Best-selling author Jeannette Walls, who wrote the memoir, “The Glass Castle,” will be the guest lecturer at West Liberty University’s Hughes Lecture on Thursday, March 22. Her talk is entitled “Demon Hunting and Other Life Lessons.”
Free and open to the public, the lecture will take place at 7 p.m. in College Hall and will be followed by a book signing and reception in Boyle Conference Center.
“We are excited to present Jeannette Walls to our students and the community and we encourage the public to join us for the Hughes Lecture this spring,” said Dr. William Scott Hanna, who is in his 10th year of teaching at WLU as a member of the English Department.
“She will share anecdotes from her childhood and from throughout her life, demonstrating that we all have more in common than we think and that our flaws can be our greatest assets. With a powerful message of confronting your past and facing your fears that resonates with audiences everywhere, her story of triumph makes audiences walk away with a positive attitude toward the “demons” in their lives.”
“The Glass Castle,” which details her life growing up in extreme poverty and the tale of her emergence from it, was named by Amazon as one of the top 10 books of the decade. In August 2017, her inspiring story was brought to the big screen in one of the most highly anticipated major motion pictures of the year starring Woody Harrelson, Naomi Watts and Brie Larson as Jeannette.
According to her publicist, “From the pages of her #1 New York Times best-selling book and the critically-acclaimed recently released film by the same name, Walls moves you to realize the power of the human spirit as she inspires courage in the face of new and longstanding fears, and reveals how our weaknesses can be our greatest strengths.”
“On stage, Walls takes audiences inside her resilient journey in pursuit of authenticity, revealing the power of courage and determination in overcoming unimaginable obstacles. Audiences are captivated as she reveals bittersweet anecdotes from her past that often exemplify grander truths about courage and the positive rewards that come from confronting challenges.”
“With an unforgettable story of triumph over unrelenting adversity, she inspires the realization that we’re all stronger than we think, leaving listeners emboldened to face the demons in their lives.”
Born in Phoenix, Arizona, Walls describes her nomadic childhood and her time spent in Welch, W.Va., which was her father’s hometown. She then moved to New York at age 17 and went on to graduate from Barnard College, prior to becoming a journalist in New York and then a best-selling author.
Walls now resides in rural Virginia, with her husband, the writer John Taylor. She also is the author of the bestsellers, “The Silver Star” and “Half Broke Horses,” which was named one of the 10 best books of 2009 by the editors of “The New York Times Book Review.”
The Hughes Lecture Series began in the 1970s and is named after Dr. Raymond Grove Hughes, a beloved teacher who joined West Liberty in 1931. His generous endowment gift established a fund managed by the West Liberty University Foundation and known as the Hughes Lecture Series Endowed Fund.
Thanks to this fund, the series has brought a wide range of authors and speakers to WLU, including: Dr. Ralph Abernathy, confidant of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; Eugene McCarthy, U. S. Senator and presidential candidate in 1968; and John Simon, noted film critic and West Virginia writer and NASA scientist Homer Hickam.
