I am in the middle of a four-week stay as the Visiting Writer at Randolph College in Lynchburg, Virginia. It’s been a blast so far!
I arrived on a Sunday and we taken to the apartment used for this purpose. It’s a nice little one bedroom space very close to campus. The next morning, I got my campus tour, my introduction to the dining hall (where I can take all my meals if I want), the English Department office (importantly mostly for printing and photocopying), and my office. (Because the apartment doesn’t have Internet, I am spending a LOT of time in the office.)
My duties are not onerous. I am teaching one seminar for Seniors and a few Juniors that meets once a week for three hours. We’re talking about short story writing and their work product at the end will be a complete story. An installment of the story is due each week and we will workshop them all in the last class. In addition to that, I’ll give a reading one night when I’m here (Nov. 13, 8:15 pm) and will visit two other classes. The rest of the time I’m writing (and taking care of other matters–editing the magazine and the anthology, wrapping up the two online classes I’m teaching, etc.)
It’s been fun. The school is beautiful and the people are extremely friendly and polite. I haven’t explored Lynchburg much, but it also seems like a pretty cool town.
Sounds like a great departure from the regular routine. Interested in whether you write during a residency like this…or are you more in workshop/teaching mode?
More writing than teaching, Jeff. The class only takes a quarter or a third of the time, especially since it’s similar to classes I’ve taught before.