Jim Barefield: Seriously Funny / the Best Thing I Ever Read / Words Awake! / WRITERS HALL of FAME
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JIM BAREFIELD: SERIOUSLY FUNNY / THE BEST THING I EVER READ / WORDS AwAKE! / WRITERS HALL OF FAME SUMMER 2012 FEATURES 2 A LITERARY TRADITION By Steve Duin (’76, MA ’79) Wake Forest writers flourish thanks to the enduring — and endearing — ‘Why not?’ 8 43 CLASS OF THE FINEST THE BEST THING I EVER READ By Hannah Kay Hunt (’12) By Cherin C. Poovey (P ’08) Poets, journalists, screenwriters and Nathaniel Hawthorne once noted that authors, past and present, write history easy reading is hard writing. Wake with their induction into the inaugural Foresters tell us about the best thing Wake Forest Writers Hall of Fame. they ever read, and why. 24 46 SERIOUSLY FUNNY FLASH FICTION By Joy Goodwin (’95) “The Quad,” he said. “Near the Pit?” she “Whatever the center of the universe is, asked. “Under the magnolia.” Faculty writers it’s probably not you,” teaches historian rise to our 25-word story challenge. and comedic mentor Jim Barefield. Trust him on this one. 30 88 CONSTANT AND TRUE SPARKS By Penelope Niven (MA ’62, D.Litt. ’92) From Fosso to Phillips to Wilson, et. “It seems that my master’s degree came al., an ensemble cast of great teachers with a lifetime warranty, for I found here inspired alumni whose livelihood is the ‘life and food’ for the mind, the spirit, the literary profession. heart — past, present and future.” 36 DEPARTMENTS WRITING FOR LIFE By Kerry M. King (’85) 52 | Commencement Debating the death penalty with felons 54 | Around the Quad or using the analytical skills of Sherlock 56 | Philanthropy Holmes to solve a mystery, students learn the power of the written word. 60 | Class Notes WAKEFOREST FROM theh PRESIDENT MAGAZINE the words awake! conference in March prompted alumni to SUMMER 2012 | VOLUME 59 | NUMBER 3 return and celebrate Wake Forest writers and writing. This edition of Wake Forest Magazine embraces that sentiment. Clear communication, while there ASSOCIATE VICE PRESIDENT AND EDITOR-AT-LARGE may be less of it, will become even more of a prized commodity in our cul- Maria Henson (’82) ture. To the extent that we can teach our students to write well, we will greatly MANAGING EDITOR increase their opportunities. The literary tradition is something we should Cherin C. Poovey (P ’08) reinforce, not abandon. SENIOR EDITOR Kerry M. King (’85) One of the splendid DEPUTY EDITOR dimensions of going Janet Williamson (P ’00, ’03) to a liberal arts col- CREATIVE DIRECTOR Hayes Henderson lege is being exposed to great writing so DESIGNERS Julie Helsabeck that you begin to Kris Hendershott feel in your bones Jill Carson what it is. You know PHOTOGRAPHER excellence when you Ken Bennett see it. It sets a mark STUDENT INTERN Alyssa Walter (’12) in your mind for your whole life. That PRINTING The Lane Press, Inc. certainly was my experience. I think of some of the books by Edmund S. Morgan (Sterling Professor of His- tory Emeritus at Yale), who could write so clearly using simple words — but so Wake Forest University Magazine (ISSN 0279-3946) is published three times a year in the Spring, Sum- powerfully. I have loved Morgan’s advice to students about how to write: “Write mer and Fall by Wake Forest University, P.O. Box as if your audience knows nothing about the subject but is smarter than you.” 7227, Winston-Salem, NC 27109-7227. It is sent to alumni, donors and friends of the University. I did a postdoc under another historian at The Johns Hopkins University named [email protected] Timothy L. Smith. He was similar. He would try to beat out of people academic magazine.wfu.edu twitter.com/wfumagazine prose. He would say your grandmother should be able to read your paper. Use facebook.com/wakeforestmagazine nickel and dime words. If you can’t state it forcefully with clear, active verbs and pinterest.com/wfuniversity with powerful figures, then you probably don’t fully understand it. I see that in Send address changes or cancellation requests to: Edmund Morgan. I see it in C.S. Lewis. It is the wisdom that comes from under- Wake Forest Magazine Alumni Records standing something so well that you can transcend complexity and get back to P.O. Box 7227 Winston-Salem, NC 27109-7227 explaining it in simple prose. It seems to me that is the goal. [email protected] 1.800.752.8567 We have had great literary studies and a writing tradition here. To bring all that © 2012 together and have people come back is a wonderful thing for the University. Tom Phillips (’74, MA ’78), who led the