Author Reading Series
Check out the amazing writers sharing their talents with Longwood University
Authors Reading Series
Steven Leyva
September 30th, 2026
Steven Leyva was born in New Orleans, Louisiana and raised
in Houston, Texas. His poems have appeared in Smartish Pace,
Scalawag, Poetry, Nashville Review, jubilat, The Hopkins Review, Prairie Schooner, and Best American Poetry 2020. He is a Cave Canem fellow and author of the chapbook Low Parish and author of The Understudy’s Handbook which won the Jean Feldman Poetry Prize from Washington Writers Publishing House. His second book of poems, The Opposite of Cruelty, was published by Blair Publishing in Spring 2025. Steven holds an MFA from the University of Baltimore, where he is an associate professor, and former co- director of the Klein Family Center of Communications Design.
Authors Reading Series
Larry D. Thacker
Coming Soon, October 2026
Larry D. Thacker is a Kentuckian writer, artist, educator, and reality actor, hailing from Johnson City, TN. His writing can be found in over 200 journals and anthologies, including Spillway, Poetry South, The Lake, The American Journal of Poetry, and Valparaiso. His books include six poetry collections, two chapbooks, four short story collections, and a folk history. His MFA in poetry and fiction is from West Virginia Wesleyan College. Visit his website at: www.larrydthacker.com
S.A. Cosby
Rescheduled: Spring 2027
S. A. Cosby is an Anthony Award-winning writer from Southeastern Virginia. He is the author of the instant New York Times bestseller All the Sinners Bleed which was on Barack Obama's Summer Reading List and author of New York Times bestseller Razorblade Tears and Blacktop Wasteland, which won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, was a New York Times Notable Book, and was named a best book of the year by NPR, The Guardian, and Library Journal, among others. When not writing, he is an avid hiker and chess player.
Jes Simmons
Wednesday, February 4th, 7pm at the Moton Museum, with a reception and book signing afterwards
Jes Simmons is a second-generation poet and jazz drummer who cherishes and nourishes rhythm and syncopation that have been a constant in her life. She holds a B.A. Millsaps College, M.A.,Mississippi College and PhD., Texas A&M University, all in English. Her father, Edgar Simmons, was an English teacher and notable Mississippi poet whose second book Driving to Biloxi was a finalist for the National Book Award in Poetry in 1968.
Jes has had poems published in the College English Association Critic, Mississippi Arts and Letters, College English, Cornfed Angel, Magnolia State Quarterly Review, James Dickey Newsletter, Natchez Trace Literary Review, Salome, River City Review, and Sojourners, as well as in anthologies such as Mississippi Writers: Reflections of Childhood and Youth, Mud Flat Verse, and The Southern Poetry Anthology. Jes has made Farmville, Virginia her chosen home since 2013.
Torli Bush
Wednesday, March 26th, 7pm at the Moton Museum, with a reception and book signing afterwards
Torli Bush is from Webster Springs, WV and is a poetry editor for Heartwood Literary Magazine. Bush holds a Bachelor's of Science in Mechanical Engineering from West Virginia University and an MFA in Creative Writing from West Virginia Wesleyan College.
He will be reading from Requiem For A Redbird which weaves together loss, intimacy, faith, race, politics, and Appalachia into a collection of poems.
Torli Book Club Sessions
March 4th, 6:30pm
March 11th, 6:30pm
March 18th, 6:30pm
Moton Museum
The Authors Reading Series and Moton Museum are coming together to offer a prepartory book club prior to Torli Bush's visit to Longwood.
Join us as we explore Requiem for a Redbird. This book is unapologetically both Appalachian and Black.