduction to Contemporary Civilization in the West,” a year-long course on primary texts in moral and political thought, as well as seminars in American Studies including “Freedom and Citizenship in the United States.” He is director of the Center for American Studies’ Freedom and Citizenship Program in collaboration with the Double Discovery Center. He speaks and writes on the history, meaning, and future of liberal education and is author of Rescuing Socrates: How the Great Books Changed My Life and Why They Matter for a New Generation (Princeton University Press, 2021).

Talmadge Recital Hall, Bradley; book signing and reception in the Lewis Reading Room, Wyndham Robertson Library

Overflow seating: Babcock Auditorium, Dana Science Building

Art Exhibition Opening-"CUBA: Beyond Mambo and Rock 'n Roll"
2023-09-14 18:00 - 19:00 | VA
CUBA: Beyond Mambo and Rock ‘n Roll

Artist talk with reception to follow.

September 14 – December 10, 2023

Since the embargo, Cubans have used their creativity, imagination, and ingenuity in daily life. This attitude and quest for freedom for themselves and their country is apparent in each of the artists’ works whether they examine human rights, fantastical inventions, or philosophical concerns. CUBA: Beyond Mambo and Rock ’n Roll provides an opportunity to learn about Cuba through the eyes of artists whose work speaks to their nation’s history, culture, and sociopolitical climate. The exhibit will present drawings, paintings, and sculpture by Esterio Segura Mora, Ernesto J. Garcia Nodarse, and Ernesto R. Figueroa Pérez. Also on view is Arte Templo by artists Isabel María Arche Martínez and Ramón Modesto Díaz Martín.

CUBA: Beyond Mambo and Rock ’n Roll has been organized by Joseph Scarpaci, Ph.D. (professor emeritus, Virginia Tech, and director of the Center for the Study of Cuban Culture and Economy) who organizes cultural and birdwatching trips to Cuba, and has traveled extensively in that country since 1991.

This exhibition and its related programs are sponsored in part by the City of Roanoke through the Roanoke Arts Commission.

Hours are Tuesday-Sunday, 12-5 pm; Thursday, 12-8 pm

Reading by the Author of "lo terciario/ the tertiary" Raquel Salas Rivera
2023-09-21 19:30 - 20:30 | Frances Niederer Auditorium, Richard Wetherill Visual Arts Center
Raquel Salas Rivera is a Puerto Rican poet and translator of trans experience born in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. Among his six poetry books are lo terciario/ the tertiary (Noemi Press, 2019), longlisted for the National Book Award and winner of the Lambda Literary Award, and while they sleep (under the bed is another country) (Birds LLC, 2019), which inspired the title for no existe un mundo poshuracán: Puerto Rican Art in the Wake of Hurricane Maria at the Whitney Museum of American Art. He edited the anthologies Puerto Rico en mi corazón (Anomalous Press, 2019) and La piel del arrecife: Antología de poesía trans puertorriqueña (La Impresora & Atarraya Cartonera, 2023) and the literary journal The Wanderer. His translation of Ada Limón’s poem dedicated to NASA’s Europa Clipper mission will be traveling to Jupiter’s moon in 2024. Salas Rivera’s honors include being named poet laureate of Philadelphia, the Premio Nuevas Voces, and the inaugural Ambroggio Prize. He holds a Ph.D. in comparative literature and literary theory.

Sponsored by the department of English and creative writing, the department of modern languages, and the Dee Hull Everist Visiting Speaker Fund.

Opera Roanoke-Young Artist Performance
2023-09-24 15:00 - 16:30 | Talmadge Recital Hall, Bradley
Opera Roanoke’s Young Artists will present a special preview of the Opera’s upcoming 2023-24 season, featuring selections from Opera Roanoke performances and the Metropolitan Opera’s MET Live in HD season.

Artist Talk: Gina Louthian-Stanley '00
2023-09-28 18:00 - 19:00 | Eleanor D. Wilson Museum, Richard Wetherill Visual Arts Center
Art Exhibition: “Humanistic Geography-Uncovering a Sense of Place

Gina Louthian-Stanley ’00 is a multimedia artist, writer, and workshop instructor born and living in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. Louthian-Stanley has worked primarily as a printmaker since the late 1970s. In 2006, she began experimenting with encaustic techniques in which she juxtaposes transparent and opaque layers coupled with unique textures. Louthian-Stanley’s works represent physical and emotional sensations which carry the viewer into a narrative inspired by the natural world. She writes, “I pursued my childhood dream of becoming an artist, continuing as a student to earn my B.A. in studio art from Hollins University and my masters from Radford University. While I love learning, I also want to help others reach their goals to find their creative voice.” This exhibition and its related programs are sponsored in part by the City of Roanoke through the Roanoke Arts Commission.

Hours are Tuesday-Sunday, 12-5 pm; Thursday 12-8 pm. Exhibit through December 10.

