Schwille Named Artist-in-Residence

Fairmont State University has named freelance writer Kathryn Schwille as its 2007-2008 Artist-in-Residence.

The Department of Language and Literature and the School of Fine Arts welcomed Schwille to campus the week of Feb. 11, and she will remain in residency here until March 1. She will return April 6-20. During her time at FSU, Schwille will present readings, meet with classes, conduct workshops and present in the public schools.

A panel discussion of Appalachian writers is planned for April as a public event.

After a career in journalism, Schwille is currently enjoying her second career as a writer of short fiction. Her short stories have appeared in Crazyhorse, Puerto del Sol, West Branch, Sycamore Review, River Styx and other magazines. Her story "Belonging to Karkovsky" was nominated for a Pushcart Prize and cited for special mention in the 2004 anthology. She has completed a collection of stories, titled "Bluff," and is at work on a novella and stories set against the backdrop of the Columbia Space Shuttle break up over East Texas.

Her recent non-fiction work has included book reviews for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and a magazine profile of a newspaper columnist. In addition to her freelance work, she teaches fiction writing to adults and designs handcrafted jewelry. She is married to Tom Lucas, a mathematician and professor at UNC-Charlotte, and they reside in Charlotte, N.C.

Schwille, who grew up in Roanoke, Va., earned a B.A. in English literature from St. Mary's College in Notre Dame, Ind. After college, she became a reporter at a weekly newspaper near the coal fields of Southwest Virginia. Later, as a prize-winning reporter at a daily newspaper in Newport News, Va., she wrote about topics such as suburban sprawl, horse racing, mental illness and organized crime in the pizza industry.

In 1987, she left her job as political editor at The Charlotte Observer when she became disabled by chronic fatigue and immune dysfunction syndrome. Three years later, still unable to return to her job, she began writing fiction. In 1999, she graduated from the M.F.A. Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College in Asheville, N.C.

Her fiction writing honors include a fellowship with the Hambridge Center for Arts and Sciences in 2007; being selected for the Bluementhal Writers and Readers Series in 2002; receiving a Regional Emerging Artist Grant in 1994 from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Arts & Science Council; winning first place in the Augusta Arts Arts Council Porter Fleming writing competition in 1993; winning the third place Robert Ruark Short Fiction Award in 1995; and receiving an honorable mention in The Writers' Workshop Thomas Wolfe Fiction Contest in 1994.

Through funding provided by the Fairmont State Foundation, Inc., the Artist-in-Residence Program of Fairmont State University provides for performances by professional artists and mentoring of students. Each of these artists has been "shared" with public schools through classroom demonstration and workshop performance.