The Artists, Scholars, & Innovators Lecture Series, hosted by the Center for Teaching and Learning, is presented by award-winning faculty with artistic, scholarly, or innovative achievements. Please see below for information about upcoming presentations.
Fall 2025 Lecture
“Drafting, Editing, and Imagination”
Presented by
Dr. John K. Young
Professor in the Department of English
2024-2025 Hedrick Outstanding Faculty Award Recipient
Thursday, October 16, 2025 | 4-5 pm | Drinko Library 349 and via Teams
Abstract:
Narrative theorists distinguish between “worlding the story”—how authors and audiences collaborate to fill out the spaces containing fictional characters and events—and “storying the world”—how people use narrative frameworks to interpret the “real” world. This lecture investigates the kinds of choices made by a range of 20th- and 21st-century writers as they have drafted and revised their fictional environments. Young also considers how editors, professional and otherwise, have intervened in the composition process, in ways that have both nurtured and interfered with the kinds of stories being produced. The talk will conclude by asking how we might revise the kinds of narratives circulated about American culture and history.
Lecturer Bio:
John Young has been teaching at Marshall since 2000. Publications include Black Writers, White Publishers (2006), How to Revise a True War Story (2017), The Roots of Cane (2024), Publishing Blackness (co-edited with George Hutchinson, 2013), and Approaches to Teaching Post-1945 Short Fiction from the United States (2026, co-edited with Jeehyun Lim).
If you have questions about ASI lectures, please email ctl@marshall.edu.