Longwood university book event

Lisa and Lori visited Karen’s alma mater, Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia, in April 2024. We were thrilled to be there because it was a very special place to Karen. 

Readers of Reasons for Waking who are familiar with Longwood will see the University and Farmville in the book: 

o The story takes place in a small university in a small Virginia town, similar to Longwood and Farmville.

o The town and the university where Philip teaches are both named Grainger, which is the name of Longwood’s English Department building where Karen spent so much time.

o Philip was an English professor; Karen was an English major.

We imagine that Karen was thinking about Longwood as she was writing!

The first event of our visit was with students in the English Department’s Senior Seminar with Dr. David McGill, Chair of the Department of English and Modern Languages. We spoke mostly about Karen's career, and at Dr. Magill's request, also talked about our own careers. The intent was primarily to help the students see opportunities for those with degrees in English. Our emphasis was on the importance of good communication skills and how they open doors. We also spoke of the importance of being open to opportunities that they may never have considered, or that they don't think have anything to do with their major; one never knows where those opportunities may lead.  

The second event was a presentation to a group of faculty, staff, and students. We spoke about Karen, our family, Reasons for Waking, and our path to publishing Karen’s novel. We also took questions from the audience. One of Karen's classmates and good friends from Longwood was there, and she shared some memories of Karen. Two librarians at Longwood’s Greenwood Library, Jamie Krogh (Archives and Special Collections) and Jennifer Beach, put together a PowerPoint presentation with pictures and articles from Karen’s time at Longwood; it ran in the background as we did our presentation. They also provided copies of articles, poems, and papers Karen had written, including her Honors Thesis. 

That evening we went to the debut of this year's issue of "A Common Place," the literary magazine that will be funded by Karen's endowment. The students whose work was published in the magazine were in attendance, and many of them did readings of their work. Karen was the editor of the literary magazine that was in existence during her time at Longwood.

We enjoyed seeing Grainger Hall and to see the campus, which is beautiful! Everyone we met was very welcoming; they were inspired by Karen's story, and are very grateful for Karen's gifts to the English Department. 

We thank Longwood University, Dr. David McGill (Chair of the Dept of English and Modern Languages) and Kevin Napier (Office of Institutional Advancement) for the opportunity to visit Longwood and share Karen’s story and her fabulous novel, Reasons for Waking.