Southwest Baptist University News Release
Contact: Sharina Smith, Office of Marketing & Communications
BOLIVAR, Mo. – SBU invites the public to attend the Barnett-Padgett Literary Series featuring author Paul Willis at 6:00 p.m. on Sept. 23 in the Davis Newport Theater.
Willis is the author of two books of poetry, Rising from the Dead (WordFarm, 2009) and Visiting Home (Pecan Grove Press, 2008), and one book of creative nonfiction, Bright Shoots of Everlastingness: Essays on Faith and the American Wild (WordFarm, 2005). With David Starkey, he is co-editor of In a Fine Frenzy: Poets Respond to Shakespeare (University of Iowa Press, 2005).
His poems and essays have appeared in The Best American Poetry 1996 (Scribner’s), The Best Spiritual Writing 1999 (HarperSanFrancisco), The Best American Spiritual Writing 2004 (Houghton Mifflin), The Best Christian Writing 2006 (Jossey Bass), Verse Daily, and The Writer’s Almanac.
Forthcoming from WordFarm in 2010 is his four-part eco-fantasy novel, The Alpine Tales.
Willis grew up in Corvallis, Ore., where his father taught biology at Oregon State University. He attended Wheaton College in Illinois, worked as a mountain guide in the Cascades and Sierra Nevada, and earned his graduate degrees in English at Washington State University. For over twenty years now, he has been a professor of English at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, where his wife, Sharon, is employed as a registered nurse. They have two grown children.
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PHOTO: Author Paul Willis.
Southwest Baptist University is a leader among private universities in truly integrating Christ-centered academic pursuits with comprehensive professional programs at an affordable price. Since 1878, the faculty and staff have created a caring, academic community to prepare students to be servant leaders in a global society. The University has been named one of America’s Best Christian Colleges® for 13 consecutive years, one of America’s 100 Best College Buys® for 14 consecutive years, and it has been named among institutions with America’s Best College Scholarships ® for the past four years by Institutional Research and Evaluation, Inc. For more information, visit www.SBUniv.edu.
SBU’s Office of Marketing & Communications is available to news media 24/7 at 417-399-7918.