Reception to follow

"What Cuban Literature? An Approach to Mediatization in the 21st Century"
2023-10-05 17:00 - 18:00 | Richard Wetherill Visual Arts Center, Room 119
In this presentation, Dainerys Machado Vento will discuss the mediatic circulation of Cuban literature outside the island as a case study to understand a process like mediatization. She will focus on analyzing the general characteristics of international mediatization of Cuban literature from 2006 to 2018. Questions that will be posed during her talk include which authors and topics became synonymous with Cuban literature during that period? and, how did political context and technology influence their mediatization?

Machado Vento is a Cuban author, editor, and scholar. She holds a Ph.D. in literary, cultural, and linguistic studies from the University of Miami and an M.A. in Hispanic American Literature from El Colegio de San Luis A.C., Mexico. She is the author of Las noventa Habanas (2019) and Retratos de la orilla (2022), two short-story collections. She is also the author of “Los muchachos en Trumplandia” (2023), an essay about pop culture and politics in the series The Boys. In 2021, she was named one of the world’s best young Spanish-language writers by the literary magazine, Granta. Her work has been translated into English, Italian, and Portuguese.

Theatre Production: "Goodnight Moon-The Magical Musical"
2023-10-06 00:00 - 2023-10-08 23:59 | Hollins Theatre
Written by Margaret Wise Brown ’32, Adapted for the stage by Chad Henry

When: October 6 at 7:30 pm, October 7 at 10 am and 7:30 pm, and October 8 at 2 pm
Where: Hollins Theatre Main Stage
What: This magical musical stage version of Margaret Wise Brown’s bedtime classic takes us into the imagination of the child who quite simply is not interested in falling asleep! Imbued with theatre magic, the Great Green Room comes to life before our eyes – the kittens, the mittens, the red balloon, and the cow jumping over the moon, tucked in with a few surprises. Although the book was written for the preschool set, ages three to 103 will be moonstruck by this joyous musical theatre treat.
Admission: $10 General Admission, $5 for Children under 12, and one FREE ticket to current Hollins students, faculty, and staff
Join us in the Great Green Room October 6-8!
For general admission, please go to https://our.show/hollinstheatre to reserve your seats!

Reading by the Author of "Pleasantview" Celeste Mohammed
2023-10-19 19:30 - 20:30 | Hollins Room, Wyndham Robertson Library, 7916 Williamson Road, Roanoke, VA, 24020, United States
Lawyer-turned-author Celeste Mohammed penned the novel Pleasantview (Ig Publishing, 2021), which won the 2022 CLMP Firecracker Award for Fiction and the 2022 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature. Author Tony Eprile called Pleasantview “a formidable debut” and added that the book’s “razor-sharp observations of misogyny and the abuse of power are leavened by humor and a pitch-perfect ear for the language of human.” Her work has appeared in The New England Review, Litmag, Epiphany, The Rumpus, among other places. She is the recipient of a 2018 PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers. She was also awarded the 2019 Virginia Woolf Award for Short Fiction, and the 2017 John Gardner Memorial Prize for Fiction. As a native of Trinidad and Tobago, Mohammad’s goal is to dispel all myths about island life and island people and to highlight the points of intersection between Caribbean and North American interests.

Sponsored by the department of English and creative writing and the Dee Hull Everist Visiting Speaker Fund.

Theatre Production: "First-Year Reading-Celebrate Our New Students"
2023-10-27 00:00 - 2023-10-28 23:59 | Botetourt Reading Room, 7916 Williamson Road, Roanoke, VA, 24020, United States
When: October 27 and 28 at 7:30 pm
Where: Botetourt Reading Room
What: A staged reading of The Seven Loves of Audrey Munson: A Mostly True Story, Except for the Parts We Made Up, written by J. Harvey Stone. This one-act play imagines the career of America’s first supermodel, Audrey Munson. It was selected by the Hollins Theatre Season Selection Committee and is performed by Hollins first-year students.
Admission: FREE and open to the public
Come out and join us! October 27-28!

Valley Chamber Orchestra Concert
2023-10-29 15:00 - 16:00 | duPont Chapel
Valley Chamber Orchestra provides amateur, professional, and student musicians of Southwest Virginia the opportunity to rehearse and perform orchestral music on a recreational basis for the pure enjoyment of music.

Author Julian Talamantez Brolaski’s book "Of Mongrelitude"
2023-11-02 19:30 - 20:30 | Green Drawing Room, Main
Julian Talamantez Brolaski is a two-spirit and transgender poet and musician of mixed Mescalero and Lipan Apache, Latin@, and European heritages. Its most recent book is Of Mongrelitude (Wave Books, 2017), a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Poetry. It is also the author of Advice for Lovers (City Lights, 2012), gowanus atropolis (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2011), and co-editor of a book of essays, No Gender: Reflections on the Life & Work of kari edwards (Litmus Press/Belladonna Books, 2009). Brolaski’s scholarly and poetic work deals with issues of indigeneity, resistance, two-spirit, trans, and mixed-race identity, and the way that language and song function as medicine. Its work has been included in the anthologies New Poets of Native Nations (Graywolf, 2018), Tending the Fire: Native Voices and Portraits (University of New Mexico Press, 2017), and Troubling the Line: Trans and Genderqueer Poetry and Poetics (Nightboat, 2012).

Sponsored by the department of English and creative writing and the Jackson Poetry Fund.
