{"id":261,"date":"2016-11-07T14:32:21","date_gmt":"2016-11-07T14:32:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www2.lvc.edu\/lavie\/?p=261"},"modified":"2016-11-07T14:32:21","modified_gmt":"2016-11-07T14:32:21","slug":"award-winning-author-visits-lvc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/2016\/11\/07\/award-winning-author-visits-lvc\/","title":{"rendered":"Award-winning author visits LVC"},"content":{"rendered":"

By: Jackie Chicalese, Staff writer<\/p>\n

Award-winning short-story author Nina McConigley was Lebanon Valley College\u2019s Writer-in-Residence during the week of Oct. 10 as a part of the new Visiting Writer\u2019s Series.<\/p>\n

The new Visiting Writers Series, titled \u201cWriting: A Life,\u201d is a program supported by the President\u2019s Innovation Fund that brings writers to campus, preferably two a semester. The goal is to have at least one of those writers stay as a week-long Writer-in-Residence. McConigley was the first Writer in Residence as part of the new series.<\/p>\n

McConigley kicked off her week at the Valley with a public reading of an excerpt from her collection of short stories entitled \u201cCowboys and East Indians,\u201d followed by a short question-and-answer session on Monday, Oct. 10. The rest of her week was spent holding three fiction-writing workshops, one of which was affiliated with LVC\u2019s writers group, as well as one-on-one conferences with students regarding their personal fiction pieces.<\/p>\n

Rachel Seifrit, a junior English major with a concentration in literature, attended McConigley\u2019s reading, workshops and personal conference. She said that the experience allowed her to get feedback on her work, as well as helped encourage confidence in her writing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have always second-guessed [my writing], and now I feel like I know what I am doing,\u201d Seifrit said.<\/p>\n

Dr. Holly Wendt, a professor of English at LVC and director of \u201cWriting: A Life,\u201d chose McConigley for her teaching ability as well as her interest in culture and identity, which speaks to all writers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe presence of the community of writers is never to be taken for granted,\u201d Wendt said. \u201cAll students attended Nina\u2019s events for no other reason than interest and excitement, and I think that\u2019s marvelous.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wendt hopes McConigley\u2019s visit inspires students \u201cto take away a sense of curiosity and encouragement to write about things that interest them.<\/p>\n

McConigley remarked that she was inspired by the talent of the good, young writers on campus.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo sit and talk with smart people about books and writing is always inspiring, and it influences my writing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

At the end of her visit, McConigley offered a final piece of advice for the writers.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople love to think about being a writer and don\u2019t think about the work,\u201d McConigley said. \u201cBeing a writer and writing are two different things. Reading, to me, makes you a better writer. Also, do the work; it\u2019s easy to talk about writing, but just closing out the world and putting your butt in the chair is sometimes what it takes\u2014I need to remember that, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more information on the \u201cWriting: A Life\u201d series, see Dr. Wendt in Humanities 207D.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Jackie Chicalese, Staff writer Award-winning short-story author Nina McConigley was Lebanon Valley College\u2019s Writer-in-Residence during the week of Oct. 10 as a part of the new Visiting Writer\u2019s Series. The new Visiting Writers Series, […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":262,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-261","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-campus-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}