Marshall University’s A.E. Stringer Visiting Writers Series will present a reading with authors Carter Taylor Seaton and Marshall English professor Dr. Rachael Peckham at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 29, in the Shawkey room, in the Memorial Student Center.
It is free and open to all, and will also be available via livestream at www.marshall.edu/livestream or www.facebook.com/stringervwsmu.
Seaton is an award-winning author of four novels and four nonfiction works. Her novels deal with real-life issues—the impact of family secrets, overcoming homophobia, the meaning of home, and how guilt can become a life force. Her nonfiction works include the history of the hippie movement in West Virginia, the biography of former West Virginia congressman Ken Hechler, a memoir in essays of her 1940s-1950s childhood, and a memoir of the rock and roll era seen from her husband’s perspective as the director of convention centers and rock arenas for twenty-five years. Her latest novel, “Guilt”, was released in November.
She holds an Alumni Award of Distinction from Marshall’s College of Liberal Arts, the West Virginia Library Association’s Literary Merit Award, an Ella Dickey Award for Literary Merit, the Governor’s Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts, and was recently installed on the Greater Huntington Foundation’s Wall of Fame.
Peckham is a John Deaver Drinko Academy fellow and professor of English at Marshall University, where she was awarded the 2023 Hedrick Outstanding Faculty Award. She is the author of 
“Alight: Flights of Prose” (UnCollected 2022) and a chapbook of prose poems, “Muck Fire” (Spring Garden 2011). Her essays and prose poems have won prizes at Briar Cliff Review, Crab Orchard Review, Indiana Review, Orison Books, Spring Garden Press, and Tupelo Quarterly, and she received honorable mention twice in the Best American Essays series. Peckham holds a doctorate in creative writing from Ohio University, which recently honored her with a Distinguished Alumni Award.
“I am thrilled to have the joy of bringing together two writers so important to our Huntington and Marshall University communities,” said Sara Henning, an assistant professor of English at Marshall and coordinator of the A.E. Stringer Visiting Writers Series. “Rachael continues to amaze me by producing illuminating work while inspiring her students to achieve their literary dreams. In a similar vein, Carter is not only a literary legend, but she is also a writer committed to supporting the literary community of West Virginia. We owe so much Carter and Rachael’s infinite grace and wisdom.”
All are welcome. The event is sponsored by the Department of English and the College of Liberal Arts.