effort for the writers conference, is a treasure. He embodies the best of a teacher, scholar and mentor in terms of his passionate interest in students and seeing them flourish. Words Awake! was a signal event. I hope this issue illuminates the passion he, I and other Wake For- esters have for the written word. Warm regards, Cover illustration by Kyle T. Webster 2 WAKE FOREST MAGAZINE FEATURES A Literary Tradition Wake Forest writers flourish thanks to the enduring — and endearing — ‘Why not?’ by steve duin (’76, ma ’79) hey worked well past midnight “I went,” Brinson remembers, “because When she returned to campus that on that April night in 1968; I could — who was going to stop me? — night, Brinson knew she’d have to track T it was 2 a.m. when the three and for the adventure.” down the campus cop, who was invari- editors gathered up the copy and layout ably asleep at the power plant. In 1968, pages and climbed into the Blue Goose The campus paper was still printed in the women living in Babcock weren’t al- for the drive to the bus station on Mar- Nashville, N.C., in those days, the roughs lowed their own key to the dorm. They shall Street. bussed out early Saturday morning. couldn’t have cars until senior year or They took the Blue Goose down Reyn- wear shorts on the Quad. That’s the way The Goose was a ’59 Chevy Biscayne, olda Road instead of Cherry-Marshall, life was, Brinson reasoned, the burden painted Wise potato chip-blue because which traversed the heart of the neigh- of being a girl. Henry Bostic’s father was a Wise dis- borhood rioting over the assassination, tributor and could score the paint for 32 hours earlier, of the Rev. Dr. Martin But for the moment, she was among free. Bostic (’68) was driving, of course, Luther King Jr., but they still collided equals, on deadline, a journalist skirting and co-editor Ralph Simpson (’68) was with the National Guard. The soldiers the war zone. If the rifles and the smoke along for the ride. So was Linda Brin- at the checkpoints had rifles and serious were a little spooky, the freedom was son (’69, P ’00), the Old Gold & Black’s questions about college kids who were exhilarating. She was from a small town managing editor. She didn’t need to go, out in the middle of the night. and a backward high school, but sud- but like the editors, she’d stood at the denly she had the premonition, racing back of Reynolda Hall earlier that night “They seemed surprised,” Brinson said, with adventure through the dark, that and seen the shadows of the fires burn- “but they did let us through.” nothing was going to stop her. ing near downtown Winston-Salem. SUMMER 2012 3 recently read an interview in The literary tradition at Wake has been having to cool your jets for two years, to which the Nobel Prize-winning sustained, for generations, by something redshirt.” more: An open door. I novelist Toni Morrison was asked When Malcolm Jones (’74), author of the why she had become a great writer, what “I don’t mean to wax lyrical,” says Ste- memoir, “Little Boy Blues,” was a junior, phen Amidon, who has done just that in he asked Germaine Brée, the celebrated books she had read, what method she six novels since graduating in 1981, “but professor of French literature, if he could had used to structure her practice. She it was a kind of paradise for a writer. spend a winter-term with her studying laughed and said, “Oh, no, that is not Almost any door that I knocked on was Albert Camus. “I thought I was too late,” opened for me.” Jones said. “It turned out I was the only why I am a great writer. I am a great one who asked her. And she said, ‘Yes.’ I writer because when I was a little girl When Amidon and a buddy, Jack Savage spent a month studying Camus with and walked into a room where my father (’81), wanted to stage one of their plays, someone who knew Camus. I’m not say- “The Fast,” Ed Wilson (’43) tendered ing that’s unique to Wake Forest, but it was sitting, his eyes would light up. That the money that allowed them to present was always my experience that it was easy is why I am a great writer. That is why. the existential drama in the University’s to get to Germaine Brée or the other pro- There isn’t any other reason.” Ring Theatre. When Amidon suggested fessors. There was never a line at the door.” a senior paper on Sartre in 1981, Ger- — Donald Miller, maine Brée offered to introduce the two And there were few checkpoints where “Searching for God Knows What” of them. When novelist James Dickey ar- we had to flash credentials, pay our dues rived on campus, Amidon escorted him or beg for permission.