WEST LIBERTY, W.Va., April 4, 2016 — West Liberty University will host New York Time’s best-selling author Charlie Lovett for a two-day residence as the Hughes Lecture Series guest speaker this week. His visit coordinates with the upcoming tour of the “First Folio! The Book that Gave Us Shakespeare,” visiting Wheeling from the Folger Shakespeare Library and sponsored by Oglebay Institute and West Liberty University.
A resident of Winston-Salem, N.C., Lovett is a writer, teacher, and playwright whose plays for children have been seen in over 3,000 productions worldwide. His best-selling novel, “The Bookman’s Tale,” is a historical and romantic tale that weaves that age-old question of the authorship of Shakespeare’s plays into its pages.
“We are so pleased to welcome Charlie to campus for our Hughes Lecture. His background and current success with his recent books and plays makes him an author that will interest our students and enhance the upcoming visit of the First Folio to Wheeling,” said Dr. Peter Staffel, chair of the Hughes Lecture Series. Literary events include several opportunities to enjoy Lovett.
Lovett will present a noon, Wednesday, April 6 luncheon lecture to the public at Towngate Theatre when he will discuss his book and address the ongoing intrigue of Shakespeare’s work as the topic of his discussion. Towngate is located at 2118 Market St. and guests may bring a bag lunch if they wish.
Then at 11 a.m., Thursday, April 7, Lovett will deliver the official Hughes Lecture, in the Alumni Room.
The Hughes Lecture Series will conclude with a 7 p.m., Thursday, April 7 reading and discussion at the Blue Church, 1206 Byron St., Wheeling.
All events are free and open to the public. Lovett also will have copies of his books available for signing and purchase.
WLU students who are enrolled in the Creative Writing Prose class also will benefit from his visit in a more personal setting since Lovett will visit that class and teach on Thursday.
“The opportunity for our students to learn from an active author is inspiring and hands-on educational, which is what the Hughes Lecture Series is all about. Our students will benefit so much from Charlie’s visit and we are grateful for his time,” Staffel said.
Lovett served for more than a decade as writer-in-residence at Summit School in Winston-Salem. He was educated at Summit School, Woodberry Forest School (Virginia), and Davidson College (NC). Lovett also earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in writing from Vermont College (now Vermont College of Fine Arts).
He is a former antiquarian book businessman and seriously collects books and other materials relating to Lewis Carroll, author of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
He has lectured on Lewis Carroll in the US and Europe at places such as the Smithsonian Institution, Harvard University, UCLA, and Oxford University.
He lived at one time in England, where he still maintains a residence in Oxfordshire. He and his wife Janice are the parents of two children, Lucy and Jordan.
The Hughes Lecture Series was begun in the 1970s by former WLU professor, Dr. Raymond Grove Hughes, a beloved teacher who joined West Liberty in 1931. Thanks to his endowment, the series has brought a wide range of speakers to the University, including: Dr. Ralph Abernathy, confidant of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; Eugene McCarthy, U. S. Senator and presidential candidate in 1968; and John Simon, noted film critic and West Virginia writer and NASA scientist Homer Hickam.
For more info contact Dr. Staffel at staffelp@westliberty.edu, or 304.336.8193. Oglebay Institute’s Mansion Museum was selected as a host site on the Folger Shakespeare Library’s national tour of the First Folio, the first collected edition of William Shakespeare’s plays. Published in 1623, the First Folio is the first collected edition of Shakespeare’s plays; of the 233 copies known today, 82 belong to the Folger. For more information on the upcoming tour of the First Folio!, please visit Oglebay Institute’s website here.