LRC News Release

Author Tony Abbott to speak at Lenoir-Rhyne

Dr. Tony Abbott, a poet and novelist, will be Lenoir-Rhyne College’s Visiting Writer in Residence this spring. He will give a public reading and discussion of his books at 8 p.m. Jan. 25 in the Belk Centrum, located in the rear of the Rhyne Building at 628 7th Ave. NE. His visit is sponsored by Lenoir-Rhyne’s Visiting Writers Series, now in its 18th year. He will also teach two classes at the college this semester.

Abbott is professor emeritus of English at Davidson College and holds a doctorate from Harvard University. His novel, “Leaving Maggie Hope,” won the 2003 Novello Festival Prize in Charlotte.

The Visiting Writers Series Book Club will discuss “Leaving Maggie Hope” on Thursday, Jan. 18 at 7 p.m. in the Quiet Room of the Rudisill Library, located at 637 7th Ave. NE. Facilitators for the discussion will be Misa Shuford and Patty Schenk, co-chairs of the Visiting Writers Steering Committee. Anyone who has read the book is invited to participate.

Abbott’s latest book of poetry, “The Man Who,” received the Oscar Arnold Young Award for best poetry book of the year in 2005 from the Poetry Council of North Carolina. This book consists of 50 narrative poems about real and imagined characters that Abbott links with the first three words of their titles. For example, the man who shouted “Good stuff!” pays tribute to his longtime, enthusiastic departmental colleague Gill Holland. The man who writes with his eyes honors the late Joe Martin of Charlotte, a friend who lived the last years of his life paralyzed by Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Abbott’s other books of poetry are “The Girl in the Yellow Raincoat” (1989), “A Small Thing Like a Breath” (1993) and “The Search for Wonder in the Cradle of the World” (2000).

Abbott began writing poetry in the late 1960s after the death of his daughter. However, it remained a private exercise of grief for many years. Abbott told an interviewer several years ago that his poems “celebrate that which is precious, and that which is always in danger of being lost.” He continued, “We try to hold the moment before it is gone. Everything is always being lost, and part of the function of poetry is to hold the dark back.”

Although he officially retired from Davidson College in 2001, Abbott continues to teach. He has been active in literary circles across the state, speaking about poetry at educational institutions, book clubs and literary festivals. He is currently working on a sequel to his first novel.

All readings in the Visiting Writers Series are free and open to the public thanks to the generous support of our donors. This project received support from the North Carolina Arts Council, an agency funded by the state of North Carolina and the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great art. Other supporters of this year’s Visiting Writers Series include Barnes & Noble Booksellers; Ron and Sandra Deal; the Foothills Conservancy of North Carolina; Holiday Inn Select; the Thomas W. Reese Institute for Conservation of Natural Resources; the Trust for Public Land; People’s Bank; Resource Partners LLC Portfolio and Wealth Management; United Arts Council of Catawba County; and WFAE 90.7, Your NPR News Source.