Thomas Wolfe Lecture 2024, Ben Fountain 2024 Thomas Wolfe Prize and Lecture Reading On the strength of four great books – two novels, a short story collection, and a searing journalistic account of the 2016 presidential election – Ben Fountain … Read more

The late Blanche Britt Armfield, a lifelong reader and writer of poetry, took her M.A. in Poetry from UNC in 1928; she believed that English was the language par excellence of poetry because of the number and variety of its vowel sounds. Her … Read more

Alexander Chee   2025 Frank B. Hanes Writer-in-Residence Reading In his essay “On Becoming an American Writer,” Alexander Chee observes, “To write is to sell a ticket to escape, not from the truth, but into it…. When the writing works … Read more