Appalachian author Richard Hague will be visiting West Liberty University campus on Oct. 14 and 15 for a lecture and poetry reading that is part of the Hughes Lecture series. Both the lecture and reading are open to the public.
“I’m excited to have Mr. Hague, whom I met at last year’s Appalachian Studies Conference, come to our campus and visit classes. I have been a long-time admirer of his poetry and prose, much of which provides moving and beautifully rendered portraits of the culture and landscapes of the Upper Ohio Valley. His campus visit is a great opportunity for people to come and to hear one of the luminary voices in Appalachian literature speak and read his original work,” said Dr. Scott Hanna, assistant professor of English. Hanna assisted Dr. Peter Staffel, who is chairman of the Hughes Lecture Committee in bringing Hague to the lecture series.
At 8 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 14, Hague will deliver his Hughes Lecture titled “Hoopies, Hillbillies, and Me—An Account of My Appalachian-ness and How it Happened,” in the Boyle Conference Room in the Academic, Sports and Recreation Complex (ASRC).
At 8 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 15, Hague will give a poetry reading in the Alumni Room of the College Union. Books will be available for purchase, and refreshments will be provided at both events, according to Hanna.
He also will visit literature classes and talk to students during the Appalachian Literature class taught by Professor Hanna and the Creative Writing Poetry class taught by Professor Dave Thomas.
Hague is a native of Steubenville, Ohio, where he briefly worked at Wheeling Steel, then later for the Penn Central Railroad out of Weirton Junction, W.Va. He graduated Xavier University in Cincinnati with both bachelor and master’s degrees in English and did post-graduate work at Manchester College, Oxford, UK, and at the Ohio State University.
His Milltown Natural: Stories and Essays From A Life, was nominated for a National Book award; for his first full-length poetry collection, Ripening he was named Co-Poet of the Year in Ohio by the Ohio Poetry Day Association. His Alive in Hard Country was named Poetry Book of the Year by the Appalachian Writers Association in 2003, and During the Recent Extinctions: New & Selected Poems 1984-2012 won the Weatherford Award, given by the Appalachian Studies Association and The Loyal Jones Center for Appalachia at Berea College.
He is currently working on a collection of essays, “The Book of -Ing,” and a magic realist novel set in the Ohio Valley, which spins off the folktale “Ancient Creek” by Gurney Norman.
The Hughes Lecture Series was begun in the 1970s by former WLU professor, Dr. Raymond Grove Hughes, a beloved professor 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 information, please contact Hanna at 304-336-8501